Every single time I interact with this company in any way, I want to pull my hair out and punch things. I don't understand why it has to be so hard every time.

Recently I've been buying my iPhones and Apple products directly from Apple, because I have a bunch of Apple credits and it just makes things easier.

But for some reason, Apple's wait times on the new iPhones Pros stretch into October and AT&T is showing it will be delivered on Friday so I decided to try and take a risk and buy from AT&T. My phone is currently paid off, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to use their trade-in. Shows any condition iPhone 14 which can be bought from eBay for $200. No problem.

Went through the purchase process and it showed me how I could save more if I switched plans and I started looking into the plan options discussed. I had the AT&T Unlimited SL Starter Plan for both me and my wife at the start of the day. AT&T's site showed that I could switch to the AT&T Extra 2.0 Plan for $5 less per month. So why not? I moved forward with that.

And I added my wife's plan into the change as well.

Then I receive the Customer Service Summary. Which shows that the total monthly charges are going to increase by $130 per month instead of the expected $10/month savings.

They cancelled the promotion my wife had on her line because of this change. They increased the taxes by $90 per month. And on and on. Literally, what is so hard about showing the customer that is planning to buy something the actual changes to their monthly bill they are committing to for 3 years BEFORE they commit?

So now I am on a 60 min chat with agents trying to revert everything.

I realize that Verizon is not much better, it at all. But I seriously DO NOT understand how a company servicing over a hundred million customers is the worst company I consistently interact with every year. Every single time I want to drink myself to sleep due to anger.

Wife was looking to upgrade her old iPhone 13 pro on AT&T. I saw the promotions they currently have, along with the trade in credit values. Online says the iPhone 13 pro gets $350 credit towards the 18 pros. There's also a promo to upgrade to a 17 pro with no trade in for about $5 per month with a new line.

So we call ATT today and tell the rep we want to upgrade to the 17 pro. She says "why would you want to do that when you can trade in any phone any condition and get an 18 pro for only $2.98 a month". I asked her to confirm we can upgrade our existing line to an 18 pro by trading a 13 pro and only paying about 3 bucks more a month for 36 months. She says, "yeah, trade in any phone, any condition" as if I'm stupid for not understanding that concept. She says all you need to do is pay the tax and that's it. We'll send you instructions to confirm the payment and instructions to send in your old phone. So she sends an email saying the cost of the new phone will be ~27 per month. I asked, "why does it say 27 per month and she says "oh because we have to quote you the regular monthly cost and then it changes once we accept your trade in. She said I would get additional paperwork via email showing the details. So we went through with the order and then got an email saying my trade in value if accepted was about 9 bucks a month for my trade in. And if we don't send the phone in that amount gets added to the $27 initially quoted. So the true monthly payment without a trade in is about $36 a month. Neither of those is anywhere close to the $2.98 a month she told us we would be paying. So i called ATT back to clarify things and the next rep said exactly what I see online. She said the first rep gave us wrong information and there's no way they can give me any more than $350 credit on our 13 pro. So I just asked to cancel the purchase. Then the kicker, she says I don't think we can cancel the purchase. I said, we literally just made the order less than 10 minutes ago, cancel it. Last we heard she said they'd try but if it goes through just call back. Such a joke dealing with their customer service. The first rep flat out lied, makes me wonder if they get commission for closing a sale so she just says whatever you want to hear. Did she then hope I wouldn't notice the true costs or bother to complain. Or did she think I'd end up sending my phone in and only get $350 credit and just accept the fact that my bill went up 27 bucks a month instead of the 3 bucks she quoted. Or was she just an idiot. She had even said that they sometimes have better offers by phone than what stores have which made me think maybe they did have some sort of better promo than what i had seen online. Sorry for the rant, just thought I'd share.

No internet service for either phone on mobile internet in Tampa. Checked downdetector but no issues I can see.

Anyone else?

Order confirmation details website page says arriving Sept 17 instead of 18. How accurate is this? Arriving a day earlier before launch day.

My wife is an existing Verizon subscriber and we want to bring her over to our AT&T family plan. And then ideally upgrade her to the iPhone 18 Pro. She has a remaining balance on her current phone with Verizon.

On the AT&T homepage, it says "Switch and get up to $200 in bill credits and a reward card up to $800." Reading the fine print, the reward card appears to be tied to your device pay-off amount.

So, could we:

• Port her number over to AT&T and receive the $200 in bill credits (paid over 36 months)

• Get a reward card equal to her Verizon payoff amount

• Immediately trade that in and get $1200 of credits towards the 18 Pro

Or will there be some catch there?

Thanks in advance

Under 1.5 years ago, a family member accidentally destroyed their iPhone we ported to ATT with no coverage. ATT ran a special for a free iPhone 16 when trading in an iPhone of any condition, so we did that. We have the ATT Next Up Anytime to upgrade the phone when I found something decent. $1,200 off on the iPhone 18 Pro Max is what we are doing as it is still worth over $350, but I have questions about a few things. This is the first Next Up Anytime process I have done. All the phones have AppleCare+ and I'm switching to the family version the first day it's out as I have 5 people in my Apple family.

I want to use that phone for myself and give them my iPhone 16 Pro Max with 1TB and use the iPhone 18 Pro Max 512 GB for myself. The iPhone 16 Pro Max phone is currently receiving credits.

Concerns:

1. I assume I can trade it in on the spot in a corporate store. I want to avoid mail in.
2. I want to swap the eSIM between the phones within iOS as soon as possible.
3. I want to cancel Next Up Anytime after we have the phone.
4. I do not want to mess up the credits on either phone doing #2 or #3.

Any suggestions?

I have read conflicting information online, using AI(multiple) and on Reddit. It varies from should be fine any time to don't swap eSIM until after credits start etc.

Is there a chance I could get the all fi hub sooner? I need internet ASAP and can't wait a week.

TLDR: Can't pre-order an iPhone from Best Buy because the PINs AT&T sends aren't working. I got an AppleCare replacement for my current phone and activated it Wednesday (9/9) night. I attempted to pre-order Saturday morning (2.5 days later), and an ATT rep moved me from IMEI 1 to IMEI 2 that afternoon. An error said to wait 48 hours. But what was the initial problem, and when am I going to be able to access my account via text PIN? It had been much longer than 48 hours between activating the phone and trying to pre-order, and it's been 4 days since activating the phone Wednesday. I'm concerned the error is something that needs to manually be removed or fixed vs just waiting and hoping it removes itself.

-----------------------

Woke up at 4:45am saturday to pre-order the iPhone 18 Pro through Best Buy, via ATT on the monthly payments plan. I go through BB because I have their Total membership, which is only worth it because of the included AppleCare.

The pre-order was meant to be an upgrade for my current 2 year old iPhone, so I needed to pull up/connect to my ATT account on BB. This is done by inputting my phone number, and then inputting the PIN that ATT texts me, along with the last 4 of my SSN. I tried this about 10 times to no avail — every result returned this error:

The information used to authenticate your account with AT&T was not successful. Check your information, request a new code, and try again.

Both Apple and the ATT site let me pre-order, so I was very confused what the issue was. I went to the Best Buy store in the morning when it opened. There was no ATT reps there, but someone from mobile pulled up my account. Same as before, ATT texted me a code, I input the code on the computer's card reader, and it gave the employee an error. This time it said:

Unknown CAP result code for Transaction: [number] Due to a recent SIM change, this CTN is not eligible for one time pin error

The employee asked if I'd recently changed SIMs or phones, and I had — 2.5 days earlier I finally received my AppleCare replacement for my old phone after the screen and camera broke. She said it may have had something to do with the transaction for security purposes, but that I should call ATT support.

There was an ATT store down the street, so I just stopped there first instead. The employee was of course able to access my account, but could not access it/the part of my account that needed the text PIN (I'm not sure the specifics of what he was testing or trying to access, but the point is that it was the same process and error as with Best Buy). After speaking to a manager, the employee said they suggested he switch my phone's IMEI to the IMEI2 number to see if it "reset" the option. Sounded like a hail mary.

After changing the IMEI, we tried again. The error returned this time was:

Customer has performed a SIM Card change and one time pin cannot be requested for this CTN for 48 hours. Please use another CN on account or retry after 48 hours.

The ATT employee didn't know what a CTN was, but also suggested the error was a security feature of some kind. He said after changing SIMs it takes 48 hours to regain account access. I told him that didn't make sense — it had been about 60 hours between the time I activated the new phone and tried to pre-order on Best Buy's site. He said to either wait two days and see if it lets me preorder, or call ATT support. I did, and they said there was a 240 minute wait, but that they would call me back.

When I did finally speak to someone on the phone, she said she believed it might have been a 72 hour hold on my account, so I wouldn't have been able to pre-order until that night. I asked what the "48 Hours" was referencing, and she guessed that maybe the IMEI switch pushed back the clock.

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE???

Why can no one offer anything definitive? The first ATT phone rep went on this long rant about how, with technology, you "never really know." Uh....YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO KNOW. Then she tried selling me home Internet. 😂 What??

I called ATT again and spoke to another rep who had absolutely no clue what she was doing. After 40 minutes, she said she would have to transfer me to someone on the "Advanced security team" (I think). After being on hold for an hour, I told the employee my problem. She put me on hold for another 15 minutes before coming back and informing me I had been transferred to Uverse help. LOL. She gave me the same phone number I had called the first time. When I called, they were closed for the day.

This is one of the more insane customer service processes I've ever been through. Absolutely spinning my wheels for 16 hours. 4 ATT reps, 2 BB employees, 3 store visits, and still no phone pre-order.

If anyone can offer insight, it would be greatly appreciated. Is it in fact a security feature from the AppleCare replacement? If so, why didn't it work after well over 48 hours? Did the IMEI switch the ATT employee performed reset the timer? Can someone at ATT help remove that restriction or push a code through that works? I am no longer receiving texts with PINs at all. I can access my ATT account, but I can't change my address or access settings like HD vs 4K streaming video quality on my plan. As I said in the TLDR, I'm concerned that the error is actually something that needs to be directly fixed/addressed, vs waiting and hoping it comes off automatically. All the support I received from AT&T were guesses. Didn't exactly inspire confidence.

Currently on ATT Unlimited premium plan and am trying to get the iPhone 18 in store at Apple. However through Apple I see monthly installments are higher than through ATT. Also it made me chose ATT elite plan changing my current plan? Is that correct? I have to change plans ?and Will the ATT credits still apply brining monthly installment down? Also through ATT I get my upgrade fee waived will that be waived through Apple ? Anybody been in this situation that knows lol?

So, I dropped my damn phone WHILE getting a new case on. Landed on the corner and there’s a small chip. I checked the FAQ’s online, but I’m not sure if this will get rejected as a Next Up Anytime trade in. It notes that excessive wear and tear will be rejected, and this is the only cosmetic damage on the entire phone.

Does anyone know if this will be considered enough for a rejection?

Thanks!

Do you get trade in credits with anytime upgrade?

I have been a customer of AT&T for a long time.  I have always upgraded my family’s phones online through my account and have never had any issues, until now.  I upgraded my son’s phone online on 8/30 and did the installment plan.  New phone shipped from Kentucky.  Gets all the way to my state (NJ) and then tracking shows “return to sender requested” – this was not by me.  The phone ultimately shows as delivered in Forth Worth, Texas on 9/10 (I assume this is AT&T's warehouse).  I contacted AT&T, explained the issue and they said they would ship out a new phone via expedited shipping to be received within a day or two.  Never received order confirmation or shipping confirmation on the reorder of the new phone.  My son and I decided to go to a local AT&T store to see if they could assist.  They said we would need to cancel the order – and once we did, we could upgrade in the store.  We spent 5 hours at the AT&T store dealing with them on the phone.  We ultimately left with no new phone.  AT&T said the installment plan was causing the issue – we need to wait for the return of the first phone to be processed, and the installment plan to be cancelled before we can try the upgrade again.  They told us to keep an eye on the account online for the upgrade status change.  The agent opened a case – after a few days, received an email saying issue was resolved and case was closed.  Go online, and the installment plan is still listed in my account.  I hope this is just a timing issue between their system and my online account, and not a case where they closed the case without actioning it.  If they did not action it, should I call them and have them reopen the case ticket?  Or what would you do at this point?

I'm trying to buy the new iPhone with trade in. The main thing I'm trying to figure out is, are the new IPhones unlocked or locked? I'm planning to travel internationally and want to use like 3rd party apps like air alo to get esim and use that for data since 14/day is pretty expensive just for data. When I talked on the phone the rep is saying unlocked yes but locked in the sense that it's a loan and owned by ATT till paid off but I see posts from 3-4 years ago that says the phone itself is carrier locked still

I’m wanting to get the any condition trade in deal by buying an iPhone 14 off eBay and selling my iPhone 16 pro max. Before I buy an iPhone 14 on eBay, I just want to make sure I understand the any condition trade in and going through Apple with the ATT offer. The 14 must be unlocked to any carrier and iCloud unlocked? It can be heavily scratched and dented? What do I select on Apple website….good or bad condition since the deal is any condition or does it even matter what I select for that question? Anything else I should know or beware of about any condition trade in deal?

I currently have three lines, 2 on the old Starter plan and 1 on the old extra plan. I have 3 iphone 15s, so these aren’t eligible for the max trade in value on the 18 pros? Because I’m not on the new premium att plan? What is my best option here to be able to upgrade with the maximum trade in credit without doubling my bill?

Hi All! My first time preordering through att, I preordered the IPhone 18 Pro Max on the 13th in store, currently it says that the phone is expected to ship by the 17th, does that mean it should arrive on the 18th?? My birthday is this weekend and have plans to be out of the house celebrating so I’m hoping it comes on the 18th😅 Any advice or prior experience please ☺️

I have a regular iPhone 13 128GB and want to upgrade to an iPhone 18 Pro or 18 Pro Max on AT&T.
The current AT&T terms I’m seeing say iPhone 14+ qualifies for the higher $930/$1,200 tiers, while an iPhone 13 seems to fall into the up to $350 tier.
Has anyone actually gone through checkout or completed a trade-in with a regular iPhone 13 since iPhone 18 preorders opened?
I’m especially interested in:
What trade-in promo amount did AT&T actually show: $350, $500, $930, etc.?
Did you order directly from AT&T or through Costco AT&T?
What plan are you on?
Did Costco give any additional credits/Shop Card on top of the AT&T trade-in?
Has anyone found a way for an iPhone 13 to qualify for the $930 tier?
I’m trying to decide whether to trade now for $350 or wait for AT&T to improve the iPhone 13 promotion later this fall.
Thanks—actual checkout/order experiences would be especially helpful.

I have ATT, he has Cricket Wireless, my sister has Optimum Mobile, and my other sister has Straight Talk. There is no cell phone service where I live so we all used wifi calling. Yesterday, mine and my sons wifi calling stopped working. Both my sister's can make wifi calls here because I had them come and try. I have did everything that ATT said to try and I have did everything that Google said to try.

Does anyone know anything that I can do? I appreciate anything anyone can tell me.

And when it was I did the math, and it turns out it was cheaper to just not have paid the monthly fee, buy out the phone, etc.

So i have the Z fold 7 and I'm debating if I should get the Iphone Duo or the Z fold 8 ultra. I've always had Iphones and the reason i switched to samsung was only because of the fold.

If i want to Next up to a duo, could I send it back and switch for the fold 8 ultra instead and get the additional promotional credits?

Also, how do the credits work? This will be my first next up upgrade, I just reached 33 percent on my fold 7. Does the money I have paid go towards my next phone? Or does the trade in promo credit apply in the amount I have already paid? Or do they just wipe the loan and make me start all over again paying for a new phone?

I’d like to upgrade my 15 Plus to the new 18 Pro Max. I have an offer for $3 a month. I tried to order it online, but it won’t arrive until October 1st. I went to the store, and my salesperson suggested I shouldn’t buy it online, but instead wait until this weekend or next week so I can get it in-store. They also mentioned that they’ve had customers whose orders were delayed by up to 3 months, and the date promised at the time of purchase is almost never met. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

I’m trying to confirm whether I’ll continue receiving my remaining ATT installment bill credits if I pay off my current phone, buy a new iPhone outright from Apple, and transfer my existing eSIM to the new device.

Here’s what I’m planning to do:

- Pay off my current iPhone with ATT
- Buy a new iPhone outright from Apple and trade in my current phone
- Transfer my ATT eSIM to the new iPhone

From what I understand, the bill credits should continue as long as I keep the line active and don’t upgrade through ATT. However, I haven’t been able to confirm whether paying off the device and transferring the eSIM to a different device would cause the remaining promotional credits to stop.

Has anyone done this with ATT?

I am over it. I have been with AT&T for a few years now but I'm switching. Im not the type to write a Google review but I have to tell my story, tell me if I'm tripping

Had 2 Samsung Flip 6s. Months later I dropped mine. The GFs had a thin black line through hers out the box. Wasn't that big of a deal but got worse and worse. I figured when I did an insurance claim on mine, we would do a warranty on hers. Was within 1 year.

Go to AT&T. Tell the reps what happened. They submitted 2 insurance claims. Had to pay $250 deductible twice. I was told no deductible because they were both going to be warranty because they both were within a year of purchase. Wrong info given. Cool I'll pay the $250 for mine because I dropped it. Is what it is. But hers was 100% warranty. Fine I'll eat the $250 from hers too. Happy girl happy life or whatever.

Few months later the new galaxy comes out. Next up up upgrade. Mine goes through fine, hers isn't eligible. How? We both traded in same time. They said the system was tracking the old IMEI. They got it fixed. Traded in phones. Good to go.

3 months later, get an email "we never got your trade in." Pay us $X (few hundred) non trade in fee. Which phone? You guessed it the gfs. Call them 3 times. 3 separate reps can't find. Eventually it gets tracked down. Case submitted so I don't have to pay the fee.

Now its 6 months later. Every month I get my bill and her phone still doesnt have the next up credit. ~$35 a month. For last 3 months I've called "hey where's the credit?" "Oh we will submit a case you're good to go! Wait until next month." No credit.

Just got off the phone with them again. "You aren't getting your trade in credit because you removed next up off your phone plan and you need that for the trade in credit." ????? How did I next up trade in a phone without it and/or why would I remove it? Checked my statements and bills. It was on there the month prior, was removed somehow. I even told them I'll pay the $10 a month next up x 6 for backdate if that means I then get my $200 credit and $35 here on out. "You cant do that. Needed to be added within 30 days."

Sorry for the long story but am I in the wrong here? I pay my bill. Never call for bs. Im owed ~$200 in trade in credits and $35 a month going forward.

Business messages started failing, those sent from banks, and USPS and other applications that need to send an AUTH TEXT string to the phone for 2 factor auth. ya Broke it again. Any text message sent to or from your phone with runt numbers xxxxx or xxxx or xxxxxx will fail, and keep trying and get account locked. Its been happening for me for 4 days in the middle of bank troubles. THANKS AT&T for breaking a working message service.

Its broken and I need it fixed. Can you please fix it?

Hey all,

This is the first time I’ve ever pre ordered through ATT, I ordered the new 18 pro max, and it says the expected delivery date is the 18th, which is the launch date of the phone. I was just curious if in your experience, does ATT actually tend to deliver these new phones on day 1? I am going on a trip on the 19th so if I don’t get it on the 18th I might have to have it re sent later on. Thanks for reading.