AT&T - Deal or No Deal?

by Rajesh Setty on Wed 22 Nov 2006 11:02 AM EST

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I was looking at a new offer from AT&T called Nationwide Calling Online Select. Here are the terms of the deal (as I understand it)

You pay $15 for unlimited long distance calling within the US. Very important: THE DEAL IS AVAILABLE ONLY ONLINE. If you call the operator, they have a deal that is $20 a month but if you want $15 you have to sign up online.

So I thought I will give them a try. As I proceeded with the sign up process, they wanted to qualify whether I can get the deal (??) and when I gave my consent, they came up with a surprise! You have to buy the caller ID feature that is $6.17 per month in order to qualify for the above deal.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Many of my friends have a residential line only because their DSL service requires it. We have two cell phones at home and there is Skype and GizmoProject available for long-distance. If I signed up by calling them I would have paid $20 and if I sign up online, I pay $21.17. Of course, I get a new feature that I don’t need
I don’t know what AT&T was thinking when they were creating this offer for their customers. Sigh!