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AT&T: iPhone 6S/6S Plus Pre-Order Thread!

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Guys, research every other carrier. AT&T is literally the last company offering 2 year contracts. Verizon, sprint, and t-mobile all are already on finance only plans.
Like it or not, this is just the way the industry is going these days. We have to start accepting that changes are happening like it or not. You can threaten to leave one company because of not getting a subsidy, but honestly, you're no better off anywhere else. Carriers sell cell phone service. Manufacturers sell devices. Two separate things.
 
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Aibocyrus said:
Guys, research every other carrier. AT&T is literally the last company offering 2 year contracts. Verizon, sprint, and t-mobile all are already on finance only plans.
Like it or not, this is just the way the industry is going these days. We have to start accepting that changes are happening like it or not. You can threaten to leave one company because of not getting a subsidy, but honestly, you're no better off anywhere else. Carriers sell cell phone service. Manufacturers sell devices. Two separate things.
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It really doesn't surprise me since phones have been getting more and more expensive. It's just not cost efficient to subsidize a phone worth $1000+ for $200+
 
Aibocyrus said:
Guys, research every other carrier. AT&T is literally the last company offering 2 year contracts. Verizon, sprint, and t-mobile all are already on finance only plans.
Like it or not, this is just the way the industry is going these days. We have to start accepting that changes are happening like it or not. You can threaten to leave one company because of not getting a subsidy, but honestly, you're no better off anywhere else. Carriers sell cell phone service. Manufacturers sell devices. Two separate things.
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Every manager and representative I've spoken to have all echoed this exact point. They're going to ditch 2 year contracts. Other major carriers already have. AT&T is just slowing the transition by limiting your options as to how you can sign 2 year contracts. Some of their own brick and mortar stores don't even allow the signing of 2 year contracts (I know, I asked in those store). So yes, as Aibocyrus just said, they're going away.
 
Aibocyrus said:
Guys, research every other carrier. AT&T is literally the last company offering 2 year contracts. Verizon, sprint, and t-mobile all are already on finance only plans.
Like it or not, this is just the way the industry is going these days. We have to start accepting that changes are happening like it or not. You can threaten to leave one company because of not getting a subsidy, but honestly, you're no better off anywhere else. Carriers sell cell phone service. Manufacturers sell devices. Two separate things.
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I think you make valid points, but Verizon & Sprint allow current customers to get 2 year subsidy pricing at Apple.com, while AT&T does not. Therefore, I think those two are being kinder about it than AT&T at this point.

And the thing I would ask AT&T to remember if they keep your current prices and remove subsidies, I will switch away fast. Sure, I will have to pay for full price phones, but there are cheaper plans out there if they take away the subsidy! Subsidy is the last thing making my old plans competitive with my other options.
 
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Aibocyrus said:
Guys, research every other carrier. AT&T is literally the last company offering 2 year contracts. Verizon, sprint, and t-mobile all are already on finance only plans.
Like it or not, this is just the way the industry is going these days. We have to start accepting that changes are happening like it or not. You can threaten to leave one company because of not getting a subsidy, but honestly, you're no better off anywhere else. Carriers sell cell phone service. Manufacturers sell devices. Two separate things.
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Yup.

And, yet, even with this move, the end-savings to customers haven't materialized the way everyone suspected they would. Frustrating.

In better news, my 64GB 6s+ shipped and will be in my hands this afternoon. Joy.
 
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Number 41 said:
Yup.

And, yet, even with this move, the end-savings to customers haven't materialized the way everyone suspected they would. Frustrating.

In better news, my 64GB 6s+ shipped and will be in my hands this afternoon. Joy.
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Yes. Because when comparing the optimum benefit of a 2-year contract with subsidy it ends up having a value of about $20 per month. The reduction of subsidy was nothing more than a price increase by these companies. People who wanted everyone to go against subsidy, did not want to create a spreadsheet to calculate their own personal cost and value analysis.
 
iLeoMarc said:
Yes. Because when comparing the optimum benefit of a 2-year contract with subsidy it ends up having a value of about $20 per month. The reduction of subsidy was nothing more than a price increase by these companies. People who wanted everyone to go against subsidy, did not want to create a spreadsheet to calculate their own personal cost and value analysis.
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This echoes exponentially if you're still on an old legacy unlimited data plan. Take, for example, myself and my wife's plan. Without discount, we both have unlimited data, text, and x daytime minutes per month for 159.99. Now that the threshold for throttling unlimited data has been upped to 22 gigs of transfer, we in essence have a 44 gig data plan. That would cost between $300 and $375 per month just for the data and talk package, plus each line in use. Even if there's no reduction because subsidies are going away, it STILL does not compare.
 
auriconis said:
This echoes exponentially if you're still on an old legacy unlimited data plan. Take, for example, myself and my wife's plan. Without discount, we both have unlimited data, text, and x daytime minutes per month for 159.99. Now that the threshold for throttling unlimited data has been upped to 22 gigs of transfer, we in essence have a 44 gig data plan. That would cost between $300 and $375 per month just for the data and talk package, plus each line in use. Even if there's no reduction because subsidies are going away, it STILL does not compare.
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Yeah and now it seems ATT is giving unlimited data plans unlimited minutes as well. I had a 700 National Plan that I just reduced to a 550 National Plan. Even though it is labeled 550 it indicates that I have unlimited minutes.

I was also on the $30/mo Family Text Plan which I found out was $10/mo too much (others get it for $20/mo). I called and asked to be moved to $20/mo. They actually removed the feature all together and now it appears I have unlimited text for free. This could just be a glitch in their system but something's going on.

I now pay $120 for 2 Lines of Unlimited data/voice/text. (and I get an iPhone every year for a $450 discount) The only downside is no Hot Spot.
 
Going to be in San Francisco next week and I've been watching the Apple.com availability on the "reserve iPhone" page and it appears they've been getting the 6S Plus in every day. Since my order fell through I think I'll go this way, we're able to upgrade our Next program at the Apple store, right?
 
ericgtr12 said:
Going to be in San Francisco next week and I've been watching the Apple.com availability on the "reserve iPhone" page and it appears they've been getting the 6S Plus in every day. Since my order fell through I think I'll go this way, we're able to upgrade our Next program at the Apple store, right?
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Yup
 
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Upgrading at an Apple Store via Next does not allow you to keep a grandfathered unlimited data plan, is that correct or was i misinformed?
 
weirdalchy said:
Upgrading at an Apple Store via Next does not allow you to keep a grandfathered unlimited data plan, is that correct or was i misinformed?
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You are correct. UPDATE: Actually it appears you were misinformed, twice. ;)
 
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I think it just depends on who u talk to but your plan shouldn't change unless you want to change it. I would double check with a rep before you get your phone just to be on the safe side.
 
How long does ATT's included Parcel return label take to get back to them? I used it last Wednesday, and it still doesn't show delivered back to them yet. This is the longest process in the world. No fun being forced to order at ATT.com. Apple would have had it back in 2 days.
 
powerbook911 said:
How long does ATT's included Parcel return label take to get back to them? I used it last Wednesday, and it still doesn't show delivered back to them yet. This is the longest process in the world. No fun being forced to order at ATT.com. Apple would have had it back in 2 days.
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I just went through this, it takes a while. The actual shipping isn't too bad, about 3 days or so, but then you have to wait another 5-7 business days before they release it.
 
auriconis said:
Every manager and representative I've spoken to have all echoed this exact point. They're going to ditch 2 year contracts.

These are the "gossip girls" of the cell phone industry. Absent the facts, they tell stories. The decision to maintain two-year agreements was made at least five levels above these folks.

auriconis said:
AT&T is just slowing the transition by limiting your options as to how you can sign 2 year contracts.
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AT&T made to change to get closer to these customers so it could better manage the renewals of two-year agreements.

auriconis said:
Some of their own brick and mortar stores don't even allow the signing of 2 year contracts (I know, I asked in those store).
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A violation of AT&T retail sales policy and should be reported to the store's district manager.

auriconis said:
So yes, as Aibocyrus just said, they're going away.
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Not at all true.
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So you guys might want to check your AT&T bill for the month.

I just logged in online to see my data usage for my AT&T family plan and the first red flag was it asked which data plan I wanted to view— SharedData1 or SharedData2 (since there should only be one). Anyway, it looks like when I activated my paid-in-full iPhone 6S on 9/25, their servers somehow managed to duplicate the shared data plan on the account and put it on both my number and a second number on the account and were trying to charge me $100 more than they should have been. A quick call to AT&T support fixed things, but just figured I would mention it in case this happened to someone else.
 
Aibocyrus said:
Guys, research every other carrier. AT&T is literally the last company offering 2 year contracts. Verizon, sprint, and t-mobile all are already on finance only plans.
Like it or not, this is just the way the industry is going these days. We have to start accepting that changes are happening like it or not. You can threaten to leave one company because of not getting a subsidy, but honestly, you're no better off anywhere else. Carriers sell cell phone service. Manufacturers sell devices. Two separate things.
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Consumers do have an impact. If they didn't go for those installment pay plans offered they would not exist. Marketing/Economics 101 ;)
 
Both T-Mobile and Verizon are now offering some very low cost plans. If you look at T-Mobile's model, almost every plan has unlimited 2G data with some measured amount of LTE. I am encouraging AT&T to go with this model. However if they don't follow, they will have to keep the two year contract as a differentiating offering. I don't know why people keep saying AT&T is the only company with two year plans, when they are in fact the only company that didn't offer two year plans through the Apple Store. Someone still offered it through Apple.
 
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