AT&T Wireless Online Ordering - Smooth but Not Recommended
Written: Jul 08 '04
| Ease of Ordering: |
 |
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
 |
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
|
|
|
| Full Review |
It was time for new phones. My husband spilled a can of soda on his phone. He says it was my fault because the air conditioner was too cold one night. Yes, there are at least 6 degrees of separation between those two events. So, as part of accepting the blame for ruining his phone I was tasked with doing the research on new phones and possibly a new carrier.
Doing the Research
The majority of our phones calls are back and forth to each other so I new I was looking for a plan that included unlimited minutes for users on the same plan. After looking over all of the carriers AT&T Wireless seemed to have the best deal.
Navigation and Ordering
Upon entering attwireless.com you are greeted with a banner showing their latest special. Currently AT&T Wireless is enticing new users by offering discounts through your employer. Since that would not apply for us I went to the box labeled “Get Stared Now.” From here you have four options for getting a new phone up and running: Start with Phones, Start with Plans, No Annual Contract Deals or Top Sellers. Since our top concern was getting a plan that matched our usage I started there.
The next page that pops up is split for new and existing AT&T Wireless customers. For new customers you are asked for your zip code and if you want to bring your number to AT&T Wireless. Existing customers are given the option of adding a phone on to an existing account or getting a new plan. Since our previous carrier was Verizon I entered my zip code and checked the box to transfer our phone numbers.
On the next page the plans are displayed. There is a tab for local and nationwide plans. The default is local so I clicked on the tab for nationwide plans. The plan selection process is quite simple. The first pull down menu asks how many phone will be using the plan, you can have up to 4 phones. Next you select either a one or two year contract. Below that is the list of plans you can select from. Each of the plans has a separate line and gives a basic description of the plan including base price, additional phone price and the total monthly charges. There is also information about the number of anytime minutes and the charge for additional minutes.
When you select the box next to each plan you get additional information and definitions of the terms. For the plan I chose we got unlimited national mobile-to-mobile minutes and unlimited nights and weekends in addition to our 450 anytime minutes. The online special when I ordered also included $50 to use toward phones and accessories.
I really liked the chart style layout from AT&T Wireless for a quick comparison of the 10 plans they offered. One of the reasons I decided to go with AT&T is because on one single page I was easily able to compare each plan. For further information you can click on “compare all plans” below the quick reference chart. You can click on a link to a map to see the AT&T Wireless service area. The nationwide map is small and difficult to read, even though there is a magnifying glass to enlarge small areas of the map. Even with the enlargement it can be difficult to determine exactly where there is service, although this was not a concern for me as the entire state of Connecticut was colored orange, but for most parts of the country service looks spotty.
Being satisfied with the plan I selected (and the 30 day risk-free trial) and the coverage area I added the plan to my cart so that I could continue on to select our phones. I was given a choice of 19 different phones that worked with our plan. Prices in bold are after any applicable instant rebates and range from free to $450 dollars. While free sounded like a nice idea I did a little reading about the phones in the less than $50 price range which narrowed my choices down to 9. Clicking on either the picture of the phone or the model number brings up the “highlights” of that particular phone. While nice I was more interested in the “specification” tab and the information about battery life. I ended up selecting 2 Nokia 3595IM phones at $19.99 each, although you can chose a different phone for each number. While they certainly do not have the most features they seemed to have the best battery performance, which was important for us.
On the main phone selection page you can choose from 2-6 phones to do a side by side comparison. I found this page to be most helpful as it included the features I was most interested in when selecting a phone such as battery life, size, weight and warranty.
As you progress thought the ordering process the left hand column of each page displays you shopping cart. This brief summary includes the plan and phone(s) you have selected. By clicking on “change” you can alter any individual selection at any time throughout the ordering process. However, if you change the plan after selecting phones you will need to pick the phones again since not all phones are compatible with all plans.
Checkout
Next you are brought to a summary page. There I noticed an area to add accessories on to my order. Since I has spent less than the $50 from the special offer I added a phone charge onto out order. I would have preferred being directed to another page to add accessories as opposed to having to find it on the summary page myself.
Once the order was correct I was ready to proceed to the checkout. Here I was asked for my contact information including name, shipping and billing address, phone number and e-mail address. If you have multiple phones in your order you are able to specify different shipping and billing address for each phone. For the credit history check you need to include your Social Security number and date of birth. AT&T Wireless is a VeriSign Secure Site for encrypting confidential information.
The next page is for payment information. This is both for any costs you may incur for phones and accessories over the $50 offer and to set up recurring credit card billing. This was almost a deal breaker for me since I did not want my credit card charged monthly. However at the bottom of the page this recurring billing is optional and you can opt out of it. For payments they do accept Master Card, Visa, Discover and American Express.
Selection
I felt that AT&T Wireless had a good selection of both phones and pricing plans. I think being able to select with either the plan or the phone as the primary criteria is a great feature. Since we use our phones as phones and not cameras, instant messaging or web browsing the exact phones were secondary to us. However if you use your phone as a mini office being able to select a phone first and then the plan may best fit your needs. I was disappointed that you can not everyone phone offered by AT&T Wireless can be used with any plan.
After the Order
With my order came free FedEx shipping. I ordered out phones on Saturday afternoon and the phones were at our house on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I was not, so FedEx left the slip on our door and I actually got the phones on Wednesday. Both phones, our accessories and the contract and plan information we shipped in a single box and everything arrived undamaged. We got exactly what I ordered and what I felt was in a timely manner. We had no problems with out phone number transfer and our phones were ready to go right out of the box.
Final Thoughts
I found the AT&T Wireless site to be well designed and easy to navigate. I am still not sure we are keeping the phones as the service map does not seem to match what are actually getting. The carrier listed on my phone switches as I drive through town. Since this plan requires that you be on the AT&T network for free mobile-to-mobile calls I am not getting what I expected.
So, even though the ordering process was smooth and we had no issues with number transfer I would not recommend ordering through this site if the actual service area is critical to your use. In fact I would be so bold as to caution against ordering phones and service from any online site without careful research into what you are getting. I plan on heading to our local mall where ever provider has a store or kiosk and I am going to find a plan that really has what I am looking for in a phone plan.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Nokia 3595IM phone and GSM America National $39.99 Plan
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
mmcphee
|
 in Books |
 - Top 50 |
|
Member: Mary Ellen
Location: Nutmeg State
Reviews written: 1136
Trusted by: 221 members
About Me:
Swine Flu has left the building!
|
|
|
View Information
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.