Promised discounts vanished - now this AT&T customer is facing a bill they can't pay

Few things are more stressful for a family provider than feeling stuck in a phone contract that's suddenly way out of budget.

For one AT&T customer, that's exactly what happened - after trusting someone who claimed to be an AT&T rep and made promises that didn't hold up. Now, they've taken to Reddit to share their frustration and their ongoing, desperate search for answers. Here's what reportedly happened.

According to the user, they were previously on Cricket paying $125 a month for five phone lines in total, with all the devices owned by them. They did find Cricket's service sometimes spotty, and when they got approached by a person claiming to be an AT&T representative in Best Buy, they were quickly hooked to switching.

The rep reportedly told them they didn't need to trade in their phones, that they could take advantage of a military discount right there in the store, and that with all the discounts their AT&T bill would be about $150 a month with 4 new phones and better service. Sounds too good to be true? Well, maybe it was.

The customer signed on the supposed rep's tablet (which they found out later wasn't endorsed by AT&T). And then... yep, you guessed it: they received a shocking bill of $400.

Since then, it's been three months of trying to resolve the situation. Apparently, the customer had to send the phones for trade-in, and it turns out reps cannot apply military discounts in-store. Also, they got Next Up added to all their lines (which is something we've also previously reported on), all while the price of the plan was also grossly misrepresented by the rep.

Unfortunately, the affected customer didn't receive an email confirmation from the rep as they promised, so they have no proof for the carrier of the promises that were made to them.

They had to send the phones back and reapply for the military discount. Unfortunately, for some reason, the military discount doesn't properly get applied, while NextUp seems almost impossible to remove from their plan.



Unfortunately, they see no way out of the situation and are facing impossible choices: pay a bill that they cannot afford, pay full price for the phones and let AT&T keep their trade-in phones, or ruin their credit.

Redditors suggest they go to a corporate store as there are plenty of horror stories coming from authorized retailers. Meanwhile, a few other Redditors have shared similar situations of feeling misled. Also, Redditors suggest that the customer files an FCC complaint as well, hoping this will help them get a solution to their problem faster (which it usually does).

It's a tough spot to be in - and one that no customer should have to face. When things go wrong at this scale, especially after trusting what sounded like a good deal, it's no wonder people are left feeling stuck, frustrated, and helpless. Hopefully, this customer - and others in similar situations - can find a way out.

We have reached to AT&T for a comment and we'll update his story when we receive a response.