This is straight BS! Kinda sorta related to this, I've had to call Sprint several times this year asking why the hell my discount vanishes off my bill!

Yet more confirmation that it was a good idea to port my AT&T number over to another provider, and cancel the account.

@bloggerX: One of my co-workers has been trying to get Sprint to apply the discount we get for the past 2 years. He gave up because it wasn't worth his time. He is planning to get an iPhone and switch to AT&T when his contract is up.

...Unless you're specifically getting the retail employee plan. Being its own plan, and not a discount on a normal plan, this shouldn't apply.

It's a very nice plan, too. 2k anytime minutes, unlimited everything else, for roughly half the price of their most basic plan. The downside is you can't subsidize a phone with it, so you have to buy your phone outright.

More fees. That's seems to be the only way businesses know how to make more money nowadays. Better service? Nahhhh... let's figure out what we can add to the price that people won't notice when comparing us to the competition.

I wonder if the IRS would consider the $36 paid on behalf of employees by their employer to be taxable. Unless I am missing something it does not fall into one of the non-taxable categories.

To give a bit more detail on this new policy as it was explained to me by my AT&T Rep...

For new lines of service, you have 30 days to apply for your employee discount in order to waive the $36 fee. If you wait longer than 30 days, you'll be charged. This also only applies to the primary line on the account, so the additional lines on a family plan are exempt from this fee.

For existing AT&T customers who want to upgrade and are not currently receiving an employee discount, you have to apply for your discount ON THE DAY OF THE UPGRADE. There is no 30 day grace period, either you ask for your employee discount the day of your upgrade or you get charged the fee. And that is still in addition to the $18 upgrade fee you may have to pay.

Hope that helps.

More "just because we can" fees.

A "you're getting a discount" fee is just asinine. I have to pay the company a fee because I'm paying less per month?

I hope this doesn't give retailers any ideas. Next thing you'll know there will be fees for using a coupon and fees for using the loyalty cards.

@Rectilinear Propagation: "More "just because we can" fees."

You nailed it. That exactly what these fees are. You want to do something. There's a fee. You want to pay your bill? There's a fee for that. You haven't used your phone in a while, there's a fee for that too.

What I cannot understand is why people put up with this crap. My Tracfone may not be "cool" but it works and I know exactly how much it costs to use. There is no fricken way I'd subject myself to this absolute BS.

wow... and i stayed with ATT because of my employee discount... Time to move elsewhere i guess...

Thats like me paying 50 cents to get 50 cents off a box of lucky charms... thx but no thx

@jaydez: Huh thats weird. I get a 25% discount on my Sprint account, and it was SO worth getting. (I don't work there either, teehee)

@Voltanis:

I'll be anxiously waiting for the people to tell me "but I asked for the employer discount within the 30 days!" whether they actually did or not.

This is another ridiculous fee that will be waived constantly.

Why do companies feel the need to do this? It really makes them (and me because I work for them) crappy.

You should get the right information before making an article. It's $36 Fee per Account, If you have a Family Talk its only a single $36 charge.

Also, If you get charged this fee and do an upgrade on or within 7 days AT&T will waive the upgade fee.

The main reason behind this is to encourage people to get their discounts at the time of sign up (less paperwork on the backend). The charge is waived for any account opened within 30days.

@GMFish:

People "put up with this crap" because it would cost WAY more money to use a prepaid (Tracfone) phone if minute usage and text messaging is high.

@Ben Miner: Oh - it's not paid by your employer. It's paid for by you. Business accounts don't qualify.

@blueneon: This fee cannot be waived on the rep level, period. Approval has to come from RVP-level, if I recall correctly.

Will this affect those who've had a discount in place for the past year? B/c the paltry 8 bucks I save is not worth it.

@Rectilinear Propagation: You mean like at warehouse clubs? Where you pay an annual fee, and receive discounts on the merchandise you buy?

Retailers have been doing it for years. It's the same thing.

What is it with these fee-happy companies lately? If I want to pay my mortgage online, there's a fee. If I want to make a payment to my credit card, there's a fee. Sheesh. Last night I ordered flowers for my mother-in-law and tried to use my 20% AAA discount. The $15 "service fee" wiped that out and then some.

@GMFish: We put up with it because it's becoming harder and harder to escape. The airline bag fee was just United at first, I believe, but then all of the others adopted and expanded them. If there's a cell phone carrier fee, you can bet the others will pick it up too.

Now that the internet has made it so easy to price shop, the hidden fee is the new method of increasing profits.

@tkdnate:

ANY fee under our soa can be waived with the "proper" reasons noted, in my experience.

@Rhainor:

Some would see that as an upside, since without that restriction the plan would cost more. If you change phones every two years the subsidy is alright; my wife and I haven't upgraded phones in four years, so it'd be nice to have our plan reduced by the amount of the subsidy.

"This took affect last week."

The grammar nazi in me is affected by the above sentence.

I just got my sprint bill and I had a 10% "good customer" discount along with a 5% discount for signing another 2 year contract with them. My 10% was gone, and the phone rep said there was no way to get it back. So my bill went up $8.

Seriously, I don't use the phone that much. I am tired of plans getting more and more minutes. I don't need 1500 minutes for $70 a month. How about $25 for 200? I might go to "pay as you go" when my contract is up, but it looks like they are even trying to get rid of those these days.

Wow. What a pain in the ass.

The company by whom my fiancé and I are both employed has a 15% discount with Verizon. We both happened to be Verizon customers before either of us started working here (he in 2006; I in 2008) and neither of us has had any trouble applying the discount to our accounts. (Nor did we have trouble keeping it when we rolled our contracts together into a family plan last week.)

Makes me glad I'm with Verizon. I get a 17% discount through my company with them, and no hefty fees. I know people sometimes complain about them, but I've never had any reason to bitch.

That's it. I'm convinced that there's some secret contest among companies to see who can charge the most asinine fees and get away with it.

@jaydez: I'm thiking of doing the same, I'll wait till next year though.

@Radi0logy: 25% is great. I only get 15% I think

Ok, that's the last straw for them. That's is just plain crazy to jack fees like that.

@Saboth: I use my own phone a lot (including data) but my sister just needed a phone. If t-mobile has decent service around you, I'd recommend it. If you buy $100 of minutes at a time, they last a year and cost 10 cents/minute... very simple, very easy, any t-mobile phone or unlocked GSM phone will do. I bought her phone at Costco for about the same as t-mobile or AT&T will charge you for a just a new SIM with a new number ($50)

And remember to check if the plan you use is on the discount plan for your employer. My 2G iphone was not on the plan but the 3G phones were. Now I have a 3GS, who knows? Also you get the fun of having all your calls to AT&T routed to a business service desk who's initial response is to refer you to your company person who manages things. This leads to a no, this is my personal phone, a transfer to a different group who insist you are a business customer. It would be nice if the idiots who set up this disaster had to use it....

@Ben Miner: My guess is in most cases where the fee is "paid by your employer" your employer has simply negotiated the fee out of existence. Otherwise it would probably be considered taxable income I would imagine.

@Elvisisdead: The article mentions some employers pay the fee. "Some employers and groups are nice enough to pay the $36 fee for you. "

Give us money, so you can save money, but in the end you're not really saving anything.

riiiiight

We have Verizon and my work offered a discount of 17%. All I had to do was go to the Verizon site, put in the account info/phone numbers and on our next bill there was the discount.

@blueneon: I spent 14 months working in wireless cust. service and this was my experience as well.

@tailstoo: Well I do know there are changes made within the billing system when you get a certain employee discount. In some circumstances your billing cycle may change but in any event there is some legwork involved in applying the discount. Just the same, I can't possibly see it being worth $36.

@JeanStork: If you're already getting the discount, then this doesn't affect you. It's if you sign up for a new discount and already have a plan that this comes into play.

@Ilovemygeek: No.

@EGBTMagus: What about people who have had accounts for YEARS, and switch jobs? If the whole point is to "encourage people to do it when they're supposed to" there should be an allowance for people who change jobs and still take care of business immediately.

I just upgraded my account last month but will be leaving my job in another month to go back to school. I've checked the Premier site and I can get a discount through my school, but this new fee has me pretty ticked. I'm not a procrastinator, my situation has just changed.

@segfault:
Same here. And Segfault? I miss that site. Is it back or are you just being nostalgic?

@Saboth:
Google prepaid wireless comparison and look at the comparison chart.

Who else thinks that since att is doing it, every other cell company will follow suit?

In related news my government employeer has a deal with Tmobile. Saves me 12% off my $150 bill every month. To get it I called a number my employeer gave me and it took about 5 minutes. And I've been with Tmobile for 5+ years and I'm only about 3 months into my current 2 year extention.

@blueneon: I dunno...I think that would be a good way to get people to re-think their unnecessary phone conversations if they want to save money.

I have a prepaid phone that I pay, on average, $6 a month for. As a result, I don't feel inclined to call my family and significant other the second my plane lands, again when I reach the gate, again when I'm walking off the plane, again then I walk into the airport, etc. For the average phone user, most of their phone time is completely unnecessary...and they pay dearly for it.

I signed up for AT&T last week and got my discount through this website: [www.wireless.att.com]

You put in your work/organization email and it takes you to a website which explains all of your discounts. It would avoid the extra $36.

@Radi0logy same with me except i get %27

The deals employees get are ridiculous. Verizon has 1500 minutes, unlimited text. It comes out to $13 a month with taxes. Not bad!

well crap....

I guess I shouldn't complain too much if my discount goes away considering that I've been skating by on a BofA discount when I haven't worked for them in closing on 4 years.

If you want a new iphone 3gs and are not within the upgrade period it is much cheaper to terminate your contract and resign up. The standard contract termination fee is $175 however it is reduced by $5 for every month you have been in the contract. So most 3g users should only have to pay $120 or so to get out of the contract. You can then resign up with At&t for the new customer price of 199 or 299. saving you over $300 bucks. The catch is that you may have to change your phone number.