Why Not To Buy An iPhone ... just yet

Dear Ms. McKezel,

I just spoke to Dana XXX on your customer service line. She indicated that I needed to fax items to you to initiate an adjustment on my bill. Please, however, let me give you the background to this so that I can inform you of how incredibly aggravated I am with this situation.

I received a call yesterday from the manager at the Apple Store at First Colony Mall. We are on a first name basis because I was in their store for over four hours on July 11–the day the iPhone 3G debuted. (This does not include the three hours that I waited in line outside!) I received a letter from AT&T (attached) saying that if my account was paid in full (receipt also attached) that I would be eligible for the iPhone on July 11 at a price of $199.

Once I was able to get inside the Apple store, I realized that they were not equipped to do price changes, therefore they promptly called AT&T to have them do a price reduction on their end. They said that they did, and let us off the line. We did this process a total of four more times - to no avail AND never having it succeed when my purchase was rung up on the register. Finally, we tried for a sixth time, and to the misery of us all ... the customer service rep activated the bar code on the phone that I was trying to buy. This meant that I was now in a two year contract with AT&T, but had no phone. Since the phone was activated by AT&T andyour computers on loan to Apple, it wouldn’t accept the bar code to be scanned for payment, because the phone was already activated and made it look as if it had been paid for when in fact it hadn’t! Forty-five minutes later, we were able to get a customer service manager that was able to back out that phone and let us start all over again. However, with starting all over again, it meant that we were back to square one with the activation date issue again. Finally, we asked to speak to the highest-ranking person at the call center and got Ms. Shawanna XXX. Ms. XXX was able to get the activation issue resolved, but could not override the AT&T issue with the price from her end. We were approaching the four-and-a-half hour mark on this issue, and resolved that I would pay full price for the phone and in turn, AT&T would give me a $200 credit on my monthly bill. I agreed to these terms as presented by an AT&T manager (Ms. XXX).

As of today, I am still showing a balance on my account. There is no sign of a $200 credit being applied. I am asking that this is taken care of immediately. I have already received my August bill, and will not be making a payment as it is less than $200.

The call I received yesterday from the manager at the Apple Store was to tell me that my name had appeared on an error report for their store and that if I did not contact AT&T within 24 hours my service would be terminated. After living through the ordeal that I described above, I’m sure that you can only imagine how angry I would be if my service was interrupted.

After this nightmare, I can tell you firsthand that, as much as I love my iPhone, I am telling people NOT to purchase one. I am highly impressed with Apple, but I am completely dissatisfied with AT&T and how this company has handled themselves. Given the circumstances, if I had it to do over again, I would have waited until August 25, switched my entire family to Verizon and bought a Blackberry.

At this point, I am asking two things:

(1) I want the $200 credit issue resolved immediately. This is a major point of contingency that I was told by the AT&T rep was handled before I left the store.


(2) I want a personal phone call - 713.XXX.57XX - from someone in a management position that can let me know that this has been taken care of.

I have been a customer of AT&T (through all the name changes) since 1993. I look forward to having a restored relationship with this company.

Thank you for your diligence,
Stephanie Click

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Miraculously, about 45 minutes after I faxed this, I got a call and the issue is now resolved. For today anyway ...

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