iPhone activation troubles

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: July 1, 2007 10:54:24 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com, gt_IP070630 () think org
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: iPhone activation troubles


Glenn and all,

"IRU" means "Individual Responsibility Account".  It means a user
on a corporate account who while "sponsored" for any discounts
on that account still pays their own bill.

During the transition from AT&T Wireless (Blue) to Cingular (Orange)
[GSM], Cingular apparently made considerable errors in account
coding of both personal and business accounts.  From my own
experience, I can relate that getting these straightened out can
sometimes involve going to very high levels inside the company.

The standard iPhone entry level account appears to equate (in terms
of cost and main features) to the normal GSM $39.95 450 anytime
minute plan + $19.95 unlimited data/200 messages plan.  Any attempts
to get you to pay more than this base amount for a single iPhone are
unacceptable (however, shared accounts with more than one phone of
any type will complicate this a bit).

If you or anyone else reading this continues to have this account
coding type problem with AT&T over iPhone activation, please drop me
a direct e-mail note and I will try to help you bump the issue up
the line inside AT&T.  I've unfortunately had to get fairly good at
this over the years.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, IOIC
   - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net
Founder, CIFIP
   - California Initiative For Internet Privacy - http://www.cifip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com

  - - -

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: "Glenn S. Tenney CISSP CISM" <gt_IP070630 () think org>
> Date: July 1, 2007 2:01:34 AM EDT
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: iPhone activation troubles
>
> (for IP if you like... I think that fellow IP readers will find this
> interesting, and perhaps may even be of some help)
>
> Here's what happened to this long-time AT&T Wireless customer...
>
> I got my iPhone on Friday (thanks to a friend who held a space in
> line for me) at an Apple store.
>
> When I went to activate the iPhone I got a not-so-friendly message:
> "Wireless service for your iPhone is not eligible for any service
> discount available through your employer's agreement with AT&T. You
> can activate your iPhone on your current IRU account, but any
> available service discount
> will be removed."
>
> What?  Employer's agreement?   I have no idea what "IRU" means, nor
> why my account is listed as a business plan. A couple of years ago
> when I switched from a TDMA to a GSM plan they quoted me a price (my
> wife's and my phone, 450 minutes shared, unlimited data, etc.).  My
> guess is that they gave me the quoted price by using some business
> plan and using discounts to get to the quoted price.
>
> After several hours on the phone with AT&T personnel, AT&T "Business
> End User Care" personnel, and Apple personnel they are saying that,
> despite the Apple and AT&T advertisements on their web site, not all
> existing AT&T customers CAN add an iPhone to their plans (or replace
> a phone on their plan with an iPhone).
>
>
> Apple's web site at
> http://www.apple.com/iphone/easysetup/rateplans.html
>
> "If you're already an AT&T customer and want to keep your current
> voice plan, you can just add an iPhone Data Plan with unlimited data
> (email and web) and Visual Voicemail for just $20 per month. Current
> AT&T customers, just add one of these data plans to your existing
> voice plan."
>
> AT&T's web site at
> http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone.service/specials/iPhone.jsp
> (click on "plans" then on "data plans" :
>
> "If you're an existing AT&T (formerly Cingular) wireless customer and
> you want to keep your current voice plan, you just need to add iPhone
> Data Plan. (This may replace your current data plan. Your voice plan
> will stay the same.) iPhone Data Plan gives you Visual Voicemail, as
> well as Unlimited Data, which includes both email and web-and
> texting, all for as little as $20. You'll add iPhone data plan during
> the activation process."
>
> That all is very clear. As an existing AT&T Wireless customer that's
> exactly what I want to do: to keep my current voice plan, to replace
> my current data plan with iPhone Data Plan, and to keep my voice plan
> the same.  AT&T is refusing to do this.  Instead, they are offering
> me the only option of changing my voice plan to a more expensive plan
> (the difference seems to be $20 a month more than my current voice
> plan).
>
> I did offer the AT&T personnel to switch plans so long as the prices
> remained the same as my current plan (i.e. to discount the plan to
> bring the price down to my current plan) even though the iPhone data
> plan is actually cheaper than my current data plan.  They refused,
> saying that no discounts are allowed on iPhone plans.
>
> Instead of delivering what AT&T (and Apple) advertised, they are
> instead wanting me to switch to a higher priced product to be able to
> use the product I've already purchased. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
> Bait_and_switch does seem to describe this.
>
> I wonder how many other people are being plagued by this... hundred?
> thousands?
>
>
> I'm hoping that sometime very soon someone at Apple will convince
> someone at AT&T that we existing AT&T Wireless customers who have
> already purchased iPhones must be given the service that was  
> advertised.
>
> Until then, I've got a dead brick of an iPhone unless I want to
> switch to a more expensive voice plan because the iPhone won't do
> anything (other than make 911 calls) without being activated.
>
>
> --
> Glenn Tenney CISSP CISM
>
>
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