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Apple Watch Series 3 Costs More Than $10/Month on Most Carriers, Can't Be Reactivated Without Fees
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Because trolls berated Apple for not having LTE connectivity. Now that it has LTE those same trolls are castigating Apple for having it. See how that works?
Yes, it’s illegal for companies to add tax or other fees to prices. Companies need to work it out and price correctly. There’s no reason the USA couldn’t do this if people demanded it.
It's not double the RAM - it's double the ROM. We're talking 8GB vs 16GB - which equates to 2GB of usable space for Apple music downloads vs 8GB of space on the LTE version.
I have one on T-Mobile and all I have to say is thank goodness for the free 3 months. I've YET to get texting or iMessage to work properly. The network engineers open a ticket and close it saying "all good" before I get an actual resolution to this issue. There's also the awesome catch from a buried Apple memo that it's MANDATORY for your iPhone turned on and connected to a network to bridge the connection to the watch to deliver SMS and iMessage. So while cellular and data work standalone even if your paired iPhone were to die, the SMS is not supported.. which is just odd and frankly a bit misleading from Apple.
I have one on T-Mobile and all I have to say is thank goodness for the free 3 months. I've YET to get texting or iMessage to work properly. The network engineers open a ticket and close it saying "all good" before I get an actual resolution to this issue. There's also the awesome catch from a buried Apple memo that it's MANDATORY for your iPhone turned on and connected to a network to bridge the connection to the watch to deliver SMS and iMessage. So while cellular and data work standalone even if your paired iPhone were to die, the SMS is not supported.. which is just odd and frankly a bit misleading from Apple.
First let me say that I agree... it would be cool to have one "Apple bill" for all sorts of things: hardware, cell service, Apple Music, iCloud, etc...
And it's been said that Apple should just buy T-Mobile or Sprint and run their own network. Or at least become an MVNO.
That might be great in the US... but would they do that in 150 different countries?
That just seems like a lot of work... and I'm not sure Apple would gain much from it overall.
I dunno though... Google has Google Fi... so maybe Apple needs Apple Fi
I thought the UK was a rip off.
Currently in the UK, there is only one mobile network that you can use the LTE Apple Watch on and that's EE.
When I activated the mobile data, EE were giving us it free for six months with unlimited data. After six months it's going to cost £5 per month (approximately $6.66) and that will give us 10 GB data.
Currently in the UK, there is only one mobile network that you can use the LTE Apple Watch on and that's EE.
When I activated the mobile data, EE were giving us it free for six months with unlimited data. After six months it's going to cost £5 per month (approximately $6.66) and that will give us 10 GB data.
This "article" makes me laugh and really spotlights the silliness of a lot of apple customers. The carriers do this with every device you have on your account, so why would it be any different with an apple watch? i think someone already said it but the real question, or better yet the real concern, is why would this be a surprise to the customer? now if you want to discuss why the carriers impose surcharges for service then that is fine but it really has nothing to do with apple watches.
Why not just use one of those straps you can put around your arm that carries your phone?
Thiscomment is taking a bit long to finish...busy duct taping my SE to an unused watchband
When the Apple Watch Series 3 first launched, carriers in the United States and other countries where the LTE version of the device is available offered three free months of service and waived activation fees.
That fee-free grace period is coming to an end, and customers are getting their first bills that include the $10 per month service charge.
If you have an Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE functionality, you've probably already learned that $10 is not all it's going to cost per month. On carriers like AT&T and Verizon, there are additional service charges and fees, which means it's not $10 per month for an Apple Watch, it's more like $12-$14.
On Verizon in California, for example, there's an additional $1.55 in fees on top of the $10 per month charge.
On AT&T in North Carolina, fees and surcharges add an additional $4.39 to the $10 per month charge, bringing the total to almost $15 per month for an Apple Watch. In some states, these fees on Verizon and AT&T are even higher.
If you're planning to avoid fees by deactivating service and activating again when it's needed, that may not be the best plan of action. As Macworld's Michael Simon points out, line activation fees that come with reactivation can be hefty.
Though the Apple Watch Series 3 is linked to the cellular number of the iPhone on a given carrier, it requires adding an additional line to a cellular service account. When you cancel and re-add a line, there's an activation fee involved. On Verizon, for example, if you deactivate the Apple Watch Series 3 and then want to activate it again at a later date, there's a $25 charge. Suspending service doesn't work, as it requires a $10/month fee, aside from a one-time 30 day free suspension on Verizon. From Macworld:Like Verizon, AT&T charges $25, while Sprint charges $30. T-Mobile no longer charges activation fees, so it may be more affordable to cancel and reinstate service if you're a T-Mobile subscriber.
On AT&T and Verizon, though, that $25 re-activation fee is the cost of two months of service, or close to it, when taxes and fees are included, meaning it's not really worthwhile to start and stop service if you're going to do it more than once or twice a year.
Macworld was also told that if he stopped and started service he could run into problems when attempting to reactivate the watch, but it's not entirely clear why.
With the three-month grace period, most Apple Watch owners have likely learned whether or not the $10-$15 per month fees are worth the freedom of an always-on wrist-worn cellular connection. Neither Apple nor the carriers in the United States were fully upfront about the additional service fees and taxes and the hassle involved with deactivation/reactivation, though, so there are bound to be some users who will feel tricked when the first full Series 3 bill comes in.
Article Link: Apple Watch Series 3 Costs More Than $10/Month on Most Carriers, Can't Be Reactivated Without Fees
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Try the math with iPhone- especially the traditional math (of 2 or 3-year contract obligations). At least here, it feels like it's much, MUCH cheaper than the service (hook) inside every iPhone. iPhone costs about 3 of these watches for the privilege of then signing up for service starting at about $500/yr or more (bound into a "family plan," yet counting only a single phone's share).
That the game: Apple sells us the groovy, attractive thing and then key Apple partners get to make about as much or more on the service to make the thing actually able to do much. Works every year. Apple and key partners get richer and richer while customers gripe & whine... but then drag themselves out of bed at 3am in a frantic effort to re-up again... and gush about it to strangers if we managed to get one. Are we consumers amazing or what?
If only Apple had stuck with the iCar concept. I was figuring soon after that launch, all roads in the U.S. would have been converted to toll roads so the service fee to actually go anywhere in the car could equate to about the cost of the car... or more.
Meh... I just hate the red spot on the crown, but feel it's ridiculous to buy a sticker to cover it up.
This was where Steve's brute force is missed. Granted after the initial iPhone launch they had to succumb to carrier demands like no FaceTime over cellular, but Apple does seem to be missing the benefits of forcing their brand onto other organizations for a better user experience.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Step back in time to when AT&T was the ONLY cell service provider for iPhones and much of this crowd would go to bat for AT&T... apparently because it was within Apple's halo at the time as the one and only chosen vendor, chosen by the Apple as such (even though that's not really the case), and thus deserving of praise and ADF defense against those who would dare to put them down. There's still a few AT&T defenders around but sentiment sure shifted as soon as one could use iPhone on other carriers.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
By choice though. We whine- often loudly- but then pay up anyway. If we could say "No" as a group, we could beat down such efforts to rip us off. But we can't, instead finding some way to just pay up whatever they want and thus rewarding them for coming up with such tactics.
it is not the carriers, it is the executives that control the pricing at the carriers. Remember, the executives get bonuses for increasing profits, even when the shareholders and rank-and-file employees see nothing.
Thank you for posting this MacRumors. I hadn't decided for sure whether I'd discontinue service for my Apple Watch when the 3 free months were up, and this information resolved that uncertainty for me. I just discontinued service.
Should I decide later that I'd like to restart service, I will only do so if Verizon agrees to waive the activation fee. I've had pretty good luck in the past getting Verizon to waive such fees. And in this situation there's (meaningfully) no chance I'd agree to pay for service for the Watch if they were set on charging me an activation fee.
I'd also note that I couldn't find a way to disconnect the service myself through their website. I had to chat with a customer service representative and have them do it. I see that kind of thing often with companies that provide services - they make it easy to add services through their website, but require you to talk to someone to cancel services. They, of course, want the opportunity to have a live person try to talk you out of cancelling. I am, however, more inclined to continue doing business with a company (or choose to do business with them in the first place) if I'm aware that they have a more customer-friendly policy that allows people to cancel services without having to call (or chat with) a representative.
Also, the Verizon representative initially told me that I'd be charged for the service until the end of the current billing cycle. The 3 free months of Apple Watch service was apparently off-cycle with the rest of my Verizon service by a few days, so even though I was canceling it before the 3 months were up they couldn't (the representative claimed) make the effective date of the deactivation the end of those 3 months. It wouldn't be until the end of the billing month which my other Verizon services are on and which is nearly a month later. I expressed my displeasure with that and the representative seemed to agree that it shouldn't work that way and, after checking, indicated I wouldn't be charged. I'm not sure if they were initially mistaken as to how it works or if they just waive the charge when people point out the improperness of it (or, at least, did so for me).
A last note: Since I bought the Watch through Verizon to get the 3 free months, I was paying for it over 6 months on my Verizon bill. If you deactivate the service they apparently bill the remaining balance as a lump sum. That didn't matter to me, but others might want to know that's how it works.
Should I decide later that I'd like to restart service, I will only do so if Verizon agrees to waive the activation fee. I've had pretty good luck in the past getting Verizon to waive such fees. And in this situation there's (meaningfully) no chance I'd agree to pay for service for the Watch if they were set on charging me an activation fee.
I'd also note that I couldn't find a way to disconnect the service myself through their website. I had to chat with a customer service representative and have them do it. I see that kind of thing often with companies that provide services - they make it easy to add services through their website, but require you to talk to someone to cancel services. They, of course, want the opportunity to have a live person try to talk you out of cancelling. I am, however, more inclined to continue doing business with a company (or choose to do business with them in the first place) if I'm aware that they have a more customer-friendly policy that allows people to cancel services without having to call (or chat with) a representative.
Also, the Verizon representative initially told me that I'd be charged for the service until the end of the current billing cycle. The 3 free months of Apple Watch service was apparently off-cycle with the rest of my Verizon service by a few days, so even though I was canceling it before the 3 months were up they couldn't (the representative claimed) make the effective date of the deactivation the end of those 3 months. It wouldn't be until the end of the billing month which my other Verizon services are on and which is nearly a month later. I expressed my displeasure with that and the representative seemed to agree that it shouldn't work that way and, after checking, indicated I wouldn't be charged. I'm not sure if they were initially mistaken as to how it works or if they just waive the charge when people point out the improperness of it (or, at least, did so for me).
A last note: Since I bought the Watch through Verizon to get the 3 free months, I was paying for it over 6 months on my Verizon bill. If you deactivate the service they apparently bill the remaining balance as a lump sum. That didn't matter to me, but others might want to know that's how it works.
How exactly is a cell carrier charging too much the fault of Apple? I’m not arguing Apple charges a lot and seeks a profit but this whole thread is about carrier greed.
I too train year round, often on long single track runs. And run multiple marathons and ultramarathons. I don't carry my phone when running, never have even when on long runs in the bush or in the town. **** happens and touchwood, I've never been in the position where I've needed to communicate in an emergency.
While some people feel the need for 24/7 contact or emergency contact, I never have. I began running many years before the advent of a cellphone that you could carry and hope to continue for a few more yet.
I just can't see the point investing in yet another insurance policy in the form of a cellular account on a watch. I bought an AW3 without cellular for that reason. It just seemed absolutely pointless.
I do carry my phone when cycling, but only because it's easy to slip into the back of the shirt.
Life is risky.
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Activation fees should be illegal. You are charging me to be your customer. It’s a joke.
I thought the same thing, why do I need cellular on my watch? By way of occupation (location photographer asst/second shooter) and the amount of time I spend in situations where I just cannot have my phone, it was an easy yes for me. For others, I can see where their response would be, not so much. Yes, it is a gimmicky and very much a niche answer to a niche problem we didn't know we had in the first place, but I think that applies to a lot of Apple products, so one must be a smart consumer.
While the Apple watches are neat, i don't see them giving me anything i (or anyone else) needs to have to live in this modern world. They are nice very expensive toys. I like my solar powered analog watch. I paid a fee once for it, and it will many last years without any other expenses popping up on its use.
Saving Money is Not A Crime.
Saving Money is Not A Crime.