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AT&T Raises Smartphone Upgrade Pricing From $15 to $20 to Match Verizon's New Fee
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This doesnt make sense.... lets not keep it low for our customers, lets raise it for our shareholders lol
Starting last year, AT&T began charging a $15 activation fee for customers who wanted to upgrade to a new smartphone purchased outright or through an AT&T Next plan, and as of yesterday, that fee has been increased from $15 to $20.
As Droid Life noticed yesterday, AT&T updated its wireless activation and upgrade fees document to reflect the new $20 pricing on April 6, matching Verizon's recently implemented fee.
On Monday, Verizon started charging $20 for activating smartphones purchased through an installment plan or at full retail price, $5 less than AT&T was charging at the time. Less than two days later, AT&T raised its prices to $20.
AT&T customers who bring a phone to the AT&T network, purchase a phone using AT&T Next, or purchase a device through Apple's Device Upgrade program will need to pay the one-time activation fee as outlined below. Customers with a two-year contract will need to pay the standard $45 fee, which has not changed.As Ars Technica points out, AT&T doesn't provide any explanation or justification for the fee that it charges on its website, nor does it give an explanation for the price increase. In a leaked document we shared last week, Verizon said its own fee was to cover "increasing support costs associated with customers switching their devices."
Of the four major carriers in the United States, T-Mobile is the only carrier that does not charge an upgrade or activation fee. AT&T and Verizon both charge $20, while Sprint charges a fee of up to $36 per device.
Article Link: AT&T Raises Smartphone Upgrade Pricing From $15 to $20 to Match Verizon's New Fee
Let's be honest: I don't see any problem with this as people still want to take abuse from them. It is greed; however, people (at least lot if not all) will remain loyal to ATT. If that's the case, it's really not ATT's fault, right? People have a choice to leave, but instead they stay with them.
A choice? T-mobile is the only real option besides ATT and VZN, and has a considerably smaller network. If by choice you mean we have a choice as to who we want to screw us over, sure.
I'm surprised so many on this board are complaining about $20, if you own an apple product you are waaaay overpaying for old tech already. I'm sure a lot of you have purchased a $700 phone with 16gb of flash storage in it
So true or what about the $300 16GB ram upgrade on a Mac mini, when it actually costs $60.
AT&T's $20 ripoff, seems peanuts compared to Apple's $300 theft.
Yes. T-mobile is a choice, but how many people are going to move to them? Probably not as much compared to those willing to stay with ATT.
Really? Exactly what work do you do that makes you feel you should not pay a fee for this service that is being provided to you?
Are YOU are the one who invested billions of dollars in to cell towers and the infrastructure to run it all?
Are YOU are the on maintains and updates a nationwide network of highly complex state of the art communication equipment?
And was it YOU that has spent years of man hours and billions of dollars researching and developing designing, engineering and manufacturing highly sophisticated smart phones?
If you don't want to pay the fee, switch to a competitor that doesn't have such fees or better yet go get two tin cans and a string and use that to talk to people instead, but don't whine about how bad your life is because you have to pay an extra $5 to help offset an entire nation wide infrastructure that allows you to do meaningful things like stream videos of cats from anywhere in the world instantly or post asinine comments on a website.
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Apple does not make items long enough to raise the prices, they would rather you just throw it out and buy new items every few months.
Back in the early days of cellular, an "activation fee" was used to cover the costs associated with offsetting agent commissions, helping with the cost of the hour or so the store\dealer\phone rep spent running credit check, setting up the account, adding features, provisioning the line, etc. That was back when it was a 1-2 HOUR process to do that stuff. Now systems are integrated and plans and billing systems are much more simple. In about 10 minutes someone can run credit, setup an account, and activate a line. There's nothing to it.
With that said, it's now a gotcha fee. And it's sad because one can't become a customer and pay their bill without being setup.
When you go to get a car from a dealership, there are document fees (literally the fee they charge to process your documents). When you get your cable bill look at all the "recuperation costs" on there. Basically their cost of doing business passed along to you to be a customer.
Sad way to do business, but the government has allowed these mega mergers for years now, thanks to the corporations lining the pockets of the government.
For fixing to be true they would have had to collaborate in advance on the move. If one company in an industry raises prices followed by others doing the same then it is just a price leader and industry adjustment and perfectly legal.
I'm on ATT and I know for a fact that I've swapped SIMs between devices without any issue in the past so this certainly isn't a technical need at all. Unless you've purchased in a way that they know you have (or require a different SIM due to sizing or such) you won't get hit with this fee. Even if you purchase in a way that they are informed I've also had the fee removed from my bill just by complaining about it (been a loyal customer for XX years blah blah I don't like this yadda yadda please remove it. OK ThisIsNotMyName, we've taken it off your bill.)
I still see it as a bad way to do business. To me ATT is the mobile leader in the US (yeah yeah Verizon subscribers, I know you really like your network) and charges a premium, even over the VMNOs piggie backing their physical network, I'd rather they raise the overall monthly fees than try to nickel and dime things under the radar. Leave the hidden fee game to the players pulling people in with much slimmer base margins. If my monthly bill went up by $20/12 per month I'd never bat an eye.
Totally switching to T-Mobile after my contract is up. This is f'd up.
We had £35 ''Activation'' fees in the UK during the mobile boom years of the early 90s.
I think when the move to digital phones arrived they stopped, but I could be wrong.
Either way, they did it because people were scrambling to have mobile phones, so they could get away with it.
I think when the move to digital phones arrived they stopped, but I could be wrong.
Either way, they did it because people were scrambling to have mobile phones, so they could get away with it.
Dumped them for T-Mobile and couldn't be happier. My bill is $10 cheaper, I doubled my data, and I get free streaming from every subscription service I subscribe to. Coverage is a slight downgrade when I'm at home, much better in congested areas where I'm at. It probably depends on where you live and how you use your phone, but for me, I'm very glad to have left AT&T. The last straw was continuously being charged the $15 for an extra gig when I was only a day or two away from my billing cycle, and the leftover doesn't rollover. I don't need to micromanage my data with T-Mobile.
Updating or upgrading a device in AT&T and T-Mobile is just switching the sim! Similarly, the client can just update the device on their online account settings! So, this is just a greed tax on the consumer.
Racketeering by another name, collaboration by three companies ... hello DOJ!
Racketeering by another name, collaboration by three companies ... hello DOJ!
Amen to that. I'm still boggled how some actual defend the $100 price increase on the iPad or the ridiculous notion that having a 16G base device isn't milking their customer base! Like they're actually excited to spend more money, as long as Apple gets it!
Apple just got sued in france for somewhat controlling the phone providers
as in "u have to agree to this and that to sell our phones"