r/attwireless

If your getting atnt and live in Miami don’t do it. I don’t get service anywhere and if I do it’s always spotty. It started like a year ago.

DM just told us on a meeting that now every phone that walks out the door HAS to have insurance on it. We’re supposed to say that all the phones come with insurance now. Is this normal/okay? Feels a little sleazy. Hoping this won’t be the trajectory going forward, I felt like I was just getting into my swing here.

AT&T sales rep lied. Quoted me $50 turned out $80 bill. "Leave anytime" = 36-month TRAP where they steal your trade-in value through credits. Then a $280 SURPRISE for 30 mins to Australia. Support and their manager told me "they had no power its in the fine prints policy", despite paying in full, on time, for the entire year.

I paid a ransom to unlock MY phone.

POST-PAID IS A SCAM. Ditch these crooks. Go US Mobile, Mint, or Visible - $25/month, same networks, no contracts, no surprises.

AT&T is a dying dinosaur. Help them rot. Switch! You've been warned!


I called the Loyalty Department today either resolve a month-long network failure immediately or cancel my service today after years of continued service.  During the hour-long hold I was forced to sit for during my business hours, I had time to write this email and provide detailed context of my customer experience that continues to be devalued with each call.

For the past month, my phone has been completely unable to reliably send or receive text messages to AT&T and non-AT&T customers. I have lost hours of work time on hold, been repeatedly transferred, and have even been hung up on. I spent three hours of missed work time at a retail store, where they failed to help me, forcing me to order my own replacement SIM card.

Yesterday, I was told I couldn't activate the SIM without a second phone line. Today, I borrowed my daughter's phone to call in, only for customer support to dump me into Risk Management. Despite answering every verification question correctly, the Risk Management representative told me they couldn't help me and abruptly disconnected the call.

I have done all the troubleshooting, jumped through every hoops, and faced nothing but terrible customer service and a refusal from your offshore teams to credit any part of my payments back for the month-long service dysfunction.  It is important to note that your loyalty department expressed no interest whatsoever in retaining my account, my daughter's account, and played music  from what sounded like a television in the background while she talked to me on the phone.

 As a years-long customer who has opened new individual lines for my family members and clients and who was (past tense) in the process of opening new business accounts for my employees, I researched the changes that could have possibly caused this many negative impacts to my experience and Over the past one to two years, AT&T has aggressively moved away from legacy hardware silos to build an "AI-ready" programmable platform.  Open RAN overhaul, a cloud-native 5G Standalone core, and 8RX uplink spectrum optimizations, AT&T has systematically decoupled network software from rigid legacy hardware. This shift transitions its architecture from a reactive infrastructure model into an AI-orchestrated, programmable platform that slashes cell-tower interference by up to 80%, doubles upstream mobile speeds, and delivers self-healing operational reliability directly to the network edge. All four architectural changes directly impact mobile network operability and performance.

Additional defects in your system include deleting my account's passcode within 12 hours of my calling into customer support, deleting my autodraft payment method and denying it even though they admitted they couldn't see my payment method, and denying the same password I have used every single time with the MyAT&T mobile app.  Not one of these were able changed or deleted by me, yet, when I was forced to set up a passcode again, I was able to use my original passcode, which I know is against your security policy. I understand AT&T invested in a model-agnostic, decoupled LLM infrastructure and unified account stack, which required rebuilding the consumer app to merge wireless and home internet controls into a single digital storefront.  The forced consolidation created massive software fragmentation, leaving users stuck with buggy interface changes, broken device management rules such as those I mentioned, and an app that fails to smoothly sync multi-service accounts.  The upgraded Generative AI Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform cost AT&T billions to transition traditional phone trees into context-aware voice agents designed to handle customer requests without human intervention.  I experienced an aggressive "containment loop" that trapped me in endless, repetitive automated conversations, making it incredibly difficult to bypass the machine and reach a live human agent-which ended up being the wrong department with an offshore inbound call center agent who had no ability to assist beyond reading off of a script and beginning the cycle of transfers. CRMs powered by "Ask AT&T" generative AI was used to automate call center documentation, summarizing client interactions, and auto-generating backend ticket notes. I learned yesterday with customer service and today with the loyalty department that your staff relies solely on this for their notes and despite my requests for documentation, each person chose not to document the extent of service failures, the number of transfers, hours of wait times, failed troubleshooting, and repeated disconnected calls when the agent chose to preserve their resolution time metric for their call logs over actual resolution achievement.  At not time was I ever sent a feedback mechanism that would capture these and attach to my account. Frontline customer representatives have been turned into passive script-readers who rely on unreliable AI policy summaries, resulting in conflicting information, lost context between departments, and a complete lack of human empathy. Finally, AT&T's investment in the Oracle Fusion Cloud financial ecosystem for migrating and centralizing fragmented legacy billing, accounting, and asset data into a single corporate general ledger resulted in a bottleneck when trying to resolve the disappearance of my account management detail and payment methods.

As of this line, my service is disconnected for me to move to a more reliable carrier.  We will continue with the cancellation of the rest of the lines I have brought to AT&T's network thereafter.  Additionally, I will be publishing this account of my experiences to the platforms with the most reach for consumer protection to make others aware.  Either your technology leadership and the Big4 consulting firm you give your money to are not proficient or are purposely sabotaging your business and quite publicly.

EDITING TO NOTE that AT&T's loyalty department lied to me a 2nd time about unlocking my phone and porting my number, which i brought to AT&T years ago. I called the new carrier to have it switched over and they are saying my number is not available jut 15 minutes later. Now that my account is cancelled, they are claiming they cannot retrieve my number that is tied to my MFA's. I will be forwarding this to the FCC

I am sharing this because anyone using an AT&T phone aboard a cruise ship should understand how easily these charges may be imposed—and how little documentation AT&T may provide when they are disputed.

First, an important distinction using AT&T’s exact billing terminology:

• “International Day Pass” and “International Day Pass Additional Line” were charges for cellular service we knowingly used while visiting foreign countries. We understood those charges and are not disputing them.

• “International Day Pass – Cruise” was a separate $20-per-day, per-device charge for AT&T cellular service aboard the cruise ships. Those are the charges we disputed.

My mother and I traveled through Europe and took two cruises. While visiting countries ashore, we intentionally used AT&T cellular service and happily paid the resulting “International Day Pass” charges.

While aboard the ships, however, we had separately purchased Norwegian Cruise Line’s premium shipboard Wi-Fi service for both passengers. We placed our phones in Airplane Mode, turned Wi-Fi back on, and connected to the ships’ Wi-Fi. We had no need or intention to use AT&T’s separate cruise service.

THE BILL

AT&T’s July 21 bill (which, to be fair, is for several lines in addition to our two lines) totaled $902.94—an increase of $438.38 over the previous month.

The bill included:

• $120 in “International Day Pass” charges on my mother’s line
• $60 in “International Day Pass Additional Line” charges on my line
• $100 in “International Day Pass – Cruise” charges on my mother’s line
• $140 in “International Day Pass – Cruise” charges on my line

The first $180 represents the land-based International Day Pass service we knowingly used and do not dispute.

The disputed amount was the separate $240 in “International Day Pass – Cruise” charges: five $20 charges on my mother’s line and seven $20 charges on mine.

WHAT AT&T’S OWN DETAILED-USAGE RECORDS SHOW

During my August 5 chat with AT&T, the agent stated:

“A total of 10 days shows a usage at the bottom of your bill.”

That statement does not appear to be supported by the bill’s “Detailed usage” section.

The 12 “International Day Pass – Cruise” charges were assessed on the following line-dates:

My mother’s line:
• June 25
• June 27
• June 30
• July 5
• July 11

My line:
• June 26
• June 27
• June 28
• June 30
• July 1
• July 8
• July 11

Yet the bill’s detailed-usage records show:

• No same-date detailed activity at all for any of the five cruise charges on my mother’s line.

• Same-date activity for only four of the seven cruise charges on my line: June 26, June 28, June 30, and July 1.

• No same-date detailed activity for my June 27, July 8, or July 11 cruise charges.

Thus, the bill displays same-date activity for only four of the 12 charged line-days—not 10.

Even more significantly, only one date in the detailed records—June 28—is expressly identified as “MARITIME SERVICES, CS.” The other same-date entries are identified by country: Italy on June 26, Greece on June 30, and Montenegro on July 1.

The bill therefore does not explain how AT&T determined that 12 separate line-days qualified for its $20 “International Day Pass – Cruise” charge.

THE CHAT WITH AT&T

I repeatedly explained that we were not disputing the legitimate International Day Pass charges incurred while ashore. I specifically wrote:

“We are not contesting the International day pass charges—just the additional $20 charges per line for the cruise service which we didn’t use.”

I was also candid that it was possible we might have forgotten to activate Airplane Mode on one or more occasions. I told the agent that if actual use occurred, even accidentally, “and if we have to pay for that error, so be it.” I was not asking AT&T to ignore documented usage. I was asking it to substantiate each charge.

The agent initially stated that 10 of the 12 charged days showed usage and offered a $40 credit for the other two days. After further discussion, AT&T instead issued what the agent expressly called a “one-time courtesy” credit of $60.

The agent then suggested that I prove we had not used AT&T’s cruise service—essentially asking a customer to prove a negative—while AT&T still did not provide an itemized explanation of what activity triggered each charge.

THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT’S RESPONSE

After I escalated the dispute, AT&T’s Office of the President declined any further adjustment.

Its written response said that a phone might connect to cellular service before Airplane Mode is activated or might reconnect after being powered off and restarted while charging.

Those are hypothetical explanations of what might happen. They do not establish what actually happened with either of our phones on each of the 12 charged line-days.

The Office of the President also characterized the $60 adjustment as having addressed dates with no usage. That does not match the chat record particularly well: the agent initially identified only two days without usage and offered $40, then ultimately described the $60 adjustment as a “one-time courtesy.”

AT&T’s final position was simply that because “usage was recorded” on the remaining dates, all remaining charges were valid.

But AT&T still did not provide:

• A date-by-date explanation supporting each cruise charge
• The exact time of each alleged shipboard connection
• The amount or type of cellular activity that triggered each charge
• The shipboard cellular network involved
• An explanation for the cruise charges that have no matching activity in the bill’s detailed-usage section
• An explanation for why country-identified activity in Italy, Greece, and Montenegro resulted in a charge labeled “International Day Pass – Cruise”
• An explanation for why only one detailed entry is expressly identified as “MARITIME SERVICES, CS,” while 12 cruise charges were imposed

THE ACTUAL PROBLEM

We are not arguing that we should receive free international cellular service. We knowingly used AT&T’s International Day Pass while ashore, and we paid for it.

We are challenging 12 separate $20 “International Day Pass – Cruise” charges totaling $240.

If a device genuinely connected to a shipboard cellular network and triggered a charge, AT&T should be able to identify that connection and explain the charge. If a few seconds of automatic or unintended background activity can trigger a full $20 daily fee, AT&T should disclose exactly when and how that happened.

Instead, AT&T has relied on general speculation, made a statement about 10 days of detailed usage that its own bill does not appear to support, and refused to provide a charge-by-charge accounting.

“Our system recorded some usage” is not an adequate explanation when AT&T’s own itemized bill does not substantiate most of the charges.

I've been stuck in a loop with AT&T support since March...

I ordered a new iPhone 17 Pro Max online. When it arrived, it wouldn't activate. I spent hours both in the store and on the phone with customer support, but no one could figure out why.

One detail that ended up causing even more problems: because the phone never successfully activated, I never completed the initial account setup (social/PIN, etc.).

Eventually AT&T told me to:

• Return the phone.
• Get a refund for the taxes I paid.
• Come back to the store later and reorder the phone.

So I returned it. I have UPS proof that it was delivered back to AT&T, and multiple support representatives have confirmed they can see that the phone was received.

Since then, I've spent 30+ hours over the last five months bouncing between phone support and retail stores trying to get everything closed out. Every time I contact support I get some variation of:

"We can't access the account anymore, so we can't help you."

This week things got even worse.

I received a bill for $1,399.99 on the supposedly canceled account for the phone I already returned.

I spent several more hours being transferred between departments. Every representative agreed that the charge doesn't make sense, but they all said they can't remove it because they can't access the account.

One representative actually suggested I let it go to collections and then dispute it with the collections agency instead... Which aside from killing my credit for no reason, is stupid.

That can't seriously be AT&T's recommended process.

At this point I have:

• UPS proof of delivery showing the phone was returned.
• Multiple AT&T reps confirming they can see the phone was received.
• A $1,400 bill for a device I don't have.
• More than 30 hours spent trying to resolve this.

Has anyone dealt with something similar?

Is there an escalations team, or another path that actually gets results? I'm also considering filing FCC and Attorney General complaints because normal customer service doesn't seem capable of resolving this and I'm not going to let my credit get hit because they can't see an account that is randomly now charging me.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Update* 8/10

I got a call from the Office of the President Inquiry and have an official case number they referenced my BBB complaint, so hopefully this saga will end soon.
I'll update again if they solve.

Also, a few folks have been asking: I received the phone on March 23rd it was received by AT&T March 30th, so it was well within the 14-day window I had to put it in the mail.

I’m hoping someone with AT&T/network provisioning experience has seen something like this. I’m now more than three weeks into this problem, including an FCC complaint and escalation to AT&T’s Office of the President, and it is still unresolved.

**Here’s exactly what happened:**

On July 19, I attempted to upgrade my iPhone 13 to a new iPhone. During the upgrade process, AT&T was unable to provision my existing phone number, which I’ve had for more than 20 years, onto the new phone. After multiple unsuccessful attempts, I told them to forget the upgrade.

**I returned the new phone and asked AT&T to simply put my original number back onto my existing iPhone 13.**

That’s when this turned into a much bigger problem.
AT&T **could not restore my original number to my iPhone 13 either.**

Because I needed a functioning phone, AT&T activated a **temporary phone number on my old iPhone 13**. That temporary number works perfectly for calls, texts and cellular data.

My original number, however, will not connect to AT&T’s network. **The strange part is that my original number clearly still exists:**

**- It** still appears as a separate wireless line on my AT&T account.

\-Calling it still goes to **my original personalized voicemail**.

\- My iPhone 13 still shows an eSIM for the original number.

\- Settings > Cellular correctly displays both the temporary number and my original number.

\- The temporary number works normally.

\- If I turn off the temporary line and enable my original line, the phone goes to **SOS**.

\- Under Settings > General > About, the temporary line shows **Network: AT&T**, while my original line shows **Network: Not Available**

\- The two lines have separate ICCIDs.

AT&T has repeatedly characterized this as a **provisioning issue**, but no one has been able to explain exactly what is wrong or why they cannot fix it.

I’ve dealt with stores, customer service and technical support. Eventually I filed an FCC complaint, which resulted in the case being escalated to AT&T’s **Office of the President** and additional technical support.
Still no resolution.

**Then AT&T sent me another new phone to try.**
During setup of that phone, Apple’s “Transfer Phone Numbers” screen could see the cellular plans on my iPhone 13.

The temporary AT&T number appeared normally and could be selected for transfer. My original number also appeared, but it was grayed out and specifically said:
**“Transfer not supported.”**
So at this point:
**Temporary number:** Works perfectly on my iPhone 13 and Apple allows it to be transferred to another iPhone.
**Original number:** Still exists on my AT&T account, still has my voicemail, appears on my iPhone 13 with its own eSIM, but won’t register on AT&T’s network, goes to SOS when enabled, AND Apple says “Transfer not supported” when trying to move it to another phone.

**Has anyone experienced anything remotely similar?**
I’m particularly interested in hearing from anyone familiar with AT&T provisioning:

Can a subscriber/line profile become corrupted or orphaned?

Could the number be associated with the wrong ICCID/IMSI somewhere in AT&T’s systems?

Could there be a stuck activation/order from the original failed upgrade preventing the number from registering?
Can AT&T completely rebuild the subscriber profile while preserving the phone number?

Could issuing a completely new eSIM for the original number solve this?

Is there a particular AT&T network/provisioning team that handles something like this?

And as a last resort, **could I port this number to another carrier even though AT&T currently can’t provision it?**

I’ve had this number for more than 20 years, so simply giving up the number isn’t an acceptable solution.
If anyone has encountered this before, I’d love to know **what ultimately fixed it and what terminology/team finally got you to the right person at AT&T.**

Can anyone here give me some guidance? I honestly don't know what to do anymore... It turns out I'm waiting on two cards from a promotion when I switched from T-Mobile to AT&T; they offered reward cards based on your phone account. To make a long story short, this is the fourth time they’ve supposedly re-sent the card, but it never arrives at my address. This fourth shipment was supposedly sent on July 26th... and it still hasn't arrived. It might seem stupid to fight over some blasted cards, but it makes me angry because, as customers, we held up our end of the bargain. I don't know where else to escalate my complaint; right now, the only "solution" is them just re-sending it over and over. I even filed a claim with USPS thinking it was their fault, but it turns out it isn't—especially since my address is a business location. Has this happened to anyone else? It’s so frustrating, and the worst part is there’s no tracking number; they supposedly send it via regular mail. Also, no one has used the previous cards they claimed to have sent. It feels like a scam.

How many days can I stay out of the country I go to Colombia

Just wanted to ask if anyone (in the U. S., on AT&T in a metropolitan area (I'm in California) has this kind of issue frequently:

When I'm home, my Pixel 8 connects automatically to my home wi-fi.

However, it is often the case when I'm on a call, the person on the other end claims that I'm cutting out/can't hear me and/or my voice comes across as "electronic" sounding (at various times in our conversation, but not thought out the entire conversation ).

I check and the wi-fi signal strength is excellent. I'm also usually sitting in the same place when we're on the phone, but also I may be sitting some.where else in the house. My wi-fi router is less than 10 ft away from me.

I also notice the 5G connection is simultaneously at 1 or 2 bars (out of 5) on AT&T.

I'm guessing: Could it be the case the wi-fi and the 5G signals may be 'competing' with each other and for some reason the AT&T 5G signal (which has the lowest connection strength indicated) is causing the problem even if I'm on wi-fi calling?

Thanks in advance for any input/ideas.