(No Contract) BYOP at AT&T for Nexus 4

[jimmiekain]

So since I'm probably not the only one who is leaving sprint (or any other carrier) to go to AT&T to get the nexus 4 I decided to find out if I would need to sign up for a contract since I wasn't buying a phone. According the conversation I had with "Peter" the answer is no. But, I may not be able to use company discount.

Hope this helps someone else in some way.

 

[map1978]

BYOP? I thought I was gonna read something about Bring Your Own Pot

Damn

 

[mballs4life]

You can sign up with no contract and still get your discount. But hopefully the rep who assists you is honest enough not to try to make you sign a 2 year. If he does, ask for someone else/manager or just go to different store. Were you able to order one before they sold out?

 

[jimmiekain]

Nope, I wasn't able to order... Sold Out! Maybe a white one will come out soon.

 

[mballs4life]

That sucks. Well you may be in luck. Over on Carphone Warehouse, they have an option for a white one so hopefully it's not long til we get it!

 

[jimmiekain]

You can sign up with no contract and still get your discount. But hopefully the rep who assists you is honest enough not to try to make you sign a 2 year. If he does, ask for someone else/manager or just go to different store. Were you able to order one before they sold out?

I just got off the phone with at&t premier and they said I would have to sign a contract if I wanna use my company discount. However, she did confirm that if I didn't use the discount I wouldn't be required to sign a contract.

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[natehoy]

I have access to Premier, and several people here at work have received SIM-only month to month plans on our Premier account. I think they had to contact the Premier account rep for your company to get it, though. If the Premier web site has a way to get to it, I can't find it.

But, honestly, with our Premier discount (which is considerable, but it's an oddball plan that includes no minutes), it's still pretty close in price to Straight Talk once you add in the data and use any amount of minutes per month.

You can also buy a Premier phone with discount and resell it, if you're willing to accept a 2-year commitment at the discounted price. It won't change the price, so if you are planning on being with AT&T on the discount for two years the reseller profit on the phone is pure profit. Just double-check with your rep to make sure the phone is not somehow locked to the Premier side of AT&T or see if it can be unlocked.

 

[mballs4life]

That's news to me. I would suggest you still try to get the discount after you sign up at no commitment. Better if you use your company email (if you have one) because you can apply online and it's effective immediately.

 

[natehoy]

You can sign up with no contract and still get your discount. But hopefully the rep who assists you is honest enough not to try to make you sign a 2 year. If he does, ask for someone else/manager or just go to different store. Were you able to order one before they sold out?

It may depend on the plan. If you go to a store, you get a completely different discount (10% off in my case, FYI). That discount can be applied to a variety of things. In order to use Premier, you have to go to a web site and log in. The AT&T stores do NOT have access to these plans, and this web site only offers very specific plans (in our case, $10 a month that includes 1000 night and weekend minutes, 1000 texts, and 1000 AT&T-to-AT&T minutes. Weekday non-AT&T minutes are 11 cents a minute. Data plans receive a percentage discount).

So in the case of my specific Premier account, I could get a plan as described above with a 2GB data plan for about $33 a month with all taxes and fees and whatnot.

If I spent 100 minutes a month on the phone, I've accrued $11 in airtime charges, bringing me up to $44. For another couple of bucks a month, I could simply buy a StraightTalk SIM month-to-month and get "unlimited" everything (for unknown but reportedly reasonable definitions of "unlimited"), and not have to mess with all the paperwork and corporate approvals for Premier.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[natehoy]

That's news to me. I would suggest you still try to get the discount after you sign up at no commitment. Better if you use your company email (if you have one) because you can apply online and it's effective immediately.

One warning. AT&T (the people who have the brick and mortar stores) and AT&T Premier might as well be considered completely separate companies. If you buy a line of service from Premier and take it in to a store, you won't get any help. If you buy a plan at a store, that plan cannot be transferred to Premier, and in fact neither can your phone number.

My wife and I were "regular" AT&T for quite some years. We were AT&T before they were Cingular and stuck with them through the Cingular transaction and back to AT&T, went analog-to-GSM with them, the whole nine yards. Two years ago, I ordered a Premier phone for her and asked for her AT&T number (which was currently out of any contract obligations) to be ported to her net AT&T line.

The Premier rep recommended that we buy a line of service with Verizon for a month, port the number over to that, then on day 25 Premier could execute a number transfer to their division and we could go back to the Verizon store and return the phone under their then-existing 30 day "buyer's remorse" program. That was the ONLY way an AT&T Regular number could be transferred to AT&T Premier - through a wholly-separate phone company. Obviously, first that was more of a hassle than the phone number was worth, and second it was horribly unfair to Verizon even though we probably would have picked a refurbished dumbphone to keep their costs to a minimum.

My company offers two discounts.

1. If you go to an AT&T brick-and-mortar store with a paystub and an ID, you get 10% off certain things (services, some accessories, etc).
2. If you go to the Premier website, you get access to a separate and distinct selection of plans.

The two paths are completely separate. Choose wisely.

 

[jimmiekain]

This is going to be very tough I say that because my company discount is 20 percent and they waive the 34 dollar activation fee but that's only if I order from the online premier site I may go ahead and just try to get a iphone 5 on premier and sell it. I really wish I could just get the sim online from the premier site so I could get the activation waived.

I have no idea how to find out who my company at&t premier rep is. I'd really rather call and speak with someone.

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[natehoy]

This is going to be very tough I say that because my company discount is 20 percent and they waive the 34 dollar activation fee but that's only if I order from the online premier site I may go ahead and just try to get a iphone 5 on premier and sell it. I really wish I could just get the sim online from the premier site so I could get the activation waived.

I have no idea how to find out who my company at&t premier rep is. I'd really rather call and speak with someone.

My company has the contact number on our Intranet. But if you log in to your Premier account on the web, under "support" there is a "contact" section with a phone number to call. I don't know if that phone number differs from company to company, it's just listed as "National Business Services" on Premier.

 

[jimmiekain]

Just left the corporate at&t store in Brea, California.

They told me I would not have to agree to a contract and that I can use my discount as long as I bring my pay stubs or badge when I come to the store.

She also said they would provide a sim card free.

Funny thing is if I go to a different store I'm sure I'd get a totally different story.

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[natehoy]

Just left the corporate at&t store in Brea, California.

They told me I would not have to agree to a contract and that I can use my discount as long as I bring my pay stubs or badge when I come to the store.

She also said they would provide a sim card free.

Funny thing is if I go to a different store I'm sure I'd get a totally different story.

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Keep in mind that at the store he's talking about the non-Premier discount (flat percentage off service fee) and not the Premier (totally separate service plans) discount.

A discount is a discount and that's great, but just make sure you are talking about the same discount the rep was.

Even with discount, the percentage I get off on the non-Premier has a StraightTalk SIM dancing in parachute pants singing "I'm tellin' you homeboy... they can't touch this..."

$45 a month is a killer deal. The Premier plan I could get, great as it is, skirts very close to StraightTalk pricing. The discounted regular plans can't come close.

 

[jimmiekain]

@natehoy

Wow your job must have a pretty good relationship with them. When I log on to the premier site it shows the same plans as the normal site but with 20% off of rate plans.

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[enriquenarez]

I was able to do what you're doing by going to the store, creating a line of service and then adding the discount after. However, this does not allow you to waive the $36 activation fee.

 

[ColoradoSteve]

I think that advantage of the AT&T would be the roaming agreements with some of the rural partners...

 

[jimmiekain]

Just curious... Do any of you have the N4 on at&t?

If yes what has your experience been? I ask because I have been hearing about issues with super slow data.

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