Watch your cell data usage! (AT&T)

File this under HUH?

I have AT&T for my cell service...have been with them for years. Never really had an issue until this past weekend. I was grandfathered in on an old plan that gave me unlimited data. On September 12th, I went to the AT&T local store to see if I could save some money per month on my plan. We looked at my data usage and saw that I rarely ever go over 2GB/month. Reluctantly, I made the switch to the 2GB plan to save around $15/month. I was hesitant and my instincts were telling me not to do it but saving money is saving money. If I go over the limit, there's a $15 charge for the next GB. I'd still be ok.

Fast forward to the weekend. I've been checking my data usage daily, sometimes a few times a day, to make sure I'm not getting close to my limit. As of saturday night, I was only at 20% of my data usage and only had a couple days left in the cycle until it restarts. Great! When I'm home, I use Wifi and always turn my Cellular data on my phone OFF to make sure nothing goes through the AT&T network...been doing that for years. I also had been POWERING OFF my phone overnight out of habit. Keep that in mind.

I wake up sunday morning, turn on my phone and immediately have 2 texts. Both are from AT&T. The first is an alert that I'm at 65% of my data limit...HUH? The 2nd is also an alert from AT&T...I'm at 90%!!! This all happened in the span of a few hours...WHILE MY CELL DATA WAS OFF AND MY PHONE WAS COMPLETELY POWERED DOWN. Of course I call AT&T customer care and speak to a woman first. This 15 minute conversation went nowhere because it was like talking to a programmed robot. She kept saying that maybe I had apps open and running and they were downloading data without me knowing. I told her time and time again, that NO, I close out all my apps because I know about that stuff, I have cell data OFF on the phone and most importantly, MY PHONE WAS OFF ALL NIGHT! Even with this info, she couldn't comprehend. I ask to go back to my old plan and she tells me that's not possible. I ask to speak to someone else with a little knowledge. I then am speaking to a gentleman who seemed to know a little more but has no idea why this happened. He said not to worry, my cycle is over in a day and the data limit will start over for next month. He will also keep an eye on my account that day to credit me if I do go over. I tell him not to worry because I'll have cell data off all day. I also ask about going back to my old plan and am given the same answer...can't do it. I say ok, thank you. This is all done by 8am.

Fast forward to 11am. I still have cell data turned off and I receive another text. It's AT&T again telling me I've gone over my 2GB data limit on their network and I will be charged $15. I immediately get in the car and head to the local store where I basically wasted my time. The person there didn't really care about my issue. I wish I could remember his name because he didn't even TRY to do anything to fix the problem. I asked about going back to my old plan and he said they don't do that. He basically said I'm SOL and when I asked how T-Mobile's service was he didn't care either that AT&T might lose a loyal customer.

Next step was to call customer care back. Thankfully I got someone right off the bat who actually cared about what was happening. She listened to everything I had to say and offered a couple of solutions. The first was to go back to my ORIGINAL PLAN! What an idea! The 2nd was to credit me the $15, keep a close eye on the account and take my phone to an Apple store to make sure it's working correctly (which I know it is). Of course I chose the first option. I'd rather pay a little extra and not have to worry about this stupid crap happening. I told her that 3 AT&T employees told me this wasn't possible. She said customers have 60 days to switch back. She texted me a case ID # and said that within the next 2 days, I'd have my unlimited data back. In the meantime she was adding an extra GB to my account to make sure I don't go over until the switch happens. There's a novel idea AT&T! Offer 3 GB plans!!!! That would mean not making extra money off people that go over.

I thank her for everything and feel relieved that this nonsense is going to end. At this point cell data is STILL OFF. My new data cycle also begins during the day and wouldn't you know it? About 3 hours later, I'm already up to half a gig of data streamed from around noon time until 2pm. I urge whoever is reading this to really keep a close eye on your account and your data usage because I can't be the only person this is happening to. AT&T really had no answers as to why this is happening. I could see maybe something was streaming in the background, apps open, etc. It should not happen when only using Wifi or even when the phone is powered down. I'm glad I'm the type of person that will push and push until I get some sort of resolution to problems. Maybe more people should be like this? We wouldn't have these stupid issues all the time. Companies are starting to take advantage of customers that don't pay attention more and more. It's only going to get worse

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