Am I going to be hit with a request for a deposit after ordering online...

What ended up happening in your case? The same exact thing happened to me and this is the second day of me waiting to go pick up the phones from the store. I went today to the store they said they didn’t see the order number yet on there computer which I received in the confirmation email and told me come back tomorrow it should go through by then or if I want to redo the process now I can get the phones at store. I did but it asked for this $200 deposit. Online it didn’t only service fees and taxes. I am going to wait another day or so because I am seeing everyone is saying it takes a lot longer then the same day pick up. I hope you can tell me what happened in your case. I’m not sure if to just go ahead and cancel and get the long wait process started of crediting bank my money to my debit card. Thank you

I got a phone promotion at Sam's Club where I buy one, get one free. I wanted to transfer my 4 lines from Cricket but ATT only allowed 2 lines per account upon initial opening. I proceeded to open 2 accounts under my name and my daughter's name. At the time the transaction was taking place at Sam's, they did a credit check and everything was fine, no mention of a deposit. The bill comes a few days later and I was charged $500 per line ($1,0000 TOTAL). When I called ATT, at first they couldn't tell what the charge was for, etc. A case/ticket was created to look into it. I paid my first bill on time without the $1000 as they were looking into it and I was told my accounts wouldn't be discounted because there was an active case about the $1000. HOWEVER, my account was discounted, BOTH accounts and couldn't reconnect until I paid $2000 for both accounts. ATT apparently stated the $1000 charge to each account was valid and was a deposit. I tried explaining I wasn't required to pay the deposits when I initially opened the lines and ATT proceeded in any event to open my lines. At the end of the day, I paid the $2000 which they said were to be returned in 12 months if I made timely payments. Then I decided to merge my accounts as it was cheaper. Again, because I waited after 3 months to do so, ATT had to do a credit check again. Again, it was determined that I DID NOT have to pay a deposit. Well, a couple days later I see my online account and ATT charged me $1000. I had asked 3 times making sure my credit was ok and that I was not going to get charged as I would not merge my accounts. They are liars and misrepresent their services. I will be calling today but I am so disappointed and if they insist on charging me, I'm disconnecting my lines, meaning I will owe a lot of money as all 4 phones are under an installment plan. But it also means I will be fighting them for a while. I will never recommend ATT to anyone. 

@griselt13 

How was it cheaper to merge your accounts?

When did you do this?

What ended up happening? I’m in the same boat. 

After a long phone call, they waived it. I was on the verge of a breakdown with them and they eventually waived the $1000 fee. Then, I was informed that my buy one, get one free promotion did not apply to me because I was a cricket customer and considered to be upgrading instead of a new customer because cricket and ATT are the same company. A whole bunch of b....s... because I have been having phone discussions with ATT as to why my bills credits were not happening and they were investigating why they did not automatically start but never was I told I didn't qualify. I merged accounts thinking my credits were going to start and maybe I wouldn't have merged accounts because upon merging, the first $1000 I paid on the account I closed upon merging was forfeited. At the end of the day I'll save about that much in a year but still ATT just keeps misrepresenting to customers. So now I have to go to Sam's to figure the promotion out and why they also misrepresented. Both companies just did me wrong and I'm going tomorrow to see if ATT decides to give me the credits. It's so stupid, I hate them. I never thought about researching ATT beforehand because I had never experienced this with verizon and sprint and you would think as such a big company, ATT would not be misrepresenting. Now I can't get out of the contract because I'll be paying a whole lot of more money for my 4 phones, which are $1000 each. If I manage to get my phone credits, I might be able to disconnect after a year. Then never am I going back. Although, I plan to go to Cricket, lol. At least they don't misrepresent even though they are the same company. I'm just livid. They still had the audacity to try to sign me up for DirecTV, they should give me directv free for a year or two after all this ordeal. 

@griselt13, the terms of the BOGO make it quite clear the changing from an AT&T prepaid brand to postpaid doesn’t qualify as a new line for the promotion. Since you placed the order online, you have no one to blame but yourself for not reading the terms of the BOGO 

@MicCheck 

It doesn't make it clear at all, it says something like:

>"Port-in of new line from eligible third-party carrier"

And there is no list of what is "eligible", they could easily list the ineligible carriers or provide a link to a list.  

Or if it's a link they provide a long list of eligible carriers and it's the customers job to make sure your carrier is on the list.

Sorry but this was no online order. It was in store and the representative should have informed me of this information. How am I suppose to know they are the same company. I'll eventually get to the bottom of it like I have with the deposit issue. ATT just misrepresents to current and future customers. 

@Gary L, it’s the “third party” part that makes it “clear.”

AT&T MVNOs aren’t third parties. 

Granted, it would be even more clear if it just listed them, but requiring a bit of research (the Wikipedia page for Cricket) makes it clear to a large degree.