Canadian fido customers - upgrade question

[stevemiller]

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So Canadian carriers all force you into a 3 year contract unless you buy the phone outright.

My 3G is just brutal, and I still have another 8 months left on my contract, but I don't think I can last it out (first world problems, I know).

I can't seem to get a clear idea of what the options are. Should a new iPhone come out, do they ever offer an early upgrade discount? Is there any other provisions for upgrading a smartphone earlier than the 3 years?

Just seems like a lot of people appear to upgrade to each new phone. Are these mostly people with 1year contract carriers, or are they taking a major hit on early upgrade fees each time?

Anyway, to end on a rant, why IS it that $199 tethers you to a 1yr contract with some carriers and 3yrs with others? Are these canadian carriers just THAT evil?

Thanks for any insight

 

[awadeee]

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So Canadian carriers all force you into a 3 year contract unless you buy the phone outright.

My 3G is just brutal, and I still have another 8 months left on my contract, but I don't think I can last it out (first world problems, I know).

I can't seem to get a clear idea of what the options are. Should a new iPhone come out, do they ever offer an early upgrade discount? Is there any other provisions for upgrading a smartphone earlier than the 3 years?

Just seems like a lot of people appear to upgrade to each new phone. Are these mostly people with 1year contract carriers, or are they taking a major hit on early upgrade fees each time?

Anyway, to end on a rant, why IS it that $199 tethers you to a 1yr contract with some carriers and 3yrs with others? Are these canadian carriers just THAT evil?

Thanks for any insight

It's strange that you have to wait the full three years: I'm with Telus in NB and I am on a three year contract with an upgrade after 2 years.

What you could do is sell your 3G and then buy a 3Gs or 4 on Kijiji. If you get a 4, get a SIM card cutter from a local shop and do the dirty work yourself or pay $40 for your carrier to set you up with a micro SIM.

 

[trekkie604]

Fido let me upgrade to the next phone early as long as you are within 18 months of your renewal window on a 3yr. Catch is the contracts stack. My situation now is:

I bought a 3G from Fido in 2008 on a 3 year contract. Renewed for a 4 in 2010 using that offer. Now my contract is until 2014. That's evil.

 

[stevemiller]

I bought a 3G from Fido in 2008 on a 3 year contract. Renewed for a 4 in 2010 using that offer. Now my contract is until 2014. That's evil.

gah, that *is* evil! i honestly can't figure out the justification for such long contracts (almost half a decade!), especially for people who are paying more than the contractual minimum for monthly service. I use my phone in place of a landline and have a long distance package for keeping in touch with family. At over $90/mo I think they are recouping any hardware subsidies well before 3 years.

still, i guess its good to know that the option at least exists. thanks for the tip! hopefully one can argue down the stacking based on higher monthly plans, as well as threatening to jump ship to telus if they do indeed allow a 2 year hardware upgrade cycle as awadeee suggested.

2 years i could live with, but the UI becomes so dang slow after several updates, which are seemingly forced down your throat for carrier and app compatibility.

 

[jbyun04]

I bought 3GS on launch with Fido on a 3yr contract. iPhone 4 came out last year and I upgraded at a special upgrade price. As long as you've burned one year off your contract by the time the new phone comes out you should be eligible for an upgrade price.

Plus you can use your Fido Dollars to knock some bucks off and then sell your previous phone. When I got my iPhone 4 I made money from buying it after using my Fido Dollars and selling my 3gs.

 

[Wafflausages]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

So Canadian carriers all force you into a 3 year contract unless you buy the phone outright.

My 3G is just brutal, and I still have another 8 months left on my contract, but I don't think I can last it out (first world problems, I know).

I can't seem to get a clear idea of what the options are. Should a new iPhone come out, do they ever offer an early upgrade discount? Is there any other provisions for upgrading a smartphone earlier than the 3 years?

Just seems like a lot of people appear to upgrade to each new phone. Are these mostly people with 1year contract carriers, or are they taking a major hit on early upgrade fees each time?

Anyway, to end on a rant, why IS it that $199 tethers you to a 1yr contract with some carriers and 3yrs with others? Are these canadian carriers just THAT evil?

Thanks for any insight

I'm with bell on a 3yr and about after a year and half they gave me $100 towards any phone i would want to upgrade to

 

[acfusion29]

this kind of question needs to be asked to fido, not us.

everyone's account is different. they might be more willing to do something for you after xx months because you've spent $100/month (just an example) on them, whereas the next customer only spent $40/month.

how much money you've gave the company will help you get a better deal.

so, pick up your phone, dial 611 and speak with them.

 

[stevemiller]

@jbyun04, thankyou! i am really glad to hear this type of promotion exists. it's only for a window of time when a new iPhone comes out, correct? i thought i'd remembered seeing something similar when the 4 came out, but then it seemed to disappear when i was looking on fido's site several months later.

@acfusion29, i have actually spoken to a fido representative in july, but what they tell you often seems to vary with the person you happen to get. i got so many pie-in-the-sky facts from the person i spoke to, that i came here trying to find out what is realistic to expect.

for example, the actual fido rep. said things such as 'there'll be a new iphone in august,' 'we might be changing to allow earlier smartphone upgrades very soon,' and 'for now we will only ever allow an upgrade if you're within 6 months of your contract'.

the more optimistic bits just sounded like he'd been reading rumour sites too!

anyway, @acfusion, you still managed to help provide me some sense of reassurance that your monthly bill *can* give you some clout in getting an upgrade deal, so thankyou, whether you intended it or not!

 

[acfusion29]

no problem. it was intended.

i would suggest you speak with customer relations as they have the most power to help you out. especially with the new carriers, it gives you a little leeway.

here's an example... this is from Rogers but it's the same company:

my friend lost his iPhone 4 last month. (upgraded to the 32GB in July 2010) anyways, i called Rogers on his behalf and spoke with customer relations. at first they wanted to charge my friend $159 + $400 early upgrade fee for a brand new iPhone but i insisted that i pay too much per month and whatnot. needless to say, my friend got a brand new iPhone 4 32GB for $259+tax with the $400 fee waived.

and just so you know, hardware upgrades for Rogers are every 2 years (and i think fido is the same). so not only did they waive $400 but they also sent him a new phone less than 1 year from the original hardware upgrade.

he pays ~$90/month for his service.

Fido operates in a similar manner.. i've done stuff for my brother who is with them. HUP, account changes, etc.

__________

what i'd do in your situation is wait till the iPhone 5, call customer relations and tell them you would like to upgrade to the iPhone 5. only problem is, during launch you might have a little trouble getting that department sending you out a new device so FIRST talk to a regular representative, and then if they can't help, talk to someone higher up.

 

[stevemiller]

sorry to resurrect this thread from a few months ago, but true to my plan, i'm attempting to find out about upgrading my iPhone 3g to a 4s, and i've currently been on hold with fido for the past 2 hrs to find out my options

figured i'd tap into the brain trust here and see if anyone can beat the fido phone reps to answer some of my last questions:

-has anyone on fido with time remaining on their current iPhone contract tried reserving the 4S? i can see the reservation button when i log into my account, but i can't see what the pricing will be for people currently under contract.

-it says on my account that i can renew my contract anytime after oct 24, but that i may still be able to update my handset. so i'm confused, if i reserve a new iPhone now with a 3 yr contract, will i be shooting myself in the foot for being able to renegotiate a better plan? there's definitely some better deals with other carriers, but i'd be happy to stay with fido if they could give me something a little more competitive. (example: i pay for a long distance package to keep in touch with parents, whereas most other carriers offer an "unlimited calls to 10 people of your choice" option... that would save me $20/mo right there)

thanks for any input! i'm at #17 in the phone queue, down from #40!

 

[profets]

If you're happy with Fido and plan on staying, then I would highly suggest getting through to Customer Relations (loyalty/retention cancellation department) and first negotiate a new monthly plan with them.

You're in a great position for negotiation as you're near the end of a 3 year term. Renewing your contract now (to get a much better monthly plan) will not affect your ability to do a hardware upgrade. Best to negotiate a plan first and sign, and then do the 4S upgrade. If you upgrade first you'll be fresh into a new 3 year term and have less negotiating power.

Do you ever check out howardforums or redflagdeals? A lot of fido and rogers related retention info for negotiating and getting a cheaper & better plan.

Just my 2 cents anyway.

 

[stevemiller]

@profets

thanks so much for the info! i had done some searches and saw some howardforums posts of people going through the retentions to get some better deals. i don't even want to be greedy, just something comparable to what i could get through other providers without the hassle of switching! i'll peruse there further for some advice!

my fingers are crossed that when i finally get through to a real person in this phone queue i can get patched into someone with retentions and ask what they can give me in light of the rogers/telus my10 promos. being that i've been giving them phone+data+long distance for this long i'm hoping they'll give me a decent offer!

 

[profets]

^No prob.. Honestly try to get yourself through to cancellations. It'll be best. It's a bit time consuming but there is a lot of great info on those other sites too.

And if you're really unhappy at some point with fido, take your money and shop around, there's several good decent carrier choices and they all work with the iPhone (except for Wind and Mobilicity).

Have you thought about an unlocked iPhone at all?