Like Slippery-Pete was saying, it DOES NOT take 2 years for AT&T to make back the extra money they paid to Apple for your phone. If you're paying a $100/month cell bill, within 6 months to 1 year they've made that money back plus much more.
True.
Well, that is, as long as you've done the following:
- Buy iPhone
- Immediately turn iPhone off and put in drawer
- Leave phone in drawer for two years with absolutely no use
- Never call AT&T for any reason
- Somehow remove your customer data from AT&T system, so you do not consume any overhead
So yeah, as long as that describes you, then you're correct.
At 12 months, you've already given them $1200 + $199 or $299. I myself have given them $1500 for a phone plus service for the past year. I think they've made some profit
I don't think they have actually. The reason is, they spend countless hours a day fielding needless phone calls from customers who are unhappy about not getting free money.
It's a shame. Maybe if they had less financial liability per customer in this regard, they'd be able to commit more resources to offering more services (such as MMS and tethering, perhaps). Oh well. I guess they will just have to raise prices in the future to cover both that liability and investing in new technology.
AT&T is by no means always fair and always right. But on this particular issue, they are. People would do themselves and everyone else a favor to see that, kindly get it through their head, and move on (on to feeling and acting entitled about something else, I suppose).