I ran into the same situation. I was given $75.00 and later an additional $35.00 - all in credit to my account of course - to stay, or as the AT&T rep called it “staying with a trusted carrier.” Really?! Trusted? AT&T is in my eyes the largest example of corporate greed on the planet. Maybe a close tie to the oil companies, but thats pulling strings.

But (as I predict I’ll regret) I choose to stay. And let me explain. I bought the New iPad in the spring on AT&T network not realizing that it was set up like the iPhone 4 and not the 4S. The iPhone 4S is a “universal” phone which is to say it can switch between carriers. The New iPad I mistakenly thought was the same. So fast forward to a months ago and i sign up for a shared data plan. With this plan I save money on combining my iPad and iPhone plans. But when I went to pre-order the new iPhone 5, AT&T dicked me by slapping the $250.00 upgrade fee in my face. I was forced to take extreme measures of customer service bribery. But to little victory of account credit.

I started thinking and after a few calls to the customer service to confirm, I realized I could just add an additional line and purchase the new iPhone at the regular $299 32gb price. Then I could give my mom my old iPhone 4S on my AT&T account. (she currently has a “old” flip phone.) Basically, flipping the phones on their numbers on the same sharred account. So while I’m not happy to be stuck with the deathstar of a cellular carrier, I was able to get the phone I want, at the price I wanted it at. In doing so got my mom out of the stone age. That’s for another post.

One day I hope the customer has the power in these situations and not the other way around.

One day…..

(Source: bullishcross.com)