On iPad2 day, I happily contacted AT&T and told them that I would like to activate post-paid 3G data service on my new purchase.  Nearly an hour later, I finally got it done.  I assumed that since post-paid accounts were new to AT&T that there certainly could be a few bugs in the system.  I […]
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Beware When Cancelling iPad Post-Paid AT&T Service On The Phone

Jul 2nd 2011 by

On iPad2 day, I happily contacted AT&T and told them that I would like to activate post-paid 3G data service on my new purchase. 

Nearly an hour later, I finally got it done.  I assumed that since post-paid accounts were new to AT&T that there certainly could be a few bugs in the system.  I chalked it up to experience (on both sides), and forgot about it.

This week, I cancelled that service.

I picked up a 4G LTE hotspot on Verizon and decided that I really didn’t need the post-paid plan anymore.   If ever I am stuck without the hotspot, I can always sign on for a month of 3G if needed.    So I called AT&T to cancel the service; and this time it was a quick and painless experience.   Wow, I thought, they have their act together finally. 

Not so much.

Just after midnight last night, I suddenly lost ALL 3G service on the iPad completely.   After resetting the iPad a few times (just in case, as I am running iOS 5.0 Beta, which does have a few bugs), I concluded that it was too much of a coincidence – they had to have mucked *something* up.   So this morning, I paid a visit to the local AT&T Store, which quickly concluded that when the service was cancelled that the SIM card was flagged as inactive, meaning that all 3G data was suspended.   In other words, I couldn’t even sign up for a monthly 3G plan unless I was on WiFi.

Fortunately, they gave me a new SIM at no charge and that fixed things up immediately. 

From now on, I will always go to the AT&T Store instead of calling them.  Much better customer service and much more knowledgeable folks there.

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