AT&T has gotten more new business & contracts because of Apple and iPhone than they ever would have for any other reason. The upgrade surcharge is pure screw-the-customer gravy for them. There's no way a new 3G (sans S) costs more than $200 to manufacture - and we've paid back R&D and marketing and then some by now.
AT&T is still pure SUCK and as soon as I can jump back to a decent carrier I will gladly pay an early termination fee to do so. It'll be refreshing to hate Verizon for a change.
All you AT&T apologists...you have my sympathies. You are apparently the ones who will buy anything.
I want a thorough investigation. People who have had another smart phone with another carrier- say a BlackBerry on Verizon-- for less than two years, go on over to the Verizon store and demand new customer pricing.
+1
Can any of you whiners tell us of your previous experiences in getting your phone upgraded one year into a two year contract ... and not paying extra for the privilege?
Craigslist should be flooded with iphone 3g's soon lol
>A used iPhone may be stolen. AT&T will active an iPhone that has been reported stolen and upon request inform the actual iPhone owner the area of the country that the stolen iPhone is being used, but won't notify the user or provide information on the user. AT&T apparently doesn't want to offend that stolen iPhone user with a communication informing of the situation and asking them to respond or deliver the iPhone to AT$T, even though they can see that the user of the stolen iPhone has had several phones in a short period of time. So it's a police matter. Only buy a used iPhone from someone you know or risk the police showing up at your door.
And the terms are the same as when I bought it - I can return it for a full refund and the contract extension will not be enforced as long as I don not open it and return it within 14 days. Is that too whiny for you??
No. Posting it on a message board as if you're some hero standing up to the big bad machine is though.
Can any of you whiners tell us of your previous experiences in getting your phone upgraded one year into a two year contract ... and not paying extra for the privilege?
1st off: We are not whiners. You perceive us to be that because you are unloving and/or stupid person. (Or do you not like when people call you names?)
and
2)Verizon let me upgrade without any penalty 3 times in 2.9 years. I did have to pay for the new equipment, which was not the retail price but the cheaper price (they only showed two prices - not three like AT&T), and each time I had to extend my contract by 1 year. Plus activiation fees. These were not smart phones.
I left Verizon for AT&T and had to pay a prorated ETF of something like $110 dollars.
The good news is 3 extra months getting The cheap upgrade rate.
and they finally confirmed MMS and will confirm with more details about the tethering issue .
I did not see any price yet for tethering except you may need a data card usb device or something like that. O thatS right there is a charge for tethering. Sorry my mistake. I will now down grade the news from GLOSSY to GOOD
Good luck with your iphone dude
9
But but I prefer Eight, at least that's what my GF said .. god lying bit... wait where was i, Oh yes, sorry I just didn't see any GREAT news in the video, granted the fact that they aren't deciding to charge more for MMS is actually a really good thing, I was expecting some whole different pricing plan for that, so I will give you that. The tethering, well I'm sure someone will come out with a way to do that (even though for me personality it isn't something I foresee using right at this moment in time).
And I do agree that people need to stop whining about the 3 month window, and if it was a 4 month window then people that are 5 months out would whine and so on and so on and so on.
I am told that customers that have a plan on a single line $99 and over, and are within July, August, September purchase date 2008 are eligible to purchase a new phone at the 199, 299 price. That i wouldnt see my eligibility until tomorrow the 18th.
"AT&T drops iPhone 3G S prices for early iPhone 3G adopters ... who spend a lot of money... and have therefore covered the friggin' cost of their 3G iPhone"
No, that isn't the case. If someone's eligibility date is in September of this year, that is when they will have paid off the subsidy on their iPhone 3G. Not now. Yet they are allowed to upgrade now, a full 3 months before their upgrade-eligibility date.
Before this announcement, I was happy to honor the terms of my contract and wait 'til after January. I was definitely in the "Suck it up and stop whining" crowd.
Now this brings up the interesting possibility that the person who bought their iPhone 3G right after me could be eligible to get a 3G S a full 6 1/2 months before I am, just because they spend a little more money a month on their bill and pushed their upgrade-eligibility date up by a few months compared to mine.
At that point the issue stops being about entitlement and 'whining' and more about preferential treatment. I can see letting people whose upgrade-eligibility dates were in July (i.e., early adopters, high-paying customers with the minimum 12-month wait 'til their upgrade-eligibility date) do it early, but not the August and September ones.
Once everyone gets out of their mind that there is some amount that you are paying down, you'll finally start to understand how this works.
ATT has a product (that they buy from Apple) that they sell to you for a price. If you agree to the terms (the contract) then you will get an upgraded phone with a new subsidy if and only if ATT wants to give it to you. While the rule of thumb is that the more you pay, the sooner they are willing to give you a new subsidized phone, there is no hard rule to it. And because this is capitalism, you are not forced to buy it and they are not forced to sell it to you. If the price is too high, you don't buy. But there is no paying off of the subsidy. Your monthly payment does not go to pay anything off except for the invoice that you owe for that month.
I spent a bit of time talking to the local AT&T manager who fully understands my ire. There were special circumstances surrounding my purchase of iPhone 2.0 that he was fully aware of as he was the one who helped me with working through the issues originally and we've become friends. He would have helped me adjust the rate if he could, I truly believe, but as a local manager he has absolutely NO leeway in adjusting the date. His suggestion was to call up AT&T Customer Service, explain the circumstances and how upset I am - not that she could do anything, but he believes the more people complain, the more AT&T is likely to adjust the policy.
The customer service representative was not well informed (prior to our call), but she said people had been complaining in great numbers. She said the information does get passed up to higher management, so my advice to everyone out there is call and complain!
Why all the bitching? Isn't this what everyone wanted? If you were an early adopter you get the new 3GS for the same price as if you had not had a contract, right?
Why all the bitching? Isn't this what everyone wanted? If you were an early adopter you get the new 3GS for the same price as if you had not had a contract, right?
Not for everyone. I'd say only for a minority of them. You probably need to read the article to the end.
How does this work for the family plan? If a family has 3 iphones and pays say $175 can they all upgrade or can only one upgrade, would the bill need to be over $300 for all to qualify?
Comments
AT&T is still pure SUCK and as soon as I can jump back to a decent carrier I will gladly pay an early termination fee to do so. It'll be refreshing to hate Verizon for a change.
All you AT&T apologists...you have my sympathies. You are apparently the ones who will buy anything.
I want a thorough investigation. People who have had another smart phone with another carrier- say a BlackBerry on Verizon-- for less than two years, go on over to the Verizon store and demand new customer pricing.
+1
Can any of you whiners tell us of your previous experiences in getting your phone upgraded one year into a two year contract ... and not paying extra for the privilege?
Craigslist should be flooded with iphone 3g's soon lol
>A used iPhone may be stolen. AT&T will active an iPhone that has been reported stolen and upon request inform the actual iPhone owner the area of the country that the stolen iPhone is being used, but won't notify the user or provide information on the user. AT&T apparently doesn't want to offend that stolen iPhone user with a communication informing of the situation and asking them to respond or deliver the iPhone to AT$T, even though they can see that the user of the stolen iPhone has had several phones in a short period of time. So it's a police matter. Only buy a used iPhone from someone you know or risk the police showing up at your door.
na na na na
hey hey hey
goodbye
na na na na ....
For some people it did.
And the terms are the same as when I bought it - I can return it for a full refund and the contract extension will not be enforced as long as I don not open it and return it within 14 days. Is that too whiny for you??
No. Posting it on a message board as if you're some hero standing up to the big bad machine is though.
+1
Can any of you whiners tell us of your previous experiences in getting your phone upgraded one year into a two year contract ... and not paying extra for the privilege?
1st off: We are not whiners. You perceive us to be that because you are unloving and/or stupid person. (Or do you not like when people call you names?)
and
2)Verizon let me upgrade without any penalty 3 times in 2.9 years. I did have to pay for the new equipment, which was not the retail price but the cheaper price (they only showed two prices - not three like AT&T), and each time I had to extend my contract by 1 year. Plus activiation fees. These were not smart phones.
I left Verizon for AT&T and had to pay a prorated ETF of something like $110 dollars.
No. Posting it on a message board as if you're some hero standing up to the big bad machine is though.
Sorry your perceptions and my intentions were different.
Let me apologize to your daughters Willow and Bristol, to you, and to your husband Todd. It will do better next post.
ITS 8+1
The good news is 3 extra months getting The cheap upgrade rate.
and they finally confirmed MMS and will confirm with more details about the tethering issue .
I did not see any price yet for tethering except you may need a data card usb device or something like that. O thatS right there is a charge for tethering. Sorry my mistake. I will now down grade the news from GLOSSY to GOOD
Good luck with your iphone dude
9
But but I prefer Eight, at least that's what my GF said .. god lying bit... wait where was i, Oh yes, sorry I just didn't see any GREAT news in the video, granted the fact that they aren't deciding to charge more for MMS is actually a really good thing, I was expecting some whole different pricing plan for that, so I will give you that. The tethering, well I'm sure someone will come out with a way to do that (even though for me personality it isn't something I foresee using right at this moment in time).
And I do agree that people need to stop whining about the 3 month window, and if it was a 4 month window then people that are 5 months out would whine and so on and so on and so on.
The actual title should read:
"AT&T drops iPhone 3G S prices for early iPhone 3G adopters ... who spend a lot of money... and have therefore covered the friggin' cost of their 3G iPhone"
No, that isn't the case. If someone's eligibility date is in September of this year, that is when they will have paid off the subsidy on their iPhone 3G. Not now. Yet they are allowed to upgrade now, a full 3 months before their upgrade-eligibility date.
Before this announcement, I was happy to honor the terms of my contract and wait 'til after January. I was definitely in the "Suck it up and stop whining" crowd.
Now this brings up the interesting possibility that the person who bought their iPhone 3G right after me could be eligible to get a 3G S a full 6 1/2 months before I am, just because they spend a little more money a month on their bill and pushed their upgrade-eligibility date up by a few months compared to mine.
At that point the issue stops being about entitlement and 'whining' and more about preferential treatment. I can see letting people whose upgrade-eligibility dates were in July (i.e., early adopters, high-paying customers with the minimum 12-month wait 'til their upgrade-eligibility date) do it early, but not the August and September ones.
Yours!
this topic needs a theme song
na na na na
hey hey hey
goodbye
na na na na ....
You broke the code!
ATT has a product (that they buy from Apple) that they sell to you for a price. If you agree to the terms (the contract) then you will get an upgraded phone with a new subsidy if and only if ATT wants to give it to you. While the rule of thumb is that the more you pay, the sooner they are willing to give you a new subsidized phone, there is no hard rule to it. And because this is capitalism, you are not forced to buy it and they are not forced to sell it to you. If the price is too high, you don't buy. But there is no paying off of the subsidy. Your monthly payment does not go to pay anything off except for the invoice that you owe for that month.
I very much appreciate AT&T doing this after I had already agreed to pay the higher amount. Heck, now I wish I had gotten the 32gb instead!
same here!
The customer service representative was not well informed (prior to our call), but she said people had been complaining in great numbers. She said the information does get passed up to higher management, so my advice to everyone out there is call and complain!
Why all the bitching? Isn't this what everyone wanted? If you were an early adopter you get the new 3GS for the same price as if you had not had a contract, right?
Not for everyone. I'd say only for a minority of them. You probably need to read the article to the end.
Not for everyone. I'd say only for a minority of them. You probably need to read the article to the end.
for those who bought it in July, August or September of last year get the upgrade pricing- sounds good to me- what's the problem?
for those who bought it in July, August or September of last year get the upgrade pricing- sounds good to me- what's the problem?
only for those paying over $100 per month, which I would be doing if I had tethering last year...doh!
oh well, IPhone 3g with 3.0 is great so I am in no rush to upgrade