I am an AT&T customer. I’ve been an AT&T customer for years. Among the family, we’ve got 2 iPhones, a Windows Mobile phone, and until recently, 2 GoPhones.

The GoPhones are for emergency use, basically. They aren’t for general use - we would rather have a $30 GoPhone stolen than a $600 iPhone by far.

We haven’t really used our GoPhones in a while. 3 weeks ago, we had turned on the phones and gotten them ready to use. They worked, but only had about $0.40 in minutes - not enough to make a call with all of the GoPhone fees. We used a payphone instead, until we had time to set up the phone and get more minutes on it.

Last weekend, we tried to use the phones. We put $15 in credit on the phone while they were recharging. But after they were charged, the phones displayed an error when turned on: “Smartchip Not Provisioned: MM # 2″. I called AT&T support.

AT&T reported that our phones hadn’t been used in 4 months. This is probably actually true, if they count usage as making a call, not just turning on the phone. They said that they had deactivated our plan and reallocated our number to another customer, as we hadn’t used our phone in a while.

I respected AT&T’s right to do this, but at this point, AT&T crossed the line. I requested that they reactivate the phone with a new number. They said that they could not, stating that the phones had been “permanently deactivated”. AT&T demanded $25 for a new SIM card to put in the phone. Keep in mind that these phones cost $30: how can the SIM card, or even activation, cost anywhere near that amount? This is a blatant money grab by the greediest of greedy corporations: AT&T. I then brought up the topic of the $15 + service fee I had paid in minutes that day, via AT&T’s online minute purchasing system. AT&T said that this amount had gone to the current owner of the number, and that they could not refund it for “security reasons”. Is this anything less than ridiculous?!

I am extremely tempted to unlock my iPhone and switch to T-Mobile. AT&T has obviously shown that they don’t care about my business, so I don’t think I’ll give it to them.

Filed under: "This Sucks", Cell Phones, Mobile | written by Sam