Family plans question

[toonman]

I'll try to make this as short as possible
I have an old 850 minute family plan with 4 lines (1 BB with data).

I added a 5th line for my wife's uncle with a Nokia 6350 for free through the premier site, no problems so far.

At the same time we got a LG Neon as an upgrade on my wife's line through premier also for free, no problem.

We never activated the Neon because my wife decided she didn't like it and wanted a 6350 like we got for her uncle.

Premier said to return the Neon to a local store and call back to upgrade to the 6350, we took it the neon to the store, returned it without problems.
It took 2 days and me calling a CS rep to get the Neon to show as returned in the system (ok, computer snafu, no big deal to me)

they transfer me to premier so I can get the other 6350 and they tell me the phone is $49.99 + $16.00 activation. unless I upgrade my family plan (yeah upgrade, 1 penny more but for 150 less minutes across 5 lines)

I go round & round with Premier and a supervisor about why I can not get this 6350 for free when we just got one last week for free and the neon was also free

They said the family plan I have does not show in their system so it does not qualify......I say that makes no sense, seeing as they just let me add a 5th line to that plan and got a free phone. all I got from the Supervisor was, well that's how it is.

I've had this plan for I don't know how long, I've also had 2 of the 5 phones #'s since the late 80's back when they were Cellular One Chicago and have never had a problem with them.

Can any rep explain to me why I can't extend my wife's contract and get the phone for free because it's supposedly a invalid/Grandfathered plan, when they gave me the same phone for for free the week before when I added a line to this supposedly invalid plan?

Sorry for the long winded post, just wanted to try and get all the facts in all at once.

[originaljerseyboy]

it does sound very fishy to me. however sometimes i do know that older plans cause conflicts in our systems. I'm a tech so thank god I don't deal with sales. however I have heard many instances where people change some features or add a line and suddenly conflicts start happening on the plans.

[Mister Xiado]

Call 1-800-331-0500 from a landline phone and tell the system that your phone number is 123 456 7890 or something similarly bogus.

I cannot say why, but you will have a much better chance of having this issue sorted out in one call. Just call in the morning, when you have some spare time.

[toonman]

Still no luck, And now I spent over an hour on the phone last night because the new 6350 we got her uncle crapped out already.
It does not power on or charge, screen just flashes.
I Called premier, sat on hold, premeir transferred my to warranty, sat on hold, warranty tried transferring back to premier but by that time premier was closed...

I've been with AT&T forever and have never had these kind of problems.......I'm seriously thinking of dropping all 5 lines and going somewhere else (only 2 are still under contract)

[Mister Xiado]

That is why you do not call premier.

Also, if you have an old line with expired plans, they must be updated to all new plans and features to be upgraded. Limitation of the system.

In many cases, you benefit from this, though. Some old family plans cost $19.99 per month for secondary lines.