My friend Dave is was looking to get an
iPhone now that his Treo
died. I already
have AT&T service and I’d love to upgrade to an iPhone as well. Being an
old AT&T Wireless customer from before they were purchased by Cingular
and renamed (and now back to the old name) does not appear to be an
asset. I’ve had the service before I was married, consequently if I’m
going to upgrade my phone, consolidating my service with my wife’s
through AT&T’s family
plan would
probably be best for us. Thus I called up AT&T to see if they could
assist me. Unfortunately, my service is through the national business
accounts arm of the company and the family plan is not an option there.
I have no problem being switched off of the national business accounts
(and forgoing my monthly discount), but their system won’t let them
convert my account. I can leave AT&T and go to another service provider,
taking my number with me but I cannot stay with AT&T and switch to the
family plan. If I leave to go to another carrier, taking my number with
me, and then go back to AT&T, I’ll still be stuck on the national
business accounts side of the house. The service representative said she
could set me up with a completely new account (i.e. new phone numbers)
with the family plan. I explained that I’ve had my cell number for a
decade now and I’m not going to change it. I’m willing to pay them more
money (almost double what I pay now) and purchase one (possibly even
two) expensive handsets and they cannot help me out at all. This is
completely insane! AT&T really needs to get its act together and
integrate its back office systems.