Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

[Curtieson]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

As a note...I would never pay off the Next plan before you reach that 'trade in' period, not even a penny. There is no benefit at all to giving them an extra cent earlier than you have to. As stated, the 'Next' plan is basically paying MSRP for a phone (not all bad...the benefits of getting a NEW device and having a store for returns/warranty work/customer service outside of 14 days were already brought up) but along with that they include a "40% trade in value"** at 12 months (or 30% at 18 if you take the longer route). If you pay them extra in the earlier months, the only thing you are doing is lowering that "guaranteed trade in value". You should be able to get more via Craigslist than the 40%, but it doesn't hurt to keep that option open.

I guess looking at the 1020, it is still $609 on NEXT, and now you said 8 months later they are in the $300s. So a 40% trade in, 12 months down the line ($243) is going to be most likely your best option.

If you ever plan to then switch carriers or sell the phone some other way, you just go in and pay off the balance at that point and you are all set.

** It is a 40% trade in value because the rules are you must make 12 months' payments out of a 20 month plan; or you must have already paid off 12/20=> 60% of the phone / have a maximum of a 40% balance left. [or 18 of 26 = ~70%]

Just to help Cutieson is obviously and never has been employed in the mobile sector.

Post switch number porting just doesn't happen, unless you're also paying T-Mobile to keep that line active at full price the while time.

Also the online coverage maps and the 'secret internal map' difference he's talking about are pretty much crap as well.

The only differences between the customer facing maps and the internal facing maps are future tower site coverage estimates (obvious why you don't want customers or competitors seeing that) and recently completed expansions, but those are usually updated on a regular basis.

To be honest, at this point Curtieson is coming off like some sort of bizarre troll. I'm not sure if that is their intent (I hope not), but their behavior is more than a little odd and antagonistic.

Hahaha, what are you talking about?
What is post switch number porting? You are saying if you port your number from T-Mobile to AT&T that 'post that switch' T-Mobile will say "screw off" when you try to port it back? You sure about that?
And what are these internal maps that I am talking about? I've never posted anything about maps... I think you are pushing your obviously ill will of me onto someone else's post. Not fair to me or them...

To be honest, at this point Curtieson is coming off like some sort of bizarre troll. I'm not sure if that is their intent (I hope not), but their behavior is more than a little odd and antagonistic.

Look, Phreak, I get it. You are mad someone disagrees with your suggestion, and I didn't even say you were wrong! I'd hate to see what you say about someone that take it that far... But just because someone doesn't agree doesn't make them a troll...that is just not a nice attitude. We are all just trying to help and be one big happy WP community, filled with love, shamrocks, unicorns and hundreds of people that know oranges are better than Apples.

I'm sorry I made you upset, I'm sorry I questioned your employment background (I guess?), and I'm sorry I didn't bring up (and thus be incorrect) special CIA cellular maps.

And I am not second rate, I'm hilarious. :grincry:

 

[drbanks]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

I have considerable sympathy for the OP, albeit without the willingness to jump ship back to AT&T. I still have about another five more years of being really p-o'ed at them.

So, after hemming and hawing, I finally just bit the bullet and ordered a 32GB AT&T 1520 off-contract off Amazon. I paid $50 to cellunlock.net for an unlock code, and knowing that it'd be weeks in coming, I also bought a month of service from Red Pocket (an AT&T MVNO) and forwarded my T-Mo number to the new phone.

The unlock code finally came today, and after punching my old 925's micro-SIM down to a nano-SIM, it all seems to be working fine.

Except for the AT&T brain damage, of course. No WiFi calling. No Data Sense. No Qi. Can't get internet sharing to work (even tried the Spanish Keyboard hack). Whatevs. None of them are deal breakers for me, and I still have a Lumia 925, Lumia 521 and HTC-8X (all unlocked) to fall back on. My 925's got my "burner" SIM in it and I can do tethering off that.

When all's said and done, I paid a $110 premium to get that phone working on T-Mobile ($50 unlock and $60 for a month of temporary service). T-Mobile's still cheaper, but I haven't worked out a cost-benefit analysis of how long it'll take for my T-Mo savings to pay off that $110. Even still, I'm a pretty happy camper this morning.

EDIT:

And of course, it's just my bad timing that within days of my getting the 940 off Amazon, Negri started selling the 938...

 

[Morpheus Phreak]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

The comment about maps was supposed to be discussing what Gawain was saying about the maps.

While editing the post while typing it I must have screwed up and removed more than I meant to which made it look like it was all one post, aimed at Curtieson.

I was actually trying to address points made by multiple people.

 

[NSX38]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

I have considerable sympathy for the OP, albeit without the willingness to jump ship back to AT&T. I still have about another five more years of being really p-o'ed at them.

So, after hemming and hawing, I finally just bit the bullet and ordered a 32GB AT&T 1520 off-contract off Amazon. I paid $50 to cellunlock.net for an unlock code, and knowing that it'd be weeks in coming, I also bought a month of service from Red Pocket (an AT&T MVNO) and forwarded my T-Mo number to the new phone.

The unlock code finally came today, and after punching my old 925's micro-SIM down to a nano-SIM, it all seems to be working fine.

Except for the AT&T brain damage, of course. No WiFi calling. No Data Sense. No Qi. Can't get internet sharing to work (even tried the Spanish Keyboard hack). Whatevs. None of them are deal breakers for me, and I still have a Lumia 925, Lumia 521 and HTC-8X (all unlocked) to fall back on. My 925's got my "burner" SIM in it and I can do tethering off that.

When all's said and done, I paid a $110 premium to get that phone working on T-Mobile ($50 unlock and $60 for a month of temporary service). T-Mobile's still cheaper, but I haven't worked out a cost-benefit analysis of how long it'll take for my T-Mo savings to pay off that $110. Even still, I'm a pretty happy camper this morning.

EDIT:

And of course, it's just my bad timing that within days of my getting the 940 off Amazon, Negri started selling the 938...

Wow! So what was your out of pocket expense for the phone + $110 = ?............Because it wasn't the 938 you don't get LTE on T-Mobile or Tethering either huh?

Also would you mind sharing your experience with AT&T as to why your experience with them apparently went badly??? Thx

 

[NSX38]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

Wow! So what was your out of pocket expense for the phone + $110 = ?............Because it wasn't the 938 you don't get LTE on T-Mobile or Tethering either huh?

 

[NSX38]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

So, I happened to have an issue crop up with the 1520 just a couple days outside of the 14-day return window. Basically in the top right of the screen a cluster of pixels was starting to show almost pure white in a small dot shaped area. It was almost like the backlight was somehow leaking through more there. So I tried calling up the local Device Support Center in Tukwila, and the folks there said they had no way of really providing any on-site support for the Lumia 1520, especially the 32GB model since they had 0 1520 devices (16 or 32GB) that they kept there. So they could look at it and verify the issue, but not really do anything beyond having a used device shipped to me.

After that I called the web order support folks up and tried to work with them and the troubleshooting folks to get a new unit sent to me, but they kept wanting to send me a refurb, site unseen. I wasn't willing to accept that since it was just barely outside of the 14-day window.

I had to end up visiting the local store (who has some great folks in it) and going back and forth with the phone teams (who kept not wanting to help) and the store personnel for a total of about 7 hours (partially due to obstruction by phone support staff, partially due to internal system issues due to the way they have to handle returns and it being outside the normal return window).

They ended up shipping me a brand new 32GB 1520 instead of a refurb, found a way to credit the restocking fee, and that was it. I had to pay for a 520 at full price as a temporary device to have due to job stuff right now. No one had stock for miles around me at the lower prices...and I had to buy a SIM adapter to fit the nano SIM into the 520 out of pocket at another electronics store.


It was a bit of a mess, but I think it's just early growing pains with how Next changed things and some weird returns issues where exceptions are super hard to create. The store staff however worked hard and were excellent.

That's good to hear that they finally gave you a new 1520 instead of a refurbished one!! I couldn't imagine being with them only 2 weeks and having to go through something like that, where they were insistent on giving me a refurbished unit because of being a couple days outside of that 14 day window! Hopefully my experience will go smooth and won't have any issues with either phone that I end up picking up (knock on wood..)?

 

[drbanks]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

Wow! So what was your out of pocket expense for the phone + $110 = ?............Because it wasn't the 938 you don't get LTE on T-Mobile or Tethering either huh?

Also would you mind sharing your experience with AT&T as to why your experience with them apparently went badly??? Thx

It sseems to handle LTE on T-Mobile just fine, and HSPA+ in refarmed cells. Tethering... No clue why not. I'll fiddle with it more later.
AT&T got on my bad side when they refused to unlock my iPhone prior to a vacation. At that point, I'd been a customer for about 8 years.

Then I got a load of how much more they were charging me over TMo.

Then there was that whole business of throttling those of us with grandfathered unlimited plans. And if I wanted internet tethering, at the time, it meant giving up the unlimited plan and paying an additional premium for tethering.

The final straw was when I was standing in their store, after their web site had sent me on an hour long goose chase for stores that didn't exist. I had a for- sale 920 in my hand, but as soon as I said I wanted to pay their advertised no-contract price (because my iPhone contract hadn't yet run out, and I just wanted to transfer my existing number), the rep snatched the phone back and said I could only have it with a new/additional 2 year contract.

I left, stopped in at the local T-Mo store, and not only were they enthusiastic about WP, but they had no problems selling me an 8X off contract.

I paid the $200 ETF to ATT and given my savings at T-Mo, was money ahead in about 4 months.

 

[NSX38]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

It sseems to handle LTE on T-Mobile just fine, and HSPA+ in refarmed cells. Tethering... No clue why not. I'll fiddle with it more later.

AT&T got on my bad side when they refused to unlock my iPhone prior to a vacation. At that point, I'd been a customer for about 8 years.

Then I got a load of how much more they were charging me over TMo.

Then there was that whole business of throttling those of us with grandfathered unlimited plans. And if I wanted internet tethering, at the time, it meant giving up the unlimited plan and paying an additional premium for tethering.

The final straw was when I was standing in their store, after their web site had sent me on an hour long goose chase for stores that didn't exist. I had a for- sale 920 in my hand, but as soon as I said I wanted to pay their advertised no-contract price (because my iPhone contract hadn't yet run out, and I just wanted to transfer my existing number), the rep snatched the phone back and said I could only have it with a new/additional 2 year contract.

I left, stopped in at the local T-Mo store, and not only were they enthusiastic about WP, but they had no problems selling me an 8X off contract.

I paid the $200 ETF to ATT and given my savings at T-Mo, was money ahead in about 4 months.

Ouch! That sounds like a customer service nightmare from hell. If I switch over I hope my experience with them is better than yours? With the recent lowering of their pricing plans, that is the only reason I'm even considering the jump over to them for the WP experience (1520,1020). If T-Mobile down the road starts supporting a wider range of the WP ecosystem I might consider switching back since I won't be under a contract at AT&T if I do indeed switch over by the end of this month.

It's a shame when you go into a T-Mobile store and the 925 is off in the corner of the store collecting dust. Meanwhile the other 3/4 of the store is nicely lit up with all of the Android phones and of course Apples own little set-up that they wanted. I asked a rep one time why the 925 was set-up like that and he said it's all about the $$, and I'm assuming his commission and what he sells?

 

[drbanks]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

Yes, when I bought my 8x, they were very enthusiastic about the platform, but a year later when I went to get the 925, it was in the corner of the store under a sign that said Blackberry.

Despite their aggressive neglect of the WP platform, they still seem honestly interested in having my business, and even after ATTs recent price cuts, T-Mo is still cheaper enough to keep me interested.

Only thing is that after my on-contract experiences, I've decided never to lock myself into one, ever again. I get my phones unlocked as soon as possible, whether or not I have an immediate need, and I can and will change carriers if or when it seems like a good idea.

We just have to keep reminding ourselves that we're the customers here, and that we should be treated accordingly.

 

[Morpheus Phreak]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

That's good to hear that they finally gave you a new 1520 instead of a refurbished one!! I couldn't imagine being with them only 2 weeks and having to go through something like that, where they were insistent on giving me a refurbished unit because of being a couple days outside of that 14 day window! Hopefully my experience will go smooth and won't have any issues with either phone that I end up picking up (knock on wood..)?

Funnily enough I've actually been with them for over 2-years now, and I'm even on a Microsoft Premier account with them. So I'm one of the customers they don't want to upset...since I tend to drive referrals and business their way.

 

[lancorp]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

I'll admit that there is some comfort knowing that getting them directly from the carrier (AT&T) provides you with the manufacturer warranty and new unopened equipment is always nice. I just have to decide whether the additional $150 for the phone + taxes is worth it over buying them used off of Craigslist?

I bought two 1520's for $400 each, brand new/sealed, from someone on CL about 150 miles away. I paid with Paypal so that I had some recourse in case the phones weren't what was promised.
I did my due diligence before paying by asking the right questions to ensure it wasn't a scam. I asked him to send pictures of the phones, asked him how he came upon 4 of them, etc. (turns out he and his family had attended an Ellen DeGeneres show and the entire audience had been given a 1520 so he had 4 of them and didn't want them). I confirmed his story by watching the episode online that was only 1 week old. In the end, everything turned out great. Not sure how warranty would be handled since I don't have a receipt, but I'll deal with that when the time comes.

CL can offer you great savings, just ask the right questions, get photos, and if possible, pay with Paypal and make sure the money request has a detailed explanation of what you are buying (terms like BRAND NEW, SEALED, specs, and condition, etc.).

I, too, am taking advantage of the $100 line credit and $15/mo no-contract terms is a killer deal. That $100 credit is like 7 months of free service!

I have one of the two 1520's I bought still SEALED IN BOX, in case you were interested. It's RED, but if you want black, just put a black TRU Gel Case on it and it looks awesome! I bought two thinking my wife would want one, but it was too big for her and she went with (and LOVES) a 1020 (also from CL).

 

[NSX38]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

I might be interested?? Not sure yet on if I was going to do the Next program or buy off of CL? I was shooting for the white 1520 or yellow but didn't really consider the red one?? Hmmm.... Let me think about it because we would be switching by the end of next week to take advantage of that $100 line credit x2 for me $200. I'm assuming you would sell it for $400 as well? Where do you live, and this would be done through paypal?

 

[lancorp]

Re: Might switch over 2 lines to AT&T for 1520 &1020.......Have some questions about AT&T network??

I might be interested?? Not sure yet on if I was going to do the Next program or buy off of CL? I was shooting for the white 1520 or yellow but didn't really consider the red one?? Hmmm.... Let me think about it because we would be switching by the end of next week to take advantage of that $100 line credit x2 for me $200. I'm assuming you would sell it for $400 as well? Where do you live, and this would be done through paypal?

I sent you a PM to discuss further. Thanks.