Going Cellular

Worst customer service on earth!!! I had no trouble using with the phone and signal. I got an Go phone for my family that came to visit in 2008. I wanted to reactivate the phone again in 09. I called the customer service center, told the lady what happened. She told me that I need to add money to the account in order to reactivate. So i did. But I still couldn't make or receive calls. After doing research online, i realized that once the account has no activity for 90 days, the account is invalid, period. So I called to get a refund. I was transferred and passed on by 6 different people to various departments. I was literately on the phone for over 5 hours in total. Nobody could resolve my issue. They all have their own explanation. Fortunately, I was put on hold and accidentally got transferred to the regular wireless customer service (not Gophone's). This customer service guy is much more diligent. He stayed on the line and got my issue resolved. It turned out that the phone number was recycled and is now under a new account. My money went a stranger's account! Conclusion - AT&T put the WORST customer service people in GOPHONE department. Even the "supervisors" are morons. Do not use GOPHONE if you expect to call their customer service.

the "reviews" on this site are obviously fake. I hope att gets busted for this garbage turf marketing. The review itself is wrong, ATT prepaid does NOT have the same coverage as regular ATT. Huge area missing, lie thw whole state of Wyoming

I cannot begin to describe the "run-around" by these people at AT&T. The battery would not keep a charge and in order to mail me another, I was asked to give them my credit card no.? When I told them I didn't have one, I was told to give someone else's number. This is a real scam. Never, never give out your number to anyone for excange of a $20.00 replacement. Needless to say, after speaking with ten more people and getting hung up on,disconnected and transfered to ten other people, I decided I would take the loss of $30.00 balance on the phone that I could use and spread the word about how terrible they treat their customers. I will never again use their service and hope others will learn from this experience.

I tried the ATT Go-Phone for three months and felt that I was ripped off by ATT. They would send me messages and reminders to refill and then deducted from my remaining minutes for these messages. It also deducted minutes for me to check the balance of my remaining minutes. ATT definitely have lost my trust. I don't know if I want to even use ATT for my regular monthly cell phone plan while I am shopping for one now. The regular users should look carefully how your minutes are being charged by ATT.

1/6/09 Call quality is OK in my area. ATT prepaid rates are too high, esp. txt messaging, ridiculous 20 cents in and out. Most important, ATT steals your minutes. For example, att charges you 2 minutes when your phone shows 55 second; att charges you one call even nobody picks the phone (without answering machine). Customer service sucks, every time you called, they just tell you problem will be solved, but never did. I switched to T-mobile recently, don't know their service yet. But it appears you can't check call history online, only feature I liked in att.

Pros: With the $1 a day plan (only when your phone is used), all domestic calls are 10c/min. If you want to call internationally, use a domestic "proxy" (forwarding) number and you will only be charged the domestic rate. Great phones and great selection! Refurbs in my experience are as good as new and a great value (I own several phones, both new and refurb). Refurbs are an even better value when you use a rebate site and can get $20-$30 cash back. Do not seem to cripple/disable features/functions on their phones like T-Mobile has the nasty habit of doing (so they can charge you for everything, like getting photos off your phone onto your computer). GSM network, so the phones can be used overseas if tri- or quad-band, and unlocked (important for someone like me who spends much time overseas). You will save a TON by using a sim for the provider of the foreign country you are in... most foreign cellular is prepaid, and VASTLY superior in both features and cost compared to the US (otherwise known as Cell Hell). Most phones can be instantly and easily unlocked with a "HyperSIM/SmartSIM" etc. (SIM unlocking chip). Also, you can use any unlocked GSM phone on their network... I can switch between my smartphone (purchased full-price, unlocked) and an everyday "beater" in 30 seconds by just swapping the sim. Refill cards readily available and reloading trouble-free, right from the phone. Their coverage is excellent, at least in my experience. Far better than T-Mobile. I swear I could be 3000 feet down in an iron ore mine and still have a few bars. Cons: 20 cents per text sent or received (as of recently... the 15 c rate is old info as it has since been raised). Usurious! But it seems all the primary carriers have followed suit, in lock-step. Did I meantion the US is cellular hell? Insanely expensive data charges if you want to do anything more than look up something on Google... viewing this site would probably cost several dollars! Customer "service" (what service?) is as bad as it gets. Fortunately, I very rarely find myself needing to avail of it; but the couple of times I did, it was a nightmare. The $1 a day when you use the phone plan, while it reduces the per-minute rate and thus in one sense is a "pro", is also a "con" at the same time because it wastes a dollar of your load that you get no use out of. Overall, like all the providers, AT&T has its foibles, but is a good choice, considering the rock and hard place US cellular customers find themselves between, and is by far the better of the two domestic GSM providers. As an aside, I found a backdoor way to bypass the high cost of text using a Java app. called Nimbuzz, running on the data plan since SMS are less than 1 kB each... worked great for 2 days, long texting sessions cost me only 30-40 cents in *total*... and this was international, mind you! Then they must have figured out what I was doing and locked it out because it will no longer connect to the internet no matter what WAP config I use. Oh well, was nice while it lasted... ;-)