Originally Posted by
gfunkdave
Yeah, the authorized resellers are akin to going to a market stall in Shanghai and expecting not to have to bargain.
Easiest way to find a corporate store is to go to
www.att.com, click Wireless, then click Find A Store at the top. Corporate stores usually show as "AT&T" or "ATT", which authorized resellers are labeled "AT&T Authorized Reseller".
Yesterday I went to a corporate store (Fulton Mall in Brooklyn) and everyone from salesman to assistant manager to the store manager insisted that the nationwide policy was to charge $25 for SIM cards. They would not budge. They did let me use their phone to call AT&T's toll-free hotline; the operator there offered to send me a SIM for $6, but it wouldn't arrive for 3 days.
So I walked a few blocks to the Montague store, and they rang me up with a free SIM card without any discussion.
I took the receipt (showing $0.00 for the SIM card line item) back and showed it to the manager at the Fulton store and he was quite condescending about it: "Good for you!"
So it appears that simply going to a corporate store isn't enough to avoid the SIM issuance charge; you may have to try several. I'm not sure why AT&T would authorize its staff to discourage people from signing up by adding that ridiculous charge.