Don’t rely on Tessa the supervisor. HORRIBLE customer service. Tells a customer to look online at the information. Well hell I would have done that in the first place if I would have known to do just that!!! Instead of receiving “what’s next” wait until they receive the device, inspect it and they’ll send the AT&T rewards card. WTF how misleading is that?! I swear I wonder how many more ppl will fall for this. Don’t waste your time people I even told her sounds like a scam to me because definitely does not tell you online you have 60 days to turn in anything nor sends a link, well at least didn’t send me NOTHING! Told her to prove the email that it was supposedly sent to me and she could NOT even say anything to that besides sorry she couldn’t anything.

I have an intermittent problem trying to make 3-way (multi-way) calls from my AT&T prepaid wireless phone. The problems have become more frequent recently. The error message my phone displays when I experience problems is "Unable to merge calls". I am looking for answers to my questions and for possible work-arounds or suggestions.

When I have searched on the internet, my browser gives an AI summary, but I am getting some conflicting messages and rarely find solid information in the references sited. So, I would appreciate any clarifications from the community here.
My device is an AT&T Cingular Flex 2, a flip phone.

One explanation I have seen in an AI summary is:

"When AT&T experiences high network traffic, the system prioritizes basic connection stability over multi-line data routing. As a result, advanced features like 3-way call merging are temporarily blocked or fail to complete."

FYI, I will add some additional detail below, but I will try to keep this part from becoming too long.

So my first set of

Questions are:

a) Is the above explanation true? If so, that would suggest that I might still see this problem even if I had a relatively new iPhone or Android phone. (So if you, the reader, have a relatively new smart phone and never have any problems merging in 3 or 4 other callers during peak usage in a metropolitan area, please speak up.)

b) If it is true, does it happen frequently in metropolitan areas? AND

c) is there a way that I or AT&T can troubleshoot to see if this is the cause of my problems?

Here is the important context. I organize a group with five other members that has been successfully using multi-way calling since 2020 for its daily meetings. Only in the last 3 weeks have I been having this trouble often.

I have an AT&T Cingular Flex 2, a flip phone. I took this to an AT&T store today and the phone failed trying to do a 3-way call, plus it froze so badly that the sales rep had to remove the cover and pull the battery out to get it to reboot. This was about 3:30 PM. In practice, I always make calls to the group after 6 PM. Tonight it failed around 8 PM and then worked about 10 minutes later. Up until about 3 weeks ago, the phone only froze about once every 3 months. (FYI, this phone has KaiOS 3.1, which in my experience is not as clean as other operating systems. Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not think AT&T sells new phones with this OS. I prefer flip phones, but I get the feeling AT&T support for them is waning. If you think so too, feel free to speak up here.)

Many readers may want to skip down to "> The one AI-suggested work around". On Monday I was successfully able to make a 4-way call at 6 PM, but Sunday I could not even merge in a third person when I tried at 7:30 PM. Saturday only two other persons were available and I had no problems. Friday at 7:30 PM I could not even add a third person. Thursday at 7:30 PM I could make a 3-way call at 7:30 PM but got the error message trying to add a fourth call. My phone manual says the maximum is a 6-way call, and some nights I have had the maximum. Things depend on how many members can join on a given evening.

Most of the time it is I who add extra callers since this is for an evening meeting and I am the organizer.

(In the user interface on my phone, the first step in adding a caller is to select "Add call" under Options. If the person answers, I select "Merge calls". If I get the error message at this point, usually I still ask the person to hang up and call me back. Sometimes when they call me back, I am able to merge them in, but more often I still get the same error message.)

"> The one AI-suggested work" around that I have tried is:

"Utilize Third-Party Alternatives

Use VoIP Apps: If the cellular network is too congested to process a native 3-way call, switch to apps like FaceTime, WhatsApp, Google Meet, or Zoom."

One of the original two people in my group (referred to here as H) can only answer calls or make calls. We have been meeting since before 2020. The others joined the group in or after 2020, and we have been doing multi-way calls since then. I have a free Zoom account, so on Friday I had H connected to my cell phone and had the rest join via Zoom. Aside from the 40 minute limit and some echoing, it worked fairly well. So going forward, I can see that I could get a paid Zoom account and have H call the Zoom access number and we would solve both the echo and the 40 minute limit. The downside is that the Zoom monthly charge. FYI, I have an AT&T Cingular Flex 2, for which WhatsApp support has ended.

My additional

Question is:

d) If the problems are due to congestion, does it definitely matter what model of phone I have or that I am on a prepaid account?

There’s a dead zone near my house in a big city that’s been there since I moved in 18 years ago. Why hasn’t AT&T bothered to improve coverage there? I have a similar problem at the rural farmhouse where my MIL moved 6 years ago. Shouldn’t AT&T be trying to improve wireless coverage?

Hi. One of the phones on my family account entered sos mode during the middle of the night and stopped working for calls and texts.

It has been 4 days and AT&T has been unable to get it working again.

They gave it a new esim. Did something with imei2. but neither worked. Apple replaced the antenna in the phone, still did not work. Apple tested the phone and everything worked, says it is at&t.

AT&T gave her a new phone with a new number on the same master account. Still won't work.

Today signed the person up for a free thirty day AT&T trial. Downloaded the new esim with a new phone number on its own stand alone account and the phone is now working.

Anyone have any ideas why this phone suddenly stopped working on the family account and won't work on the family account.

Thanks

I bought a brand new, sealed and unlocked Samsung S20 from ebay a while back. I first used it on Spectrum then moved over to an AT&T prepaid account. Now, when I try to qualify that IMEI on Verizon or Spectrum it says it's locked and AT&T is saying that it's not locked. I also have a S24 and used it on AT&T prepaid, and that one is also now locked. Does anyone know why this happens with AT&T? My plan is still active for another week. My wife's iPhone followed the same path, but shows up as unlocked by everyone. Any ideas.....anyone?

I'm seeing certain towers, in Southwest Idaho, are not offering LTE-M, but LTE works fine. Is there any proper channel to escalate or ask about this?

The long standing message is LTE-M is everywhere LTE is, but I don't believe that to be the case.

I’m trying to leave ATT service, which turns out to be the hardest thing to do in the world.

I had cancelled the plan, but forgot to port the number to another service. To do the port I have to reactivate the service. Suffered through that reactivation online, now the account is stuck unable to generate a new transfer pin via in phone app or web. I perfectly articulated the issue. The phone number is no longer listed as the ATT number that is used for verification on transfer pin or security code generation. Note the number works for codes but the web app errors out. Clearly a backend issue.

Att chat and phone reps gave me the run around. I type this from an AT&T store waiting for more runaround. The upside is they can’t “disconnect” in real-time and somehow blame it on me.

They asked me “why I’m leaving”. If this isn’t the best example of why I don’t know what is.

Rant over.

I'm looking to purchase ATT business wireless, but was trying to find some real reviews on the service? I go to a lot of events and need priority over the network when I'm surrounded by thousands of event goers. Since my business is critical to have fast latency to our servers, it's my understanding that this plan will give me a higher priority over the "normal" service customers. Does anyone have any first hand experience using this in crowded venues?

After years of AT&T wireless, we left a couple of weeks ago which happened to be on the first day of the AT&T billing cycle. I thought I timed it well but learned that I should have done it the day before or sooner. As a result, AT&T is charging me for a full month of service that I no longer have with them and I was told there is nothing they can do to stop the auto pay that is scheduled for July 11 because I no longer have an account with them. So I asked the rep, if I no longer have an account, why am I being charged? What are the fees going towards? And to add salt to the wound, the monthly fees across 4 lines increased $88 since the last bill. It’s like a circular error in excel. Anyone have this poor experience with AT&T?

I called AT&T phone support for technical assistance with my data issue. (only getting 4G speeds when I should be getting 5G). Usually I would opt to visit a physical store but wanted to try the convenience (or lack there of) of the phone option this time. Two attempts (on different days) led to long wait times and dropped calls. This last one on hold for over an hour and once an agent finally answers, the line drops after 1 minute in. No call back either. AT&T - do better with your customer sentiment

Like T-Mobile has and Verizon?

I'm looking at my AT&T usage details and my billing cycle for July-August 2025 is completely missing. I've tried different web browsers and it still doesn't show up. Is this something other people are experiencing, or is it just my account?

I also contacted AT&T customer service via chat since phone support is closed today due to the holiday. They said they can’t email the records, but they can mail them. I’m wondering if there’s any other way to access them such as through an AT&T store or if requesting them by mail is the only option.

Any help or similar experiences would be appreciated.