Radio Shack slashes iPhone prices by $50, offering iPhone 4 for $25 with 3GS trade-in

124»

Comments

  • Reply 61 of 79
    Just wasted about 2 hours with Radio Slack. I've got two iPhones I wanted to upgrade to iP4 32 Gbs. I checked with my closest Radio Slack and discovered that they are independently owned and don't get any iPhones. Then I checked 3 corporately owned RSs and they didn't have any 32 GB in stock. An employee at the 3rd location gave me the number for their regional office. His store didn't have any and he checked the stock at all of the stores in his district. Not one 32 Gb. Not to worry he said. I can order it from the store and our "Direct to you" program will send it straight to your house...but if you want the trade in, I have to do that at the time of sale so you'll be several days without phones.



    We'll I got smart and checked eBay and saw that used 3Gs were selling for much more than $75 so I said okay, I'll sell them myself and called him back to buy the phones for just the $50 discount. "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't make the sale over the phone, you'll have to come in (this so HE can order them...)"



    Anyway, dropped the Christmas decorating and cruised into the store. When I got there, he wasn't there so I had to wait. When he finally came back in, we discussed options and he told me that his district included from the VA/NC border and Norfolk to Williamsburg, but did not include Virginia Beach (which for me is about as far as Norfolk). I asked if he had checked the Virginia Beach district. "Oh, I can't see their stock. Corporate makes us compete against each other" So I asked "Could you call and see if any of them have the 32Gb)" He did and, again, no luck. So then we tried to do the "Direct to you" purchase. He was clueless so he called around looking for help. Everyone was clueless about direct to you. When finally got into the system he discovered...you guessed it...Zero stock of 32 Gb. At that point, having my long standing impression of Radio Slack reconfirmed, I gave up and ordered the phones from Apple. Totally painless, upgrade fee waived, phones in stock and will be shipped to my house by Tuesday. Granted I didn't get the $50 discount, but originally I was going to trade my phones in and would have ultimately gotten a lot less than I'll get by selling them on eBay or Craigslist so I consider the whole process a wash.



    My bottom-line...I'm not sure how Radio Slack even stays in business. (Oh, and they tried to blame the whole problem on Apple...)
  • Reply 62 of 79
    cameronjcameronj Posts: 2,357member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jdhayes117 View Post


    Just wasted about 2 hours with Radio Slack. I've got two iPhones I wanted to upgrade to iP4 32 Gbs. I checked with my closest Radio Slack and discovered that they are independently owned and don't get any iPhones. Then I checked 3 corporately owned RSs and they didn't have any 32 GB in stock. An employee at the 3rd location gave me the number for their regional office. His store didn't have any and he checked the stock at all of the stores in his district. Not one 32 Gb. Not to worry he said. I can order it from the store and our "Direct to you" program will send it straight to your house...but if you want the trade in, I have to do that at the time of sale so you'll be several days without phones.



    We'll I got smart and checked eBay and saw that used 3Gs were selling for much more than $75 so I said okay, I'll sell them myself and called him back to buy the phones for just the $50 discount. "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't make the sale over the phone, you'll have to come in (this so HE can order them...)"



    Anyway, dropped the Christmas decorating and cruised into the store. When I got there, he wasn't there so I had to wait. When he finally came back in, we discussed options and he told me that his district included from the VA/NC border and Norfolk to Williamsburg, but did not include Virginia Beach (which for me is about as far as Norfolk). I asked if he had checked the Virginia Beach district. "Oh, I can't see their stock. Corporate makes us compete against each other" So I asked "Could you call and see if any of them have the 32Gb)" He did and, again, no luck. So then we tried to do the "Direct to you" purchase. He was clueless so he called around looking for help. Everyone was clueless about direct to you. When finally got into the system he discovered...you guessed it...Zero stock of 32 Gb. At that point, having my long standing impression of Radio Slack reconfirmed, I gave up and ordered the phones from Apple. Totally painless, upgrade fee waived, phones in stock and will be shipped to my house by Tuesday. Granted I didn't get the $50 discount, but originally I was going to trade my phones in and would have ultimately gotten a lot less than I'll get by selling them on eBay or Craigslist so I consider the whole process a wash.



    My bottom-line...I'm not sure how Radio Slack even stays in business. (Oh, and they tried to blame the whole problem on Apple...)



    I don't understand why people think this is such a great deal. If you have a working 3G, or 3GS, that product is worth MORE than Radioshack is offering you for it. So go sell it on Craigslist or Ebay, and buy a new iPhone4 with the proceeds. Simple!
  • Reply 63 of 79
    I'm in Northern Virginia. Did the deal for a 32GB IP4. Went flawlessly. I'm very happy.
  • Reply 64 of 79
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AsianBob View Post


    The vast majority of Android phones have been upped to at least 2.1 by now. There are a few stragglers that are still on 1.5/1.6 but mostly because of hardware limitations it seems.



    While there still is a spread of OS levels, the phones being released now all ship with 2.1 and the manufacturers are getting better at keeping up with Google.



    There is no "waiting out" Android. Apple could have had a chance to stop the Android rising when it first began by releasing the coveted Verizon iPhone, but it decided to "wait it out". Now look where that waiting got them.



    Care to provide the evidence to back that up?



    There are a LOT of Android 1.5 phones still being sold. My daughter's Motorola Backflip is still being sold with Android 1.5. There are rumors that a later version (2.1) will be available 'real soon now', but certainly not on my carrier. Heck, they've been saying the same thing since she got the phone in June.



    Not to mention, of course, that even if it DOES eventually get upgraded to 2.1, it's a brand new phone that is still on the market and will apparently never run 2.2 or later. Given how all the Android fans like to brag about how important Flash is, you'd think that would be a major failing.
  • Reply 65 of 79
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    Care to provide the evidence to back that up?



    Yep! Latest data straight from the Android Developers website:



    http://developer.android.com/resourc...-versions.html



    Quote:

    There are a LOT of Android 1.5 phones still being sold. My daughter's Motorola Backflip is still being sold with Android 1.5. There are rumors that a later version (2.1) will be available 'real soon now', but certainly not on my carrier. Heck, they've been saying the same thing since she got the phone in June.



    Not to mention, of course, that even if it DOES eventually get upgraded to 2.1, it's a brand new phone that is still on the market and will apparently never run 2.2 or later. Given how all the Android fans like to brag about how important Flash is, you'd think that would be a major failing.



    Just because you haven't taken the time to look doesn't mean that it hasn't happened. I believe you said this same thing in another thread a while back and I posted this exact link:



    http://www.motorola.com/Support/US-E...re_Update_Page



    It seems like you ignored it the last time. I hope you don't ignore it this time. Go get your daughter updated to 2.1!



    Thing is, your daughter bought what's essentially a featurephone that runs Android. Once she's on 2.1, she should now be able to run the majority of apps out there. The Backflip's limited by its hardware, so you'll understand if she can't run the hardware-intensive apps (mostly games).
  • Reply 66 of 79
    enohpienohpi Posts: 103member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    \\



    Not to mention, of course, that even if it DOES eventually get upgraded to 2.1, it's a brand new phone that is still on the market and will apparently never run 2.2 or later. Given how all the Android fans like to brag about how important Flash is, you'd think that would be a major failing.





    Sometimes, a cheap phone is the most expensive choice.
  • Reply 67 of 79
    I'm confused--the 3GS came out just under 18 months ago. Are people really eligible for upgrades from 3GS already? I know they were saying that people who had bought their phones in late 2008 could get an iP4 even if it hadn't been a full 2 years, but I didn't think anybody with a 3GS could, unless maybe they have a deal for people with very expensive service plans or something.
  • Reply 68 of 79
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AsianBob View Post


    Yep! Latest data straight from the Android Developers website:



    http://developer.android.com/resourc...-versions.html



    Which doesn't say what you claimed.



    You said that the vast majority of Android phones have been updated to 2.1. That site says that the majority of phones THAT ACCESSED ANDROID MARKETPLACE were using 2.1 or later.



    Big difference.







    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AsianBob View Post


    Just because you haven't taken the time to look doesn't mean that it hasn't happened. I believe you said this same thing in another thread a while back and I posted this exact link:



    http://www.motorola.com/Support/US-E...re_Update_Page



    It seems like you ignored it the last time. I hope you don't ignore it this time. Go get your daughter updated to 2.1!



    Thing is, your daughter bought what's essentially a featurephone that runs Android. Once she's on 2.1, she should now be able to run the majority of apps out there. The Backflip's limited by its hardware, so you'll understand if she can't run the hardware-intensive apps (mostly games).



    All well and good - except that it doesn't work on her phone with her carrier.



    Just another Android fragmentation problem.
  • Reply 69 of 79
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by enohpI View Post


    Sometimes, a cheap phone is the most expensive choice.



    Which is why I don't recommend Android phones.



    Thanks for pointing that out.
  • Reply 70 of 79
    cameronjcameronj Posts: 2,357member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Retrogusto View Post


    I'm confused--the 3GS came out just under 18 months ago. Are people really eligible for upgrades from 3GS already? I know they were saying that people who had bought their phones in late 2008 could get an iP4 even if it hadn't been a full 2 years, but I didn't think anybody with a 3GS could, unless maybe they have a deal for people with very expensive service plans or something.



    Where've ya been? Many people were able to get the 4 12 months after they bought the 3GS, if you spend more than $100 a month on service which many people do.
  • Reply 71 of 79
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    Which doesn't say what you claimed.



    You said that the vast majority of Android phones have been updated to 2.1. That site says that the majority of phones THAT ACCESSED ANDROID MARKETPLACE were using 2.1 or later.



    Big difference.



    But isn't app development the major driving factor behind this fragmentation? Developers need to know which Android OS to target and the majority of them accessing the Market are on 2.x. This is probably the best way to determine the relative amount of devices running which OS is out there in the world.



    I will agree that there was a period where the manufacturers went nuts and released a few models with 1.5 and 1.6 when 2.x was just released. However, they've all recently straightened out a lot and the majority of new releases are at least 2.1. Hence I believe the 1.5/1.6 devices are early devices/that crazy period/low-end featurephones.





    I have seen you use this link before in the past:



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...ndroid_devices



    I don't know how accurate this list is, but it looks fairly all-encompassing and I'm willing to run with it. Doing a quick "Find" command, "1.5" generated 31 hits, "1.6" 46 hits, and "2." generated 338 hits. 77 out of 338 is just under 23%.



    I should add some caveats that some of the "1.5" and "1.6" hits do also say something along the lines of being upgradeable to 2.x. I also noticed that some of the "1.5" and "1.6" hits are phones from 2008. Take this quick glance for what it is.



    Quote:

    All well and good - except that it doesn't work on her phone with her carrier.



    Just another Android fragmentation problem.



    Ah, not an AT&T customer. You never mentioned that. Telus or Optus, I take it? Reading up on it, this update is exclusive to AT&T (the original carrier this phone was intended for), which is odd.



    And let me ask you this. Is she happy with the phone right now? Is she clamoring for the 2.1 update or is it you?
  • Reply 72 of 79
    Having been cash short for some time this was the best way to go to get from 3GS to 4. I called the local chicken shack to confirm the deal and inventory, ran down there, and I was in and out in about 20 minutes. They were very well trained, capable, and friendly. Of course, in CA there is tax on the pre-discounted retail price of any discounted phone, it came out to $66 including the tax.



    Yes, Craigslist might have made it a tiny bit of a better deal, but chicken shack was waving the $36 AT&T activation fee, so this was a good decision for me all and all.
  • Reply 73 of 79
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by eightzero View Post


    Saw this note this morning and decided to go check it out. Went to a brick and mortar Radio Shack, and asked them about it. I have an upgrade eligible 8gb iPhone 3G. Asked them if they could do a upgrade to iPhone 4 16gb. Sales rep said they didn't have any 16gb, and "final price" on the 32gb iPhone 4 would be $249. She explained all iPhones come from a central warehouse, and since they didn't have any, no other radio shack stores in the area would have them.



    She cited the $249 as the final price with trade in of my 3G. It whole thng seemed to take her by surprise. I didn't want to spend $249 so I left. In retrospect, I probably should have pressed her a bit more on the trade in, as I think she was just telling what showed up on her screen, and hadn't done any trade in deals yet.



    More reason why I detest radio shack. Asshats got me into one of their stores with essentially a bait and switch. Place always remind me of pawn shops.



    Anyone here do one of these deals? I'll be the transaction start to finish takes nearly an hour; the sales reps generally untrained.



    Sounds like the sales person told you wrong. All new iPhones are $50 off the normal price. Trading an iPhone 3G should have gotten you a minimum of $75 credit towards the iPhone 4. This is in addition to the $50 off, so the 32GB should have cost $175 (with 2 year contract, of course.)



    We did the deal last night. Got my wife a 16BG iPhone 4. The staff were very nice and efficient. They kept the store open an extra 30 minutes so we could come get the phone; and we were in and out in that amount of time. (The sales rep I had talked to said they had 3 iPhone 4's in stock, so I didn't want to waste time.) We were going to trade in her 3G but decided instead to try to sell it. What a deal!
  • Reply 74 of 79
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by serranot View Post


    I'm in Northern Virginia. Did the deal for a 32GB IP4. Went flawlessly. I'm very happy.



    I was shopping at Pentagon City today when I saw this story pop up in my reader. I went over to the Radio Shack and they said nobody had any in stock anywhere. Luckily, my local Shack (I live in Frederick MD) had one and I did this today. Traded in a 3GS and a 3G for a brand new 16GB iPhone 4 and a $51 gift card.
  • Reply 75 of 79
    Did anyone besides me, actually try this?



    I clicked through the "Eligibility Checker" link, entered my info, it said 1 of the 2 phones qualified now, the other would qualify in 6/2011 - then I tried to proceed, and could not find any Iphones amongst the 30+ phones it offered me. I changed the filtering, chose AT&T only, nada, then I removed filtering to show all phones, did a browser search for "Iphone" - nada. I even hunted around the site - can't find any Iphones. What gives - bad CMS settings?



    - Thoroughly confused.



  • Reply 76 of 79
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ryan.2 View Post


    Did anyone besides me, actually try this?



    I clicked through the "Eligibility Checker" link, entered my info, it said 1 of the 2 phones qualified now, the other would qualify in 6/2011 - then I tried to proceed, and could not find any Iphones amongst the 30+ phones it offered me. I changed the filtering, chose AT&T only, nada, then I removed filtering to show all phones, did a browser search for "Iphone" - nada. I even hunted around the site - can't find any Iphones. What gives - bad CMS settings?



    - Thoroughly confused.







    It's an in-store offer only.
  • Reply 77 of 79
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by eightzero View Post


    Saw this note this morning and decided to go check it out. Went to a brick and mortar Radio Shack, and asked them about it. I have an upgrade eligible 8gb iPhone 3G. Asked them if they could do a upgrade to iPhone 4 16gb. Sales rep said they didn't have any 16gb, and "final price" on the 32gb iPhone 4 would be $249. She explained all iPhones come from a central warehouse, and since they didn't have any, no other radio shack stores in the area would have them.



    She cited the $249 as the final price with trade in of my 3G. It whole thng seemed to take her by surprise. I didn't want to spend $249 so I left. In retrospect, I probably should have pressed her a bit more on the trade in, as I think she was just telling what showed up on her screen, and hadn't done any trade in deals yet.



    More reason why I detest radio shack. Asshats got me into one of their stores with essentially a bait and switch. Place always remind me of pawn shops.



    Anyone here do one of these deals? I'll be the transaction start to finish takes nearly an hour; the sales reps generally untrained.



    As Paul Harvey would say, "Page 2..."

    On a lark, I decided to go to another RS. I simply asked about the deal upon arrival, and presented my 3G for inspection. The sales guy knew *exactly* what the score was, and his cow-orker confirmed she'd done with a $75 trade in, total price $88.



    And so it was. They had a 16GB in stock. Total time for the transaction was about 20 minutes. A well trained rep, went like clockwork.



    I take back everything I said. Just go to the right location at the right time, and this is available.
  • Reply 78 of 79
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by eightzero View Post


    On a lark, I decided to go to another RS. I simply asked about the deal upon arrival, and presented my 3G for inspection. The sales guy knew *exactly* what the score was, and his cow-orker confirmed she'd done with a $75 trade in, total price $88.



    I'm going to have a hard time not thinking of Radio Shack employees as "cow orkers" from now on.
Sign In or Register to comment.