Back in February, 2009, I approached my local AT&T store with money burning a hole in my pocket. I’d already tried an older Blackberry (free) and decided that I didn’t quite like the interface. Having played around with an iPod Touch (Madmin), I decided that an iPhone would be the way to go.
“Hi, I’d like to buy two iPhones to replace my phone and my daughter’s devices.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” responded the sales clerk, “You won’t be able to do that unless you get a new phone line and sign a new contract for two more years.”
“Yes,” I responded a bit startled, “I just re-upped my contract for 2 years earlier this month and that won’t be a problem for my daughter’s line.”
“Well, sir,” responded the sales clerk, “You won’t be able to get an iPhone unless you get two new lines.”
“That seems a bit crazy, don’t you think? I have to pay all that money when I just renewed this month.”
“Sir,” the clerk responded, “it’s AT&T Policy.”
After we disconnected (no, I didn’t slam the phone down or anything like that…more along the lines of, “I’m going to call AT&T Headquarters to verify this…it just doesn’t seem right.”) I called AT&T directly.
“Hi, my name is Miguel Guhlin and I’m interested in getting 2 iPhones. I already have an account with AT&T.”
“Yes, sir,” responded the gung-ho AT&T person with a cheerful enthusiastic voice (boy, I’m going to get somewhere here, I thought), “we’d be happy to help you with that!”
“Ok, I have 2 lines and I want to upgrade my current phone–which I just re-upped for 2 years–and my daughter’s line.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem, we’ll get a retro-upgrade for you. I just need to check with my supervisor.” A long pause. A dejected voice comes back on the line.
“I’m sorry, sir, my supervisor says I can’t upgrade your current line and get you an iPhone. You’d have to cancel your existing line, get a new line and sign that line up for a 2 year contract. The same for your daughter.”
“That’s crazy!” I insisted, “Are you sure this is right?”
“It’s AT&T policy decision, sir. I’m sorry.”
“Please make a note in my file that I will be dropping AT&T at my first opportunity and I will NEVER be buying an iPhone from AT&T. That’s 4 lines you can say goodbye to.” After a short pause, “Thank you for your help and trying, though.”
And that’s the substance of my policy beef with AT&T. I could care less that AT&T will be getting Google Android G1 later. I’m dropping them and encourage you iPhone fanatics to join me.
;->
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Another Think Coming 
I can relate. We got our first cell phone from Cingular because Bell South, at that time a major owner of Cingular, said we didn't live at a real address and couldn't get a landline. We had horrible service and our bill kept going up. Customer service was atrocious. So we switched to AT&T at the end of 2 years. One month into that contract, Cingular bought AT&T wireless. Service went downhill as soon as the deal went through. When our 2 years were up, we got rid of them and went to Alltel. We have been with them now for almost 3 years with no complaints. During the first 2 of those years, my husband still had our original ported Cingular number. At least once every 4 or 5 months he would start getting calls from people trying to reach someone else. After three or four such calls, he always ended up talking to someone who had just been given that number by Cingular/AT&T. He always told them to cancel the contract because that was the kind of service they could expect. The last time the person was in the phone store, and he spoke with the service rep. He explained the situation and said that he always advised people to dump their AT&T/Cingular contracts. (It happened both after Cingular took over from AT&T wireless and after AT&T took over again.) The rep wasn't happy! We finally decided our move to New Mexico was going to permanent and got local numbers, so I don't know what they are doing anymore. But I doubt if they are doing a better job. I wouldn't go to AT&T or any of its many related companies for any kind of phone. It isn't worth the hassle.
Wow, AT&T really thinks they have you with the iPhone exclusivity. Why didn't you just cancel the phones right then and pay the termination charge? Maybe that would've gotten them to make a little more sense. Did they expect you to cancel your current two lines, pay the termination charge, and then get two new lines?And I thought Verizon was bad.
I can relate. We got our first cell phone from Cingular because Bell South, at that time a major owner of Cingular, said we didn't live at a real address and couldn't get a landline. We had horrible service and our bill kept going up. Customer service was atrocious. So we switched to AT&T at the end of 2 years. One month into that contract, Cingular bought AT&T wireless. Service went downhill as soon as the deal went through. When our 2 years were up, we got rid of them and went to Alltel. We have been with them now for almost 3 years with no complaints. During the first 2 of those years, my husband still had our original ported Cingular number. At least once every 4 or 5 months he would start getting calls from people trying to reach someone else. After three or four such calls, he always ended up talking to someone who had just been given that number by Cingular/AT&T. He always told them to cancel the contract because that was the kind of service they could expect. The last time the person was in the phone store, and he spoke with the service rep. He explained the situation and said that he always advised people to dump their AT&T/Cingular contracts. (It happened both after Cingular took over from AT&T wireless and after AT&T took over again.) The rep wasn't happy! We finally decided our move to New Mexico was going to permanent and got local numbers, so I don't know what they are doing anymore. But I doubt if they are doing a better job. I wouldn't go to AT&T or any of its many related companies for any kind of phone. It isn't worth the hassle.
Wow, AT&T really thinks they have you with the iPhone exclusivity. Why didn't you just cancel the phones right then and pay the termination charge? Maybe that would've gotten them to make a little more sense. Did they expect you to cancel your current two lines, pay the termination charge, and then get two new lines?And I thought Verizon was bad.