IP: Fwd: AT&T Wireless Prepaid -- a warning TO NON USA CARD HOLDERS

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 15:50 +0100 (BST)
> From: wendyg () cix compulink co uk (Wendy Grossman)
> Subject: AT&T Wireless Prepaid -- a warning
> To: dave () farber net
>
> Last December, I bought an AT&T wireless prepaid phone in the 717 area
> code (Harrisburg, PA) for use when I'm in the US.  I thought some IPers
> might benefit from a few valuable lessons I have learned:
>
> 1)  It is impossible to refill the phone via the Internet using a credit
> card with a foreign address even though the 3rd party payment company
> AT&T uses accepts those addresses.  Transactions appear to go through,
> but time does not appear on the phone.  The payment company nonetheless
> had to actively cancel the transaction to keep me from being charged.
>
> 2)  It is impossible now to refill the phone by telephone using a credit
> card with a foreign address.  It *was* possible to buy refills by
> telephone using a credit card with a foreign address, but the company
> had to send the transaction to "QA" or Quality Assurance, a shadowy
> Orwellian name for fraud control, I guess.  It took a week to get AT&T
> to admit that the reason time was not appearing on my phone despite
> hours of phoned attempts was that they no longer accept "foreign" credit
> cards.  Note that my credit cards aren't *actually* foreign -- they are
> domestic cards issued in the US (Amex, Wells Fargo) with a foreign
> billing address.
>
> 3)  In some cases, it is impossible to refill the phone by buying refill
> cards at the nearest AT&T store.  In the San Francisco Bay Area, AT&T
> recently bought a local supplier and chain of stores (Cellular One?)
> that it has not yet integrated into its network.  These stores *cannot*
> sell you a national prepaid wireless card, only a *local* prepaid
> wireless card.  AT&T does not tell you this, either -- it is not on the
> Web site, and the "customer care" telephone staff don't know it.  The
> first of two AT&T stores I visited in the Bay Area didn't really know it
> either -- they knew *they* couldn't sell it, but not that none of the
> other local stores could.  The nearest place to buy national time for an
> AT&T prepaid wireless phone is in Sacramento.
>
> 4)  Because of this lack of integration, people with national prepaid
> wireless phones who travel to the Bay Area cannot make calls from their
> phones in the usual way.  When you key in the number, you get a recorded
> message asking you to key in the number.  If you key in the number a
> second time at that prompt, the call will go through.
>
> 5)  It's anyone's guess how many other areas may have similar problems,
> and the company can't or won't tell you.
>
> 6) You cannot use your mobile phone to call AT&T to buy time or request
> support unless you have a credit balance on it.
>
> I spent a week fighting with this nonsense and a 0 balance on my phone,
> and the only way I finally got it resolved was to get a friend in LA to
> buy a card for me and call in the numbers to my account.  I am
> converting one of my credit cards to a US address, but it shouldn't be
> necessary to do that:  it should be obvious that some of the people
> using prepaid wireless phones are going to be people with foreign
> addresses; it's ridiculous that they can't use the Internet payment
> service.
>
> wg


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