C’mooon AT&T Premier!
March 12, 2008
There are so many reasons to pf-hate on the iPhone, from the outrageous price tag on the phone itself, to the mandatory data component of the rate plan, to the horrible customer service that only operates during mostly regular business hours. (Whaaaat? I pay you HOW much a month for you to give me an automated message about calling back on Monday?? Please! T-mobile had 24 hour customer service and I mean, they had customer service!) And they charge me in advance for each billing cycle! I mean, T-mobile didn’t send me a bill for the month of February until February was over. Don’t bill me for service you haven’t given yet!
Hands down, the worst of it is the basic plan, with only 200 text messages and 450 minutes for $60/month. (I’m using the internet as much as possible to get my $20/month out of it, dangit, so much so that I’m charging once or twice a day! Hah! Force unlimited internet service on me, will you? Though, really, checking your email as often as I do can’t be healthy.)
After exploring a few options, there didn’t seem like there was anything I could do but pay the extortionists. My company has a corporate relationship with AT&T, but when I searched the AT&T site before, any information available was fairly vague, and implied that iPhones weren’t eligible. Maybe I was just misreading. I certainly didn’t encounter the link that I found today: the Discount Registration link that teases you with the possibility of a discount, but never tells you how much the discount is, or what rate plans qualify. The site just takes some personal information to process a validation, and then says:
Please note that to the extent you are eligible for a service discount*, it may take up to two billing cycles (up to two months) for your service discount to appear on your bill. During the first month your service discount is applied, you might receive a pro-rated bill for the days of that month before the discount was applied, and a new bill for the days at the discounted rate.
* Service discounts are available only with qualified rate plans. Service discount is provided solely as a result of the business agreement with your organization and is subject to change or termination without notice to you. Other restrictions may apply.
They sure are cagey about whether or not I qualify, and what exactly I’m qualifying for! Anyway, my fingers are crossed that it’s a decent discount, and I could just kick myself for not finding this the first time around because my first bill was easily the most expensive ever at a shade over $100.
Cross your fingers for me that I see something on the very next billing cycle! Er, is it too much to hope that they’ll apply it to the billing cycle that’s already calculated? Yeah, no. They’re too cheap for that. They won’t even apply it to a full cycle if they can help it, what with that pro-rated ish going on up there. Hmph.
I have a corporate discount with AT&T and the whole process was very easy. I got the link from customer service, entered my work email and that was it.
Every discount helps, so look into it more.
~tired of being broke~ Seems like the price of EVERYTHING is going up, so every bit I can get reduced makes a difference.