AT&T Increases Activation Fee to $40
The Real Purpose of the Upgrade/Activation Fee
I heard this in 2010 from at&t corporate during an official visit to our site:
Everyone knows that the activation fee, the upgrade are completely bogus, nonsense fees. Nobody likes them, not even the employees of at&t.
However, customers tend to be sticklers, they want to try to 'negotiate' to get the lowest possible price. at&t doesn't not negotiate the cost of rate plans, therefore the only way to make customers feel like they are getting a good deal, is to pretend to demand more than you really want by charging fees that you don't really intend to collect.
So the way we accomplish that is by charging completely bogus fees, like the upgrade fee, that we have no intention of collecting, so that when customers get angry, you can t...
(continues)
Everyone knows that the activation fee, the upgrade are completely bogus, nonsense fees. Nobody likes them, not even the employees of at&t.
However, customers tend to be sticklers, they want to try to 'negotiate' to get the lowest possible price. at&t doesn't not negotiate the cost of rate plans, therefore the only way to make customers feel like they are getting a good deal, is to pretend to demand more than you really want by charging fees that you don't really intend to collect.
So the way we accomplish that is by charging completely bogus fees, like the upgrade fee, that we have no intention of collecting, so that when customers get angry, you can t...
(continues)
...
wow good to know! I am switching to AT&T tonight after work, I didnt know I could negotiate those fees away
...
sometimes they will, ill tell you know when you get there they gonna try to push you into a next plan, which you wont have an activation fee for.
if you dont do that you may be able to get it waived once you get your first bill but still no way of knowing for sure
if you dont do that you may be able to get it waived once you get your first bill but still no way of knowing for sure
...
That isnt 100% true. At least at Sprint. I work at a preferred dealer and if we waive the $36 fee it comes out of the profit the store makes. It may be true at corporate but I am sure they monitor how much is given.
...
Generally,at least at at&t, store agents can't credit, only customer service can, so the store agents performing an upgrade would refer customer to customer service, who usually do waive it, unless there is a reason not to, and there usually isn't.
...
it really depends on the center theyre located at some center's management do not allow it
...
I think all carriers will waive most fees if you ask, you don't even have to be angry or belligerent about it. I know that in my time at at&t, I must have waived an average of at least 10-15 upgrade or activation fees every day. I don't believe that I ever flat out refused a request, unless the customer was just incredibly obnoxious and I refused solely out of spite; Sometimes I tried to 'negotiate' with the customer by saying that I would waive the fee as 'a one time courtesy' provided that they agreed to pay the fee the next time....but of course if the same person had made the same request of me the next time around I probably wouldn't be insistent 'but you promised to pay the next time', and just waive it anyway. We were told by a...
(continues)
(continues)
...
You are 100% incorrect I work for AT&T from a corporate level and we do not I repeat do not waive upgrade fees we are not authorized to. Customers can attempt to call customer service but even they aren't waiving them as much. The intent of the fee increase is another move to slowly start pushing people off of 2 yr contracts and go over to next. Also does anyone remember when the fees were 18 piece and then the increase? Believe it or not the fee does cover services performed that cost money. Those "free" SIM cards people always come into the store and ask for actually cost the company up to $4 a piece. Also services like porting numbers of cost money when done incorrect $15 to be exact. So you can I'm making this up but also it was to cover...
(continues)
(continues)
...
I am 100% CORRECT that at&t corporate told us during the official site visit to our call center in 2010 that we should just waive the upgrade/activation fees if the customer is insistent on it and that no one cares about the activation/upgrade fee anyway so we shouldn't fight with the customers over it.
And in fact we were told that if we refuse to give a credit for under $50, and our refusal resulted in an escalated call, then this could be a terminating offense. In short, we were not only told to waive the upgrade fee, but we were told that if we consistently refused to do so, we could be FIRED for it, because our refusal to grant a waiver could result in a long call that ended up costing at&t more than the fee we were refusing to w...
(continues)
And in fact we were told that if we refuse to give a credit for under $50, and our refusal resulted in an escalated call, then this could be a terminating offense. In short, we were not only told to waive the upgrade fee, but we were told that if we consistently refused to do so, we could be FIRED for it, because our refusal to grant a waiver could result in a long call that ended up costing at&t more than the fee we were refusing to w...
(continues)
...
This forum is closed.
