Aside from the rising costs over the years, the extreme “legalese” in superfine print no one has time to read when time to replace an aging phone, as well as the questionable practices regarding the AT&T insurance and submitting claims, and sales reps that may need additional training in communications, dealing with call centers that may not have clear insight on local issues – my recent issue begins with the mistake of upgrading to a Samsung Fold Z4 shortly after it became available. While the phone was impressive in terms of the screen size, it came with many more “unknown” cons I would learn about the hard way, than pro’s. Although Samsung boasts waterproof/resistant, it is not dustproof. Amazing that a speck of dust can create havoc on the screen rendering it unreadable at a significant pace and hence I had to replace it after 7(?) months or so…while I had insurance on all my devices had to shell out another 700.00+ to get the replacement. Ok, lesson learned, be sure to create a good seal around the folding part. In May of 2024 (with another 18 months of installment payments left), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth stopped working entirely and despite many attempts and online research to fix on my own, had no other choice but to get a replacement phone. I did not want to deal with a claim at the time due to the frustration of already having to replace again and of course work and life. Went back to the AT&T store and explained the situation and wound up with a new phone and a new business line I did not need, it was not clear to me that although I brought the old phone in at the time that I would be stuck with paying installments on both. Again, I was not paying attention as the frustration just grew – especially after there happened to be a Samsung rep in the store and when the sales person asked him if it was common that the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth would stop working and he shook his head rather non-chalantly and that is when I popped up and advised that is not what I discovered in various online sites – Samsung for one - regarding a known issue with the fold. Once I discovered I am still paying for the Fold, I called AT&T and an hour of wasted effort, I was referred to the claim site and here is where it gets really interesting. The Fold no longer showed up as a registered device so I could not file a claim… AT&T rep on the phone had me register the phone with my true number associated and I asked if that was going to impact my current working phone and basically had me attempt to claim on both phones… I can’t make this stuff up folks, simply unreal. I then went back to the store to see if the claim can be done from there and was told of course they could help. Only issue is the phone had been turned off for a bit so now it was not showing up on the network and when I asked how to do that as the phone did not work… no Wi-Fi – the salesperson asked her co-worker and he would not even respond to me which is ok, but stated to put a sim in the phone and make a few calls, etc…Went home and tried it and guess what? Still not showing up on network and now the screen appears to be damaged again… and growing. At this point, not sure if it is worth my peace to deal with this and just eat the cost. Moral of the story is check everything including the fine print, question all policies, particularly the insurance policies and whatever deductibles you are responsible for, and have a backup plan. My plan involves fulfilling my debt obligations on these phones and once they are paid for, removing all services I have with AT&T after many years as my provider and never doing business with AT&T again…Hope this helps in some way.
