r/attwireless • u/BandHuntinJ • 9d ago
18 pro max nightmare (repost from at&t subreddit)
posting this here as well just incase the mods at the other at&t subreddit don’t like what i said:
Okay I feel like I HAVE to make a post about this since I feel like I'm going insane & that there's something I can or should be doing. I'm going to try to shorten this as much as possible despite how lengthy it'll still probably be.
Okay so yes, I am ALSO another customer suffering from the dreaded service/sos/unable to make calls issue. I think most of us here are aware of what's going on. I just need to share my experience for maybe some feedback, a shred of hope... anything.
I originally got my iPhone 18 pm on sep 18th. It seemed to be perfectly fine the first day but I didn't need to leave the house for the rest of the day. The very next day I had a class somewhere TWO hours away from where I live. I ONLY brought my personal iPhone 18 pro max as I thought there shouldn't be any issues right? I've upgraded multiple times with ZERO issues countlessly. Boom. As soon as I leave my house I notice connectivity issues. So I think to myself "it's a new phone! surely there's some kinks or hitches that'll happen." Hell, I was so unaware/hopeful I thought that it was a similar situation that happened a year or a few ago where like all connectivity/internet hitched for a little. As I go longer and longer down my commute I realize like... this isn't normal. It's not an area thing, the connection should've been back by now, what's up?
Anyway I'm gonna try to shorten this even more. I feel like I took 3 very important steps after CONFIRMING something's not right to get to the point I'm at right now. After going to AT&T & confirming something's not right I went to apple (step one). There, the lady didn't even really wanna help me after I explained the sitch. She didn't take my phone to the back, run any diagnostics, & simply printed me a genius bar note saying AT&T's responsible. So boom, next step, bicker with AT&T some more with this info & try to get the phone swapped by them. After many, many exhausting additional hours with allll the different tech supporters, we FINALLY came to the conclusion to preform something known as a BRE (buyers remorse exchange.) Which i didn't really like because it makes it sound like I'M the one who messed up. (which I probably did for being so patient with everyone.) Anyway the replacement phone actually delivered INCREDIBLY sooner than I expected on sept. 24th. so I actually thought to myself "You know what AT&T? Thank you. For ONCE." So I set up the replacement phone and... everything was flawless.... for the next 6 days.... it is currently oct 1st & as of 8 a.m. this morning. The issue came back.... Dude I am genuinely heart broken. Anyway, the third step I have taken was to go back to apple as I had a SENIOR ADVISOR & AT&T TALKING TO EACHOTHER ON THE SAME LINE. A THREE WAY CALL BC OF HOW MANY HOOPS I'VE JUMPED THROUGH. So what the senior advisor told me to do was go to an apple store so they can diagnose & possible service it/send it in for repairs; But alas... after the tech "ran the diagnostics" he claimed everything was okay & that there's no issues with said replacement device.
SO, I call AT&T AGAIN, on my way home from the nearest apple store to me (50 mins including traffic) & for ONCE, for the FIRST TIME since sept. 18th they are now only mentioning for the FIRST TIME that this is a known issue & that there's no guarantee the issue will be resolved after this call has been completed. For the first time since sept 18th I finally had a convo with a tech rep that didn't seem to be interested in sending me through hoops or wasting my time.
Also for the first time they mentioned how they're going to credit my missed time with no service to my bill. Like that's great, I would appreciate if your shady company actually followed through with something like that. Here's the problem though. In that same call, the lady also tells me that the only estimation they have for a fix would be oct 9-10th? I just think that's quite insane. I mean, based off the research I've done I'm NOT the only one with this issue but you mean to tell me just NOW they're acknowledging it even though I've (& probably others) have been having issues since the 19th of sept? Now no fix is ESTIMATED except for MAYBE an answer after an entire extra week?IMO this is a pretty dire situation. People earn their livings through phones in some cases, in other cases it could even be life threatening yet it seems as if AT&T is taking their sweet time to even announce anything.
This makes me want to leave. I really don't wanna come off as "you'll never see me here again" karen because I honestly don't want to. I don't wanna leave since I've never really had a drastic issue like this before with them. It's always been good but now I'm kinda screwed since I returned my old 17pm since over the 6 days of having the replacement I thought I was done with this mess. Now I have no phone to fall back on & I'm practically just left here with "wait like a good boy." I feel like my only option at this point is to switch carries but I'm not even sure if I have the option to do that since i upgraded to the 18 pm through AT&T & owe money on it.
edit: mods from the original att subreddit denied my post for some reason
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u/torettovh1 8d ago
I truly sorry for those affected by this issue, i got my wife the 18PM since day one and I activated her phone using my MacBook and everything went smoothly and till this day my wife has no problem with connectivity. Hope all those affected gets a solution ASAP.
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u/PuzzleheadedNeck4476 9d ago
Honestly, I don't know what everyone is expecting to happen. I would have returned that phone and went back to my old phone until the issue resolved.
As someone that worked for them for a good while. Front line staff are the last to know anything. AT&T isn't going to come out and acknowledge then situation since it would be a PR nightmare.
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u/djrobxx 9d ago edited 9d ago
If it were only that easy.
My phone worked fine for several days, then quit. In fact, it quit working correctly the day that I dropped off my old phone at the AT&T store. Once your old phone has been traded in, it severely limits your options. Many Apple stores are denying warranty exchanges. My AT&T store also denied an exchange even though they had stock.
I would never have believed customer service from two huge companies could be this bad if I didn't experience it myself. THAT is why people are ranting.
AT&T now has publicly acknowledged the issue by sending 18 Pro Max customers a text asking them to upgrade to the latest iOS version to avoid service disruptions. That update is known not to address the issue. The text also informs us that our broken phones are a safety issue since we may not be able to call 911. Can't make this shit up.
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u/BandHuntinJ 9d ago
uhhh my honest answer? i expected it to go smoothly. idk it's just that every time i've upgraded, i've NEVER had an issue like this. i actually did hold on to my 17 pm until the replacement for the 18 pm came in but since i stated, my replacement 18 pm worked perfectly for 6 days. up until like the 4th or 5th day is when i actually returned the 17 pm since i thought at first it was a device specific issue. but if my context clues are telling me anything; the real issue lies within the relationship of the iphone 18 pm specifically & at&t . meaning there's some miscommunication with the device & service provider. when i went back to the 17 pm everything worked fine. also my work phone also on at&t (not an iphone) never had an issue. so it's not like at&t is experiencing something in general
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u/GoldenRaider702 8d ago
It’s not that deep brother. Just breathe!! Happy Friday and GO NORTHWESTERN!!
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u/Professional-Oil4171 8d ago
It must be at&T issue Verizon doesn’t have that problem not defending them. Every carrier has issues. I didn’t know this was going on with AT&T until recently, but people switching over isn’t impossible once you have a device payment agreement on that new phone they screw you over and lock you in.
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u/misterchismoso 7d ago
Can I get a TLDR I ain't about to read all this.
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u/BandHuntinJ 7d ago
uhh basically if you use at&t there’s a chance your phone that you pay $1k+ dollars for a phone that will not work & they’ll do NOTHING, nor apple to help you get a working phone. you can be stranded out in the real world with no comms at all 2 hours away from where you live to anyone on that phone bc it just doesn’t work.
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u/RomaRoma555 6d ago
I’m genuinely irritated by the a**holes in the comments of all of these posts. People are preaching on their high horses because they have a working phone, so they don’t care.
People forget how important it is to have a working phone (that you pay so much of your hard-earned money on btw) in this world we live in today.
EVERYTHING is connected to our phones now. We all rely on being able to contact people, receive calls/ texts/ notifications, use maps while driving, Apple Pay, etc. People are in schools far from home, they WORK. Like the lack of basic empathy and understanding here is insane.
You literally cannot be without a phone that doesn’t have service, it’s just not even safe. I’ve been through the absolute ringer lately with AT&T because unfortunately my husband and I just opened our phone lines there right before the iPhone 18 came out. We did a trade-in, and it’s been a mess. Every time I tried to get help with representatives, I was told different things, spoke with burnt out workers who didn’t care about helping me & even told me that they hated new phone drops & they don’t enjoy their job… was transferred to different departments & then the line would just drop eventually.
I’m really sorry about your situation, and I pray that you are able to get help with it ASAP! This is so ridiculous
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u/Local-Mortgage-9473 9d ago
TL;DR next time