As a bit of an explainer to non-Americans who might not be aware, our telecommunications companies are seemingly always looking for ways to get extra money out of customers for basically doing nothing, and this took the cake for that.
I upgraded my iPhone recently, making the purchase at an Apple Store. The retail experience at the stores has really gone downhill; wait times even on non-product launch days and not on weekends is incredibly long, and I've had multiple instances where I'm put on a list for a representative to help me, only to check in a bit later and discover that my name has somehow dropped off the list. Bemoaning the general retail experience aside, I was a bit shocked at a part of the sales process I had with an Apple Store employee who was really quite nice and helpful, and I'm guessing either had a misunderstanding or was instructed to say these things.
I'm a long-time AT&T user, so naturally the store employee selected an AT&T phone for me. Things were proceeding smoothly until we got to the end. For a reason that wasn't clear to me, they ran things through my phone plan. Everything checked out, and right before I hit the button to accept everything, the store employee told me that AT&T would be charging me a $30 upgrade fee.
An upgrade fee from AT&T? What on earth for? I wasn't doing any special financing, nor was I changing my phone plan. I wouldn't even be taking a new SIM card requiring a number transfer - I'd be using the SIM card from my old phone. There was literally nothing that needed to involve AT&T in this transaction. The salesperson noted that AT&T wasn't unique in this, and that other cellular providers also charge upgrade fees. Yet to me, this made no sense.
I apologized to the salesperson, knowing that this would set us back a bit, and asked if they had any of the SIM-free (generic unlocked) versions of the phone configuration that I wanted. They did. She noted that there would indeed be no "upgrade fee" associated with this version, but it wasn't recommended. It would work, but I might experience more frequent call drops or random service outages if I didn't pay the upgrade fee. To the best of my knowledge (and experience, because this was far from my first time transferring SIM cards between unlocked phones) that was an untruth, but I didn't want to be one of those annoying customers who pick fights with salespeople, so I just let her explain her part and politely said I'd take my chances.
But she wasn't done. SIM cards have shelf lives, she told me. She admitted that she wasn't entirely sure whether that meant there was a limited number of times you could swap them between phones, or if it was based on the age of the SIM card, but it was another frightening-sounding reason to go with the AT&T phone. Again, to the best of my knowledge, this is another untruth. I pressed forward with my request. A quick cancellation of the sales process, running the AT&T version back, and bringing out the SIM-free version, and I was on my way.
I am a technology fan and regularly read about technology and its developments. It is crazy to me that you would need to have a level of comfort and "expertise" to not be swindled in this manner. I wonder just how many people are needlessly paying this "upgrade fee" for absolutely nothing. I am also incredibly disappointed in Apple. When I looked it up later, the upgrade fee is only supposed to come into play in certain conditions: if you're financing through the phone company, or if you're changing your plan. Granted, the article is outdated by about two years, but to me those are occasions where the "upgrade fee" sort of makes sense. So it's possible that this represented a lack of training on the salesperson's part... but the whole bit about why I should go with the AT&T version instead of the locked version was utter nonsense and came off as a scare tactic that I'd expect from an AT&T employee, not an Apple Store salesperson.
I should note that I also recently upgraded my wife's iPhone through Apple's online store, of course getting a generic unlocked one. There were no notices about having problems with service, nor with SIM card degradation.
For multiple reasons, I think I'll be steering clear of the physical Apple Store locations for anything besides having a look at the products in person. I will provide feedback to Apple on this experience. But I thought I'd post about it here, partly to warn others to make sure that they're not getting ripped off.
I upgraded my iPhone recently, making the purchase at an Apple Store. The retail experience at the stores has really gone downhill; wait times even on non-product launch days and not on weekends is incredibly long, and I've had multiple instances where I'm put on a list for a representative to help me, only to check in a bit later and discover that my name has somehow dropped off the list. Bemoaning the general retail experience aside, I was a bit shocked at a part of the sales process I had with an Apple Store employee who was really quite nice and helpful, and I'm guessing either had a misunderstanding or was instructed to say these things.
I'm a long-time AT&T user, so naturally the store employee selected an AT&T phone for me. Things were proceeding smoothly until we got to the end. For a reason that wasn't clear to me, they ran things through my phone plan. Everything checked out, and right before I hit the button to accept everything, the store employee told me that AT&T would be charging me a $30 upgrade fee.
An upgrade fee from AT&T? What on earth for? I wasn't doing any special financing, nor was I changing my phone plan. I wouldn't even be taking a new SIM card requiring a number transfer - I'd be using the SIM card from my old phone. There was literally nothing that needed to involve AT&T in this transaction. The salesperson noted that AT&T wasn't unique in this, and that other cellular providers also charge upgrade fees. Yet to me, this made no sense.
I apologized to the salesperson, knowing that this would set us back a bit, and asked if they had any of the SIM-free (generic unlocked) versions of the phone configuration that I wanted. They did. She noted that there would indeed be no "upgrade fee" associated with this version, but it wasn't recommended. It would work, but I might experience more frequent call drops or random service outages if I didn't pay the upgrade fee. To the best of my knowledge (and experience, because this was far from my first time transferring SIM cards between unlocked phones) that was an untruth, but I didn't want to be one of those annoying customers who pick fights with salespeople, so I just let her explain her part and politely said I'd take my chances.
But she wasn't done. SIM cards have shelf lives, she told me. She admitted that she wasn't entirely sure whether that meant there was a limited number of times you could swap them between phones, or if it was based on the age of the SIM card, but it was another frightening-sounding reason to go with the AT&T phone. Again, to the best of my knowledge, this is another untruth. I pressed forward with my request. A quick cancellation of the sales process, running the AT&T version back, and bringing out the SIM-free version, and I was on my way.
I am a technology fan and regularly read about technology and its developments. It is crazy to me that you would need to have a level of comfort and "expertise" to not be swindled in this manner. I wonder just how many people are needlessly paying this "upgrade fee" for absolutely nothing. I am also incredibly disappointed in Apple. When I looked it up later, the upgrade fee is only supposed to come into play in certain conditions: if you're financing through the phone company, or if you're changing your plan. Granted, the article is outdated by about two years, but to me those are occasions where the "upgrade fee" sort of makes sense. So it's possible that this represented a lack of training on the salesperson's part... but the whole bit about why I should go with the AT&T version instead of the locked version was utter nonsense and came off as a scare tactic that I'd expect from an AT&T employee, not an Apple Store salesperson.
I should note that I also recently upgraded my wife's iPhone through Apple's online store, of course getting a generic unlocked one. There were no notices about having problems with service, nor with SIM card degradation.
For multiple reasons, I think I'll be steering clear of the physical Apple Store locations for anything besides having a look at the products in person. I will provide feedback to Apple on this experience. But I thought I'd post about it here, partly to warn others to make sure that they're not getting ripped off.
