An AT&T rep came to my door with a 'great' offer, so I played along

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me well that I have no love for unexpected guests, especially people trying to sell me stuff I don’t want or need. My welcome mat says “Welcome-ish” for a reason! Of course, I live in a town where occasionally I get door-to-door reps for various things. I usually just ignore them until they go away, but when someone with an AT&T logo on their shirt showed up at my door, I decided to answer it just to see how the experience would go.

One of my main areas of focus here at Android Authority is cellular service coverage, so I figured it would be nice to have a better idea of what people are up against anymore. And, oh boy, was this an experience.

I want to preface this by saying that there are legitimately great customer reps at AT&T and every big carrier, but door-to-door salespeople aren’t really employees in any real sense. Typically, companies like AT&T will hire agencies to handle door-to-door sales, who, in turn, use third-party contractors that rely on commission and have virtually no real loyalty to the company they are representing. Some reps likely take the job seriously and do an honest job, but there are plenty of cases out there to highlight how many people are willing to take advantage of this position if they think they can get away with it. Even AT&T Cyberware has official guidance on how to protect yourself from door-to-door scams.

Unfortunately, the door-to-door salesperson who visited my home was decisively in the second camp. The rep started by asking what my cellular service provider was. I considered my responses, but decided to say I was on Verizon, but I was considering leaving soon for prepaid service in order to save money. This is true, though what they don’t know is that I’ve already done very much done my research, but I wanted to see how the rep would respond. They also asked how many lines I needed, and I said four.

I swear, the rep’s face almost seemed to light up with my words as if to say, “We have a sucker here!” They immediately launched into a spiel about how, for a limited time, AT&T is offering Verizon switchers an amazing promotion that will give me a “free phone for every new line added.” Not only this, but with the holiday season in full swing, the rep said that they were even offering a “free Bluetooth speaker and watch” with this deal.

It was immediately clear that something was off

Considering I’m very familiar with AT&T’s current offers, I was immediately skeptical but kept a straight face. I did ask for more details about how this promotion would work. I was told I needed to sign up for four lines of AT&T unlimited service and that I’d get it for just “$30.99 a line”, which was a savings of “nearly $20 a line”. It also included a free AT&T Essentials Portable Wireless speaker (allegedly valued at $75) and a “free” Apple Watch SE. After some pressing, the rep did admit that you’d need to add a watch line and an installment plan, but that the “bill credits would kick in within about 3-6 months typically”.

All in all, I was told I’d need to spend around $500 outright to get this deal and that all my credits would then kick in “sometime in early 2026”. I told them this didn’t sound too bad (I was lying, as it was clear this was essentially a scam), but that I wanted more details.

Ultimately, it turned out they were giving me bogus numbers. The $500 fee would include 4 iPhone 16e devices, an Apple Watch SE for the main line, and a free speaker, which they claimed was a total value of “roughly $2,800” for only around “$500 in total”. The rep cautioned there would be a few extra charges on the first few bills as the system worked out the promo credits, but that it wouldn’t take long before the credits covered the extra charges. What I found harder to lock down was what plan they were offering, though it sounds like this was likely AT&T Value Plus XL, which normally costs $30.99 per line for four.

I eventually told them that the offer wasn’t for me and that I prefer to keep what I have. They were polite and left, so no problems there. Of course, if I had been less aware of how these reps work and actually signed up with this person? No doubt, I would have quickly been flooded with higher bills than promised. Even worse, in this situation, there’s no way for the carrier to verify what was promised or really do much about it in many cases.

I knew that things like this happened, but it certainly drives the point home when you see it in action. There are Reddit threads with stories similar to this one. It’s easy to say that everyone knows not to be swayed by door-to-door sales in the first place, but there are many people who are vulnerable to these tactics, and those are usually the ones that are most likely to be targeted in the first place.

The big takeaway is that you should always double-check anything you are promised before you agree, or, even better, deny them the opportunity to pitch to you in the first place. Likewise, if you know someone who is likely to be talked into something like this, it is better to say something about it before it happens to them.

Now the good news is that today’s prepaid services don’t have contracts, so you can usually back out of the deal even if you fall for it. That said, there are often limitations on how long you can go before you cancel, and even if you do, there are often fees involved, especially if you owe on existing device repayment plans. In the end, it’s important to watch out for suspicious offers and never agree to anything without a way to verify it first.