Customer Backlash on iPhone Rate Plans, Launch Approaches

[Soreo]

The rates have probably stayed the same for the iPhone in the US, I'm not sure- but I saw them yesterday, and it's plain out ridic-uh-luss. I mean, yeah, I'll pay the big bucks for an iPhone, but $70 for 450 minutes, plus $15 for decent texting?
I love Apple, and of course, I'm not gonna act all "omg apple sux" over the fact that it's expensive, it's expected. I mean, Apple makes high-quality, very well-crafted products, but still- it seems to be so dirty of how AT&T so openly takes advantage of the fact that since iPhone demand is so high, that they would charge so much for some decent/indecent plan.
I don't know. Just speaking my mind.
I'm still gonna be in that line, even if
Instinct is lookin' good...

 

[JoeG4]

$30/month cell phone for internet is outrageous? Uh, guys....take a look at other internet plans?

People complain constantly about the price of gas, I think it's just as justified to complain about the price of mobile phone service (which, IMHO is an obscene ripoff almost everywhere around the globe!)

Why does AT&T charge so much? BECAUSE THEY CAN. Lots of stupid people sign 2 year contracts with AT&T and other mobile companies not realizing they're going to be paying $65/month for what? Not much really.

I pay $60/month for vonage and DSL, with that I can do whatever I want (even host stuff, which isn't against my DSL service's TOS), and I can talk as much as I please without getting charged a penny more.

Thing is, cellphone internet isn't like home internet, you're not going to get much use out of it. Aside from boredom and emails, along with the occasional search for places to go.. what good does it serve?

You could get an iPod touch and just as easily pull up to a place that has open wifi (not that hard to find) and grab directions as necessary.

I'm sure there are people out there who will say that the iphone's service is a bargain, but it's really stupid. Likewise for just about all smartphone plans.

 

[Bakey]

Hell yea! i Would be pissed too! God bless america!

Either that's uber sarcasm (then well done sir). Or you're being serious!!!

 

[drakeshipway]

if Rogers were to change their iPhone plans, (even though they probably wont)
If people have bought the iPhone on launch day, would they be able to get the plan price drop? Just wondering, even though we all know it won't happen.

pce

 

[nagromme]

isn't it that the old data plan was cheaper than other phones because unlike other phones iphone wasn't subsidised but the new data plans is the same one available for all the other phones as iphone is now to be subsidised? it's not more because the new iphone is 3G rather than only EDGE, is it?

Absolutely, the subsidy is the biggest change. One I'm not happy with: I'd rather pay more up front. Instead, AT&T will be buying most of my phone for me, and I'll be paying them back month after month. Oh, well--I don't like it but I'll tolerate it, and I understand why Apple is tolerating it too.

So there are 2 legitimate reasons to pay more than the old iPhone plans: 3G speeds and subsidies--and you can't easily compare the old and new plans as a result. But you CAN compare the iPhone 3G plans to other 3G phone plans. They're the same

A new EDGE-only plan (which I think AT&T should offer) would have to cost more than the old EDGE plan that had no subsidy. How much more? Would it be nearly as much as 3G anyway? Probably only AT&T knows for sure. But the option isn't there.

Then don't complain when you raked over the coals for "having a lame reason to complain about the price."

$30/month cell phone for internet is outrageous? Uh, guys....take a look at other internet plans?

So... I take it you feel those OTHER Internet plans should also not be criticized?

I don't get the mindset that "thou shalt not criticize a corporation." Pricing should be a TWO-way dialog between the corporation and its customers, not a one way "take it or leave it." Yes, if you don't like the resulting price, you must leave it, and have no right to "steal" it or anything. But you DO have the right to say something. Just as the corporation has the right to look at what is being said by their customers, and act as they see fit--within the law.

I'm not saying people are justified to complain about the price--I've posted in detail in this thread some reasons NOT to complain. There are also reasons TO complain (paying the same for EDGE speed vs. 3G speed being one). But I feel strongly that they DO have the right to complain, and that some good might even come out of it

You, of course, have the right to tell people they should be silent

 

[macwh0re]

I'm not buying it because $80+ a month (after tax) is outrageous - an apples to apples iPhone plan (discounting the fact that $60/month is internet service) costs ~$140 a month after tax to replace the $70/month cell service we have on our 2 cellphones (combined)..

$30/month for cellphone internet is outrageous, you can get decent DSL and even cable service for that much! For what? A stupid little phone? Gimme a break people.

You are paying for mobility. You know, the ability to travel anywhere in the country with your phone. Being able to access internet nationwide. You aren't confined to your house. Good luck doing that with your cable/dsl.

 

[maokh]

even at&t is pulling the same trash, thinking that people will just swallow and pay anything for this phone. This type of garbage is a great way to kill the iPhone.

The $20 to $30 increase for data is only part of the story. The other "big thing" is the removal of any sort of text messaging plan, so you are either forced to either pay a $0.20 tariff per message, or purchase an additional text messaging plan. Even some of the nice 2G iphone rate plans are gone (ie: $5/mo per line for unlimited m2m text messaging)

After all said and done, you are really paying $40-$50 for that data plan which was $20.

I have a family plan with 2 iPhones on it, and i very well could upgrade to 3G phones if i wanted to..... but only for a bill that breaks well into the 200's? another 2 years with these fools? why? I can't help but feel robbed here. I'm almost tempted to avoid upgrading just on principal.

I wish another US GSM carrier picked this sucker up. Right now they aren't fighting for my business, they are just telling me to bend over.

A lot of other international markets have the same issue...with various degrees of bending over for the "privilege" of using such a handset on their network. This 3G iPhone is at severe risk of being a complete dud.

 

[Eric Lewis]

Rogers iPhone 3G are being diverted?

Doesnt the box have Rogers info on the back and french intructions? how would these go to the europe?

 

[Vegasmo1]

Speak with your wallet!!!!!!!!! Wait 3 months and see what happens.

I agree. iPhone V1 owners let's all wait a few months, let AT&T and Apple ask themselves why we didn't buy the new one. Of course the newbies will buy them, but we know AT&T and Apple think they are going to beat the down economy with the iPhone profit. When they don't, the rates will go down to grab the V1 owners.

 

[sananda]

Rogers iPhone 3G are being diverted?

Doesnt the box have Rogers info on the back and french intructions? how would these go to the europe?

don't know about the box, but the european iphones so far have had "ce" on the back.

 

[hotshotharry]

Put a CDMA chip in it!

I have a killer data plan i have had for a couple years

Besides how often does the avg person travel outside CDMA coverage? Like really, people are all wound up on well one day next year i might go to europe ... so use wifi for those few days!

Increase the competiton, release it in CDMA!!!

 

[Eric Lewis]

Rogers iPhone 3G are being diverted?

Doesnt the box have Rogers info on the back and french intructions? how would these go to the europe?

Also the adapter for the plug is differnet? so the box for a Europe iphone would be much larger for the plug

I call this diverting BS

Its just rumors and a way to make people more mad at rogers...

My rogers is getting 150 8gbs/16gbs black/white

this is BSSSS

 

[icohen2002]

apple make big mistake with pricing

i dont know how and when the stupid thing happened to big successes specially when a company making a big develop like iphone and losing the head on pricing and giving the power to the provider .please apple wake up and the right thing because our is over and on this kind of price you will remain with your iphone in the stock

 

[Compufix]

No Pick your plan

What infuriates me, is I dont MIND the the data plan and such being brought up to the rest of AT&T's plans.....that only makes sense, and I love the fact the phone itself is cheaper. What I dont like, is that we can't upgrade our iPhone because AT&T will NOT be allowing the Pick your Plan packages with the 3G.

I have verified this with several phone calls to AT&T as well as having the info looked up at AT&T Corporate stores. Inititally we were told that you could just swap the SIM and call AT&T with the new EMI number, but that was a few weeks ago. Every where I read, points to no Pick You Plan support by AT&T.

THAT is an outrage. So, I have read that we should be able to convert our plan to a post-paid plan, or maybe Apple/AT&T will change their minds (other countries are suposedly allowing it, so the phone can do it).

Maybe I should start an online petition.....I wonder how many Pick your Plan customers do not know this little fact yet....

-Compufix

 

[CalmEnvy]

Also the adapter for the plug is differnet? so the box for a Europe iphone would be much larger for the plug

I call this diverting BS

Its just rumors and a way to make people more mad at rogers...

My rogers is getting 150 8gbs/16gbs black/white

this is BSSSS

I call BS as well. Although all of those 150 units will most likely sell to Canadians who know nothing about the plans. I'll be staying with Bell and getting a Samsung Instinct, Rogers really screwed up big time.

 

[Eric Lewis]

I bet Apple will pull the plug in Canada

 

[Sijmen]

Then don't complain when you raked over the coals for "having a lame reason to complain about the price."

$30/month cell phone for internet is outrageous? Uh, guys....take a look at other internet plans?

I'm not into the American market but I know the German prices are very expensive compared to other offerings from around here. Compare our (great) Dutch T-Mobile pricing with the German T-Mobile pricing and you'll see that our lovely neighbours (who, by the way, are clearly worse at playing football ) aren't getting a good deal at all and have more than enough reason to complain.

 

[JoeG4]

You are paying for mobility. You know, the ability to travel anywhere in the country with your phone. Being able to access internet nationwide. You aren't confined to your house. Good luck doing that with your cable/dsl.

Right, but you can't use that internet service on anything besides the iPhone itself (without a nice sum of work to make internet sharing work), so it's not *that* useful.

 

[daneoni]

I'm not sure I understand why those who can't afford the iPhone feel as if they have some right to own one.

The price increase sounds very normal today, we live in a world where improvements come at a cost.

As time passes, you expect to get paid more, while paying more taxes and new technology will ALWAYS cost more.

However, the whiners in here -- expect to get the new iPhone and plan at a lower price point, but will demand higher levels of service quality from both Apple and AT&T.

Heck, if I were AT&T I'd be charging more if I knew I had to support a bunch of penny pinching whiners who should be using the free phone option anyway.

I have read numerous posts in here about $10.00 and $20.00 causing massive budgetary concerns. If $20.00 breaks you, then you have much larger problems then the data and texting plans of AT&T.

It's not a right, it's a choice! If you can't afford it and still do it, then it's irresponsible as well.

There are many things in life I can't afford and you won't find me posting online about it.

I can pretty much guarantee this is the same bunch of people who claim to be so poor, but are sitting in front of their LCD TV with cable and broadband Internet. Go check out the real world, they don't have that stuff and aren't in here whining about the price of a mobile data plan.

Now I expect to get all of the excuses why you feel justified and I am a rotten person for suggesting anything other than "you are right, and they are wrong".

I disagree with this logic. If it were true computers should be getting increasingly expensive but this isn't the case. Nowadays you get more power for a relatively low cost.

i'm not gonna attempt to speak for everybody but i think people are just miffed that the price plans didn't stay the same...like say in the UK and some things were even stripped away and the only reason is monopoly. SMS doesnt cost AT&T anything they're just charging because they know people cant live without it (twittering, pounce, qwerty keyboard using generation) and there are no other competitors to undermine them hence people will have no choice but to pay. You could argue subsidy makeup but even thats not a strong argument

AT&T/Rogers and everyone else are doing this...because they can and when you start gouging customers just because you can then....

In the UK when iPhone 1 came out, the only people who got it where hardcore fans/those with coin. Majority ignored it because they could get better deals from competitiors. I mean why buy an iPhone for 269 and pay 35/month only to get 200 minutes/texts when i can go over to T-mobile/vodafone/orange/3 and get something similar to the iPhone (Viewty) and helluva of a lot more minutes/texts for my money?

This of course forced O2 to adjust their tariffs

I agree with you that people often make outrageous demands and have self entitlement issues but sometimes a consumer just want decent service at a decent price

 

[BigPrince]

More power to the customers!! To bad it probably will not do much.

 

[AppleMojo]

It's not the $15 dollar increase to get the same plan that breaks us, its the extra $180 over a 12 month period that breaks us, in addition to the fact that paying $5, $15, or $20 dollars for texting is utterly ridiculous. And even if the $180 is affordable to us, is the added cost worth it? I can only imagine how many people are gladly paying more than $15 a month just to send around 20MB worth of texts a month.

This makes no sense.

You CAN afford it at $15 extra per month, or you cannot. It's that simple.

Thats like saying that I don't have an issue with a $2k mortgage, but it's the $24,000 over 12 months that I can't afford.

Huh!?

 

[macwh0re]

What infuriates me, is I dont MIND the the data plan and such being brought up to the rest of AT&T's plans.....that only makes sense, and I love the fact the phone itself is cheaper. What I dont like, is that we can't upgrade our iPhone because AT&T will NOT be allowing the Pick your Plan packages with the 3G.

I have verified this with several phone calls to AT&T as well as having the info looked up at AT&T Corporate stores. Inititally we were told that you could just swap the SIM and call AT&T with the new EMI number, but that was a few weeks ago. Every where I read, points to no Pick You Plan support by AT&T.

THAT is an outrage. So, I have read that we should be able to convert our plan to a post-paid plan, or maybe Apple/AT&T will change their minds (other countries are suposedly allowing it, so the phone can do it).

Maybe I should start an online petition.....I wonder how many Pick your Plan customers do not know this little fact yet....

-Compufix

Initially you won't be able to use PYP. After a few months you should be able to, being that they will have a "no commitment" price.

 

[swingerofbirch]

I was thinking about something. This applies to all phones, but using the iPhone for example: ATT separates what they charge for voice, data, and text messaging.

I'm not a techie, but I know cell phones use radio waves to communicate. Are the voice, data, and text messages all going out and coming in through the same radio waves?

If so, it would be a bit like an Internet service provider charging one fee for e-mail access, one for AIM, one for a web-browser.

I agree with someone else who said it would be nicer if companies like ATT just resigned themselves to being the pipeline, but I suppose that makes them a commodity, which means lower profit margins. Maybe we should just have the government run radio signals and then let anyone who wants develops products for those signals. I know some people worry about big brother, but if you've watched the news at least once in the last five years, you would know that there is basically anything goes eavesdropping on anyone because of collusive agreements with the telecoms and US government. It seems to me that in this day the Internet and wireless frequencies are becoming closer to utilities like water which we trust our government to provide. In some ways for young children, having Internet access is more important than having a free public library.

 

[macwh0re]

Right, but you can't use that internet service on anything besides the iPhone itself (without a nice sum of work to make internet sharing work), so it's not *that* useful.

Right, but you can take it anywhere.

 

[AppleMojo]

I disagree with this logic. If it were true computers should be getting increasingly expensive but this isn't the case. Nowadays you get more power for a relatively low cost.

...

I agree with you that people often make outrageous demands and have self entitlement issues but sometimes a consumer just want decent service at a decent price

Nah, your computer isn't _filled_ with new technology. It's old technology.

Remember, new technology costs money. Once the technology is initially paid for, then the price drops. It's been this way for as long as people have been inventing and selling.

Only small components in a computer get new updates now days, and yes, you do pay for it.