Waving the iPhone "activation fee"

[waywardsage]

I just called AT&T and told them to take the $18 "Activation fee" from my account. I simply said, i'm a long standing, on-time paying customer and I want this B.S. fee removed from my bill. The lady on the other line tried to give me some BS that all upgrade phones get this charge, blah, blah. I simply persisted with my argument, and she took it off as a "courtesy" and said that it would be a one time thing.

I bring this up, because I have a co-worker thats used Sprint for ages and he calls them every time he wants an upgrade and tells them that he's been a customer with them since the beginning and he wants a new FREE phone! And they send him one! And a good free phone. He got a Centrino smart phone for free last time!

In a struggling economy, I think all of us working stiffs need to stand up to these greedy cell phone companies and tell them hey, I'm a long standing customer and I won't be price gouged. You will take this "processing fee" off. Especially since i've been with AT&T since Cingular back in 99. And i just upgraded to the iPhone from an AT&T Razor.

Customer loyalty is hard these days. They'd better realize it.

 

[Acronym]

one time rogers tried adding a text message sent to the united states to my bill i phoned up saying take it off i dont knmow anybody from the us nor did i send the message. they tok it off.

sure it was only 60 cents but thats how they do it start low and eventualy you got 20$ extra fees that you didnt even do or use

 

[bryanc28]

Cell Phone & Credit Card industry = evil.

 

[aneftp]

Unfortunately in any industry (in this case the cell phone industry), it's always what's considered the "norm"

All the major cell phone carriers charge an "activation" fee. When everyone is doing it, the fee sticks.

I've been able to get an activation fee get waived previously but with the iPhone 3g, I got stuck with it. It's only $18 but $18 is money.

Until we can get legislation to prevent this use, all the companies will try to nickle and dime. But you have to figure the local/state legislatures are approving this also. For each revenue that's generated, the local/state economies get an extra tax on that revenue. That's why the local/state government really don't care as long as it pads their budgets.

The same thing happened to the landline based phone companies. They kept on adding all of these taxes. I believe one basic phone line cost me around $13 but my total bill ended up being $20 after taxes. Now that the landline business is dying, the states are losing all this revenue they had depended on in the past. But the lawmakers don't care. They just care what they can collect now, not what's going on in 5-10 days.

 

[atszyman]

Based on the tone of the starter post, I think that the OP shot him(her)self in the foot with the phone call. I've seen many people get it waived, but it seems the best luck comes from being very courteous and asking "Is there any way that I can get the activation fee removed?" rather than demanding it be removed because you're a long time customer. The support people can make notes in their service database which might make it more difficult in the future should you need support on some other fees/charges.

It's not like the activation fee is hidden, why don't people ask for it to be removed when the phone is originally purchased and get a written confirmation of it? You can always threaten not to buy the phone or switch carriers if the fee is not waived. I'll probably try that on my next phone upgrade in June/July (hopefully to an iPhone), but I'm not going to let $18-$36 (wife's phone) get in the way of getting new phones. Of course there are numerous Apple and at&t stores around me so I can always walk out of one and go to the next.

 

[rywat]

Waving the iPhone "activation fee"

I just called AT&T and told them to take the $18 "Activation fee" from my account. I simply said, i'm a long standing, on-time paying customer and I want this B.S. fee removed from my bill. The lady on the other line tried to give me some BS that all upgrade phones get this charge, blah, blah. I simply persisted with my argument, and she took it off as a "courtesy" and said that it would be a one time thing.

I bring this up, because I have a co-worker thats used Sprint for ages and he calls them every time he wants an upgrade and tells them that he's been a customer with them since the beginning and he wants a new FREE phone! And they send him one! And a good free phone. He got a Centrino smart phone for free last time!

In a struggling economy, I think all of us working stiffs need to stand up to these greedy cell phone companies and tell them hey, I'm a long standing customer and I won't be price gouged. You will take this "processing fee" off. Especially since i've been with AT&T since Cingular back in 99. And i just upgraded to the iPhone from an AT&T Razor.

Customer loyalty is hard these days. They'd better realize it.

"waiving", "Centro", "RAZR"

 

[samiwas]

Based on the tone of the starter post, I think that the OP shot him(her)self in the foot with the phone call. I've seen many people get it waived, but it seems the best luck comes from being very courteous and asking "Is there any way that I can get the activation fee removed?" rather than demanding it be removed because you're a long time customer. The support people can make notes in their service database which might make it more difficult in the future should you need support on some other fees/charges.

This is so very true. Many people (such as the OP) could take a quick lesson on how to talk to the person on the other end of the phone. I guess in the end, the fee got removed, but... Calling in and saying "I DEMAND that you take this BS off my bill" will probably get you little to no assistance from that person. In fact, they will just in turn use policy back on you. If you called in and explained NICELY about your self-righteous status as a long-standing on-time paying customer, they probably would have taken it off right away.

My wife answers phones for a business in which people call many times a day with questions about pricing (most of them looking for ways to beat the system and get cheap admission). If the person is rude or just being an ignorant jackass, she will only give them the "policy". If they are a nice person, she will tell them about the specials and such. Now, I'm sure those that are rude and ignorant jackasses will say "hey, that is unfair..she is treating me differently!" Well guess what? You just got used in your own game.

 

[cWeems]

each consumer acct is allotted(sp) a certain amount of credits... dont think it will happen every time u upgrade.