I live in France and had to travel to the US last month for a family emergency. I purchased a phone and one month of prepaid service at an AT&T store (a corporate store, not an authorized retailer) and was told that after the one month I prepaid (I was only going to be in the US for a week) I would be able to unlock the phone and use it at home (in France). I made it clear to the salesman that I would be back home in Europe in a week and he repeated several times that there would be no problem unlocking it after the one month plus a possible waiting period of up to two weeks - that the phone belonged to me outright at the time of payment. There is a line on my invoice that says "COMMITMENT SAVINGS $0.00", which to me implies that the price I paid was the full price.

Once at home again I tried to unlock the phone through AT&T but I was told that I had to have prepaid 6 months of continuous service before I could unlock it. In other words, an extra 180$ and more than a 6-month wait in return for which I would get nothing, being in Europe and not able to access AT&T's network. I spoke to the Prepaid customer service supervisor and he confirmed this. He also seemed to take no responsibility for what the salesman had told me.

I am extremely disappointed with this state of affairs, especially since I had been advised by family to go to AT&T rather than a cheap phone store because I could trust AT&T. And indeed, one would assume that a company like AT&T would take care not to engage in such practices in the interest of their reputation. Apparently not...

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