Carrier ATT upgrade fiasco

[Andrew83Ga]

Hi, so I just switched from Verizon to ATT yesterday and brought my own device which is paid for. I’m coming from an 11 pro max. I didn’t upgrade during the switch because I was just going to wait until the 14 comes out. However, overnight I changed my mind and now want to gift my phone to my younger sister in law and get the 13.

I went to ATT today to simply buy the phone outright. No problem right? Well they say I can’t get a new phone for 6 MONTHS!! I’m trying to give them hundreds of dollars and they won’t let me. Anyone dealt with that before? Workaround? Can I just buy a phone direct from Apple and pop my sim into it and that’s it? It’s enough of a stupid nonsensical thing that I’ll switch back to Verizon if not resolved.

Thanks

 

[HalfFullmoon]

Just buy from Apple. You probably had some deal with their Bring Your Own Device that is stopping you from buying from AT&T for six months.

 

[rui no onna]

Hi, so I just switched from Verizon to ATT yesterday and brought my own device which is paid for. I’m coming from an 11 pro max. I didn’t upgrade during the switch because I was just going to wait until the 14 comes out. However, overnight I changed my mind and now want to gift my phone to my younger sister in law and get the 13.

I went to ATT today to simply buy the phone outright. No problem right? Well they say I can’t get a new phone for 6 MONTHS!! I’m trying to give them hundreds of dollars and they won’t let me. Anyone dealt with that before? Workaround? Can I just buy a phone direct from Apple and pop my sim into it and that’s it? It’s enough of a stupid nonsensical thing that I’ll switch back to Verizon if not resolved.

Thanks

If paying cash anyway, buying from Apple directly is best since you won’t need to go through the hassle of requesting to unlock from AT&T.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Hi, so I just switched from Verizon to ATT yesterday and brought my own device which is paid for. I’m coming from an 11 pro max. I didn’t upgrade during the switch because I was just going to wait until the 14 comes out. However, overnight I changed my mind and now want to gift my phone to my younger sister in law and get the 13.

I went to ATT today to simply buy the phone outright. No problem right? Well they say I can’t get a new phone for 6 MONTHS!! I’m trying to give them hundreds of dollars and they won’t let me. Anyone dealt with that before? Workaround? Can I just buy a phone direct from Apple and pop my sim into it and that’s it? It’s enough of a stupid nonsensical thing that I’ll switch back to Verizon if not resolved.

Thanks

Did you go to an official AT&T store, or an authorized reseller?

Also wanted to make sure you didn't throw them for a loop with the "buy outright" strategy. They will probably prefer to put you on a 36 month payment plan, but you can literally pay that off in month #2 with no penalties/hassles.

 

[nrvous1]

Buy straight from Apple which is what I always do. I’ve had bad experiences with trying to either upgrade or buy a device outright from my carrier, T-Mobile. Plus, it’ll already come unlocked.

 

[HDFan]

That is what you would expect from AT&T. Has had the worst management of the major cell phone carriers. Lost billions of dollars on bad purchases (DirecTV, etc.). Has worst 5G performance in the country. Does everything it can to get more money from customers. I had to leave grandfathered plan as they required switching to a new plan to implement new features. For those still on grandfathered plans they kept hiking rates. DirectTV had the best product and support in the industry - they destroyed it. HBO was a unique, premium service, and now its just another streaming service. Screen Savers on their tv product were ads for pay-per-view. They have a lot of debt so they likely aren't going to change in the immediate future.

If you can't switch back to Verizon or T-Mobile expect to have the same type of problems in the future.

End of rant.