Wait, what?
How about this:
If you can show me where I said I have never called customer service ever, I will pay you $1000 and leave the forums forever. If not, you pay me $1000 and do the same.
Seeing as there's no reason for you not to take the bet if what you said is true, then I expect a public apology if you refuse to do so.
It's fairly obvious you're either an AT&T shill or a grade AT&T ****. Oh, and while we're at it, you should see if they still have any of those "jump to conclusion" mats left on ebay.
A free microcell would be great when I'm in my apartment. When I'm in the lobby? When I'm at the pool? When I'm in a restaurant two minutes away? I haven't tested the restaurant, but I drop calls with regularity in and around this building, not just my unit.
Usually good in NYC...huh. I think you're one of the first to ever say that.
If AT&T can rectify my apartment problem, I'll take that solution, and I'll deal with broader NYC problems when those crop up.
But yes, the preferred solution for me is getting out of my contract and going with a carrier (Verizon) that does not have these problems. That's only logical.
Your exact quote is you have not brought up the issue with ATT customer service.
"I haven't brought it up to AT&T yet because their customer service is piss poor"
So question, "have you or have you not tried to call ATT customer service about this particular problem before"? Yes or No?
"Did you have poor customer service with ATT about this problem?" Yes or No?
Not once did I say you never called customer service ever (that's your reference). You read too much into what's not there. My words were,
"Someone saying customer service is poor even though they have never personally tried to call themselves." You don't see me mention the word never calling customer service ever. It was in reference in not calling ATT customer service about this problem.
I don't work for ATT. Yes I have had ATT service for 8 years. I also currently have Verizon wireless service also. That's why I carry both services with me. Verizon works well for me in the northeast. ATT works well for me particular in Florida.
Me personally I've never had any customer service issues with either one of those carriers. Minor issues yes. (like Verizon's RF problem with the Galaxy Nexus and refusing to acknowledge that phone has an antenna design problem or ATT's secret throttling of 3G while on voice calls).
Look bottom line is the amount of time you will try to get ATT to waive the ETF. It's simply easier to just pay the ETF and resell the phone. Time is money.
You live in the NYC area. You realize by the time (if that even happens because waiving ETF's on iPhones is extremely hard because it's the highest subsidized phone ATT or any carrier has). By the time you try to even get to the point where they might waive the ETF.
You could have ported your number over to Verizon. Wait 2-3 weeks for final bill with ETF charges to arrive from ATT. Call ATT get iPhone 4S (I assume you have the 4S cause if you had the iPhone 4 you would only be a couple of months from finishing that contract anyways so getting an iPhone 4 contract ETF waived would be pointless). Assumptions are correct right?
Once iPhone 4S is unlocked. Put that phone on ebay or craiglist. Carrier sanctioned Unlocked iPhones go for at least $450-500 on the black market (16GB). Higher models go for more. And in NYC there are hundreds of resellers who will buy it for that price and ship them straight to South America (mainly Brazil) or back to Asia where there is a huge demand for iPhone 4S unlocked because of the exchange rates.
Seriously, why go through the trouble of getting around the ETF? Unless you plan on keeping the ATT iPhone 4S for other reasons.
You have to understand the reason for the high ETF. Verizon recognized this problem much earlier than ATT when the original Motorola Droid came out. They noticed people were signing up for secondary lines and buying the original Droid for subsidized pricing and canceling the line one month later (people got rid of the data plan also immediately by putting a feature phone on that new line). And than paid the $175 ETF.
ATT is not as bright as Verizon. Because people started doing that for iPhone 3G back in 2008 (one year before the Motorola Droid people started doing their thing). So people were gaming ATT's iPhone subsidy for almost 2 years before ATT caught on and raised it to $325. (It was much cheaper to pay $175 ETF for extra iPhone line). $199 iPhone subsidized price plus $175 (activation fees were $18 at that time). So total out the door was around $400. Much cheaper than the going full price of $599 for iPhone.
