Man, AT&T got me...

[jjs07]

Not like some $9000 worth of repairs on the Kia type "got me," but I'm pretty much handcuffed right now trying to unlock my phone.

I'll sum it up....

I've been with AT&T (family plan) for over 10 years. The plan was grandfathered in. There have been a couple rate increases over the past two years to people who have the unlimited data, old-school grandfathered plan. AT&T wants people off these types of plans with the hopes they'll switch over to something else they're offering.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the past rate increase. It was only an additional $5, but in shopping around, I can go over to a carrier like T-Mobile, have the 4 lines I need for the family plan at about $100 less for what I would be paying AT&T.

Making this switch is a no-brainer. Well, I want to keep my current phone (until the new iPhone 8 drops), so I need to unlock it (along with 2 others on the plan.) It's bee n an absolute nightmare trying to do this. I've spent close to 4 hours over the past 2 days trying to get a resolution to why I can't unlock my phone. At first they said it was because the email address on file didn't match what I was entering on their unlock site/page. Got that squared away and thought I was good, nope. Still can't unlock. My case was sent over to the escalation team to investigate and hopefully figure out what the issue is.

To me, it shouldn't be this difficult. I'm completely at the mercy of AT&T and there is nothing I can really do to expedite this process....so frustrating. I really hate this company right now.

/rant

 

[jetpacunlimited]

Um.... Just unlock it yourself

 

[jjs07]

Um.... Just unlock it yourself

Didn't even know I could do that.

 

[joe billionaire]

Att and T-Mobile use the same sim no?

 

[Bert.]

Um.... Just unlock it yourself

Didn't even know I could do that.

You gotta pay for it

Don't think it's cheap either but if your phone is paid off ATT should unlock it but I've hard most companies are a PITB when it comes to this crap

 

[jjs07]

Att and T-Mobile use the same sim no?

Just read this on cnet:

Without an unlock, an AT&T iPhone will reject a T-Mobile SIM card.)

 

[superblytrife]

OP is there any chance you swapped out phones at Apple due to some issue and received a new phone?

This happened to me and TMO didn't recognize the IMEI number and thus wouldn't unlock it, even though the phone I originally bought was through them. They kept referring me to Apple for unlocking and Apple kept referring me to TMO. Phone is still locked.

 

[jjs07]

OP is there any chance you swapped out phones at Apple due to some issue and received a new phone?

This happened to me and TMO didn't recognize the IMEI number and thus wouldn't unlock it, even though the phone I originally bought was through them. They kept referring me to Apple for unlocking and Apple kept referring me to TMO. Phone is still locked.

3/4 phones were purchased at AT&T....4th phone was from apple.

I haven't even tried anything at T-Mobile yet...just trying to get everything squared away w/ AT&T. Not sure why they can't just say what the problem is as to why I can't unlock. WAY too many hoops to jump through...can't even get the time back that I spent dealing with them, and it's not even over yet

 

[wanksta23]

I switched my phone from ATT to verizon a few months...however when they did the switch, i still wasn't able to use verizon, because i had 10 dollars left to pay off my phone with ATT, but now i had to wait entire month when the ATT bill came to pay it because my email and account weren't in the ATT system anymore

so yeah, they were able to make the switch, however, my phone wasn't allowing it be unlocked until i paid it off

not sure if this is the case with you or not, just thought I'd share my experience with it

 

[jjs07]

I switched my phone from ATT to verizon a few months...however when they did the switch, i still wasn't able to use verizon, because i had 10 dollars left to pay off my phone with ATT, but now i had to wait entire month when the ATT bill came to pay it because my email and account weren't in the ATT system anymore

so yeah, they were able to make the switch, however, my phone wasn't allowing it be unlocked until i paid it off

not sure if this is the case with you or not, just thought I'd share my experience with it

That's good to know...however if it's a bill payment holding things up, they should have told me!

I'm going to call tomorrow and ask for them to detail all the things that may hold up the unlocking process for an account holder who has been nothing but been in good standing w/ the company from day 1.

 

[jjs07]

Escalation team came through...got the email today that all of the phones would be unlocked for 24 hours...made my rounds and ended up going with Sprint. They had a buy 1 get one free promotion going on with the iPhone 7+ (128GB), so my family hopped on that. My monthly bill should be around $80 less than what I was paying at AT&T.

 

[jrp44]

Sprint though at least in my area

 

[Mister Meaner]

Sprint .

I was going through the same situation a couple months ago with Sprint. My phone has BEEN been paid off (M and they were saying excuse after excuse as to why it couldn't be unlocked.

Ended up switching my plan instead of carrier, but I can't even use the phone with the reduced data speeds once my 2 gb of 4g are up .

To avoid more BS, just bought a cheap, and better spec'd, phone to hold me down for a bit and to make the switch to t-mo. Now all I need is someone to go in with me on that $100/2 line plan.

 

[blkrstr21]

my att bill is up to 93 a month now and thats with a 20% discount

i have the og unlimited plan and thats why i kept it. but now that i see that other companies are bringing back their unlimited plans, i may think about switching. but then again, ive absolutely zero problems with att since i joined back in 07, thats gotta count for something, right??

 

[mvp07]

I don't know bro, Sprint might be a bad choice. Specially coming from AT&T. Check on coverage. Remorse period is 15 days


Atleast, the Iphone they sell is GSM and CDMA capable.


Go with T-Mobile if you can, check coverage.

 

[jjs07]

t-mobile had worse coverage in my area...real spotty. So far, so good w/ sprint. Only been a few hours tho

*on a side note, when shopping around today, went to verizon....in the conversation w/ the sales rep, he asked how much we were paying per month for the family plan bill we had w/ AT&T. Told him the reason we were leaving was due to the increase in prices to those of us on the grandfathered plan. Dude crunched numbers and came with a monthly quote 50 dollars HIGHER than what we were paying at AT&T. I mean, come on, man.... Walked right out.

 

[AZwildcats]

Sprint :x

 

[Bert.]

Sprint is terrible

 

[dipsetgeneral]

Sprint is bad but in my area, it's serviceable. T-Mobile in my area is hot garb.

 

[datznasty]

Sprint is better than TMobile in my area, sans for TMo being a better carrier and having unlocked phones. Building penetration, especially in the basement, still sucks with TMo.

 

[mangudai954]

Best of luck. Sprint is decent in my area.

 

[jordman23]

T-mobile is killing the game the competition for the past 2 years. I was paying $230 a month to SHARE 5GB between 3 lines with Verizon 2 years ago. Now I have 4 lines on the account all Unlimited with the New T-mobile One plan, and it is $160 a month with TAXES INCLUDED.

It has literally been the best decision, no more calling Verizon every month to complain about overages.



If you are stuck on a contract, or owe on your devices. T-mobile will pay your termination fees!

Plus you get all this for free.

- Unlimited Data
- No overages
- Free International Roaming in over 150 countries
- Free Gifts on Tmobile Tuesdays (Lyfy, Pizza, Chiptole, Movie Tickets, other stuff)
- Taxes Included when you have AutoPay
- Free Gogo In-Flight Wifi ( I was literally Face-timing my mom on my last flight while in Mid-air)
- Free 10GB of LTE Hotspot tethering per line

https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone...gclid=CJn_hc_a99ICFQ-dfgod9JQFqw&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[Mr.Guy]

Cricket for the win. Cheaper Atat.

 

[rico x hood]

I'm looking to head to Verizon, they have unlimited data for $65.

I'm currently with At&t paying around $160 for two lines (one of which I don't use) a tablet and 20GB data with rollover. This also includes a 23% discount.

With Verizon, it'd be around $125.

 

[jjs07]

Verizon had the most insane quote for the family plan....AT&T couldn't beat what we found at Sprint. My only hesitation w/ T-Mobile was their coverage.

Came down to Sprint/T-Mobile for my fam...