***Edit*** Perhaps a moderator could move this to General Discussion for me. I guess it shouldn't have gone in to the iPhone forum but the iPhone General Discussion. ...Thanks.
I just left an on line chat with an AT&T representative. Long story short, my wife who wasn't much of a phone person is getting sucked in to the fold. My wife is using my old 3GS and has been since I upgraded to the 4S. Her friends are starting to text message her and she doesn't have a message plan so this is costing us about $8 or so dollars a month (which I'm sure will only go up over time). Neither of us are very big text messager people but we seem to be being forced in to use by our friends and family who seem to only want to SMS (I only have a 200 message plan for $5 per month). Well, we finally decided that we should add a lite messaging plan to her phone like mine. Guess what? There are no more lite messaging plans. AT&T used to have three message plans that I recall. a 200, a 1,000 and an unlimited. Now they offer only unlimited for $20.00 per line and Unlimited family messaging a shared $30.00 per account group. We qualify for this since we are on a family talk plan but why should I be forced to pay $30.00 for a service that I won't get value from. I think my wife sent/received a total of 30 messages last month.
I also just noted on line that my wifes data plan is gone as well (200MB iPhone data plan for $15.00/month) If we ever accidentally changed plans we would be forced to move up to a 300MB plan for $20.00/month) much the same fear I have about my grandfathered "unlimited" data plan (which we all know is really only good for 3GB). Why the fuss you ask? I mean it is 50% more data for only $5.00 per month right? Well, my wife used 24MB of data last month. Why would I want to pay any more for additional data that we would never use.
Sorry for the rant. I just hate the fact that we are all being punished for the data hogs of the world. I've never had a problem with my phones or with AT&T's service in the past but the more I see and the more I read about how they are handling things and moving forward makes me want to find a new carrier that is less focused on fees and restrictions.
I just left an on line chat with an AT&T representative. Long story short, my wife who wasn't much of a phone person is getting sucked in to the fold. My wife is using my old 3GS and has been since I upgraded to the 4S. Her friends are starting to text message her and she doesn't have a message plan so this is costing us about $8 or so dollars a month (which I'm sure will only go up over time). Neither of us are very big text messager people but we seem to be being forced in to use by our friends and family who seem to only want to SMS (I only have a 200 message plan for $5 per month). Well, we finally decided that we should add a lite messaging plan to her phone like mine. Guess what? There are no more lite messaging plans. AT&T used to have three message plans that I recall. a 200, a 1,000 and an unlimited. Now they offer only unlimited for $20.00 per line and Unlimited family messaging a shared $30.00 per account group. We qualify for this since we are on a family talk plan but why should I be forced to pay $30.00 for a service that I won't get value from. I think my wife sent/received a total of 30 messages last month.
I also just noted on line that my wifes data plan is gone as well (200MB iPhone data plan for $15.00/month) If we ever accidentally changed plans we would be forced to move up to a 300MB plan for $20.00/month) much the same fear I have about my grandfathered "unlimited" data plan (which we all know is really only good for 3GB). Why the fuss you ask? I mean it is 50% more data for only $5.00 per month right? Well, my wife used 24MB of data last month. Why would I want to pay any more for additional data that we would never use.
Sorry for the rant. I just hate the fact that we are all being punished for the data hogs of the world. I've never had a problem with my phones or with AT&T's service in the past but the more I see and the more I read about how they are handling things and moving forward makes me want to find a new carrier that is less focused on fees and restrictions.
