ATT Customer Service

I must say I have been recently impressed with the customer service ATT offered me over the past few days.  I have been debating early upgrading to the Captivate for a while now (I'm not due til April, my wife July).  

So I went to a local ATT store.  It turned out they were just an ATT "authorized retailer" and were not able to do anything for me- They quoted me $250 each for me and my wife to upgrade...and they could not change the eligibility dates. The kid was totally useless besides spilling out the proverbial "I'll have to talk to my manager about that" and "that's not ATT's charge- we can't do anything about it".  

So I called the service number and was directed to an actual ATT store down the road from them.  Totally different experience.  I explained what I wanted 1. move up my upgrade date; 2. no early upgrade charges;  3. keep my rate plan, and; 3. get the Captivate for the $49 Walmart price, not their $149 price.  After his normal sales pitch for other phones that will offer 4g capabilities...(which will not be available for 2-3 years anyway) he agreed to move my eligibility up, get rid of any upgrade charges, and match the Walmart price.   I got no hassle and no pressure.  

Once I told him that Verizon now offers better data plans, phones, and the Iphone for my wife he was totally agreeable to what Iwanted.  He is even taking away the $200 upgrade fee for my wife to get a newer Iphone.

Kudos to ATT this time around!!

UPDATE:

My wife and I went today to switch upgrade dates so she could get the IPhone 3gs.  After talkng with the ATT rep, I joked about selling back her old IPhone 3g for a discount on the 3gs.  The rep typed in her computer, looked up and offered my wife $112 for her old phone (she only paid $98 for it 2 years ago).  Needles to say she was able to upgrade to the 4 for less than what we expected to pay for the 3gs after all was said and done.  Now I wonder what they would give me for my impression in 3 months!!!-Radio Shack offered me $40 for it to upgrade with them...