A few months ago, I celebrated my one year anniversary at my new job. When I first joined my company, I was shocked that employees needed to pay for their own cell phone service. At my previous jobs, the companies paid for my cellphone because I was on call. Although I am well compensated, this is one benefit I sorely missed.
I recently learned that my company has AT&T cell phone discounts. Why didn’t anyone tell me when I first joined one year ago? I guess I never got the memo, but I quickly called AT&T to rectify the situation. They sent me a text from AT&T Business Direct Premier and some instructions on how to enroll for the employee discount. I entered my work email into the text link and AT&T sent me an email confirmation. I clicked Start to continue. Unfortunately, the link displayed the wrong company name. The operator warned me that it would take three months to process. If I proceeded with the wrong company name, it may delay the process even longer.
I decided to go another angle and contacted my HR department for assistance. They told me to go to the AT&T store and give them my employee AT&T discount code. After a very painful one-hour wait, I got my employee discount number entered into the system. To verify my current employment, I needed to provide a paystub or a company ID. Thankfully I had my company ID in my car. Going forward, I will now save 25% a month on my cell phone bill and any new wireless accessories.
Final Thoughts
I was shocked that no one told me about the company cell phone discount. I was also irritated and embarrassed that I was paying full price for my cell phone plan for an entire year. After resolving things at the AT&T store, I realized no one was responsible for the situation but myself. When I first got the job, rather than wallow in the pain of paying for my cell phone bill, I should’ve proactively looked into employee discount plans. Going forward instead of wallowing in self-pity at any dire life situation, I need to quickly shake off the shock and look for possible ways to improve it. Right off the bat, I should’ve discussed things with HR. Old habits die hard, because I waited for things to fall into my lap. As we all know, nothing good ever comes from that. Just take a look at my last year’s cell phone bill.
Update: I spoke to AT&T again and they reversed three months as a courtesy. Never hurts to ask right?
Stay Inspired!
Buck
This is not unusual! When I worked for a Fortune 100 company, they gave me a 100 page booklet of benefits and it took a while to get through it. The were always other benefits that were added and not published until a year later. As a teacher with a major employer, I get a similar discount. I only found out by asking questions. Funny how an educational institution is such a poor communicator!
Thanks for shedding some light KC! I thought my case was an isolated incident!
Though not working now, I’m always finding ways I could trim dollars off of things I’m paying. Discounts are everywhere if we look hard enough–but that’s the point: Finding the discounts and instituting them can be a lot of work and hassle.
I’m beginning to see there’s no free lunch out there. You really do work for your discount!
I’ve worked at one of my jobs for over 6 years, and I still don’t have a handle on the entire spread of discounts/deals available to us. I recently learned we get a Verizon discount and had that applied ASAP!
Nice catch! Guess it’s a lesson for employees to do their due diligence on all benefits. No one is going to serve it to you on a silver platter!
It looks like that we are getting exclusive Savings on AT&T Wireless Phones and Services. It is extending additional savings to meet the customer requirements.