In case you though AT&T wanting to run a credit check before they sell you a prepaid phone was as dumb as AT&T could get, reader Dan writes in to tell us about an AT&T store that wouldn’t sell him a phone because he was already an AT&T customer. If he hadn’t copped to being an AT&T customer, he could have walked out of the store with a lovely LG CG180 Go Phone. But since he admitted he had an AT&T number, the sales reps at the store wanted him to put an extra $100 down. More, after the jump.

Well the AT&T refusing to sell a go-phone isn’t a isolated incident.
I go in.
Me: “Ya, can I get the CG180 go phone?”
First Guy: “Just the phone, No SIM?”
Me: “Ya.”

waiting….

First Guy:”What’s your current AT&T phone number?”
Me: Like an idiot I tell him.
First Guy to Shift Supervisor: “Can he buy this?”
Shift supervisor:”Sorry sir you can’t buy this phone your not a go-phone customer.”
Me: “Well…maybe I want to be one now, can’t I just buy the phone?
Shift Supervisor:” Well if you want, but you have to buy 100 dollars worth of credit with it.”
Me: “It doesn’t say that anywhere in the store, isn’t that why its called pay as you go?”
Shift Supervisor: “New Go-Phone customers don’t need to, but since you already have an AT&T account you have to.”
(The account isn’t even in my name. Its in my mom’s.)
Me: “Well, let me get this straight. if i came in and didn’t tell you I was an AT&T customer I could get it?”
Shift Supervisor: “Yes, but you are, so you can’t. But you can buy a better phone for a little bit more, as long as you do it as a qualified upgrade.”
Me: “No…I want this phone. my friend has it and I really like it.”
Shift Supervisor: “Well you would have to buy it at Radio Shack or Best Buy, corporate stores don’t do it.”
Me: “But isn’t the online the same as the corporate stores? I can buy one on there.”
shift Supervisor: “I suppose you could.”
Me: “Fine…I will.”

Leave

What a bunch of BS. I called AT&T because I was that pissed and asked. They said “the shift supervisor must have been misinformed about policy, she should have sold you the phone.”

Store was 6th ave in NYC

-Dan

Even if Corporate claims it’s not policy, it’s strange that the store would be under impression that current customers have to pay more for a product. Isn’t that a little counterintuitive? Wouldn’t you trust your current customers, who have a billing history with you, more than strangers? Oh, wait. It’s a prepaid phone. It shouldn’t matter in the slightest. Time to add to AT&T’s file of Bizarre Customer Service Blunders.

(photo:dabby1)

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