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Easy Money...tssk tssk ATT

B

blueteg44

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 8, 2009
3
0
I got a good one for you, I had a 2G iPhone, dating back to the original launch. On Tuesday June 16th I purchased a pre-order of a 32GB 3GS at the upgrade price of $299, figuring what the heck I can wait a bit since they said pre orders were going to be 10-14 days behind. Well Friday morning I decided that since I had not received any updates in regards to the status of my pre-order I was going to cancel it and just drive up to my local ATT store and buy one. So I called up the premier store, talked to a service rep who told me that the phone was actually shipping that day but it was still in the warehouse. He then stated that he can't cancel but can't put a note on the order saying DON'T SHIP and when the warehouse people see it they will hold it. IF they do ship it I can just refuse delivery and send it back getting a refund.
Satisfied with that response I jumped in my car, went to the ATT store and picked up my new 32GB 3GS for the upgrade price of $299. Then it dawned on me...did I really have a second phone coming to me for $299? Well hot dog I did, I accepted the delivery, noting the $299 listed on the invoice. Well what did I do next? EBay, up it went and 5 days later I was stuffing $705 in my pocket before taking into account the difference for shipping, PayPal fees, original cost, etc. Long story short I was about $350 richer. All this without swindling the system, If anything I think ATT should have paid more attention to what they were doing...especially because I told the store rep the situation I went through with the Premier store and that the phone will probably ship at the upgrade price.

This is a touch unrelated but worth mentioning. With My 2G I had it jailbroken and had used an app to change my ATT logo next to the signal strength indicator to iPwn3d. Well obviously I backed up my phone before moving to the 3GS. Well when I synced the 3GS with the 2G backup magically my ATT logo changed to iPwn3d? I was just curious has anyone else experienced such good fortune?
 
blueteg44 said:
I got a good one for you, I had a 2G iPhone, dating back to the original launch. On Tuesday June 16th I purchased a pre-order of a 32GB 3GS at the upgrade price of $299, figuring what the heck I can wait a bit since they said pre orders were going to be 10-14 days behind. Well Friday morning I decided that since I had not received any updates in regards to the status of my pre-order I was going to cancel it and just drive up to my local ATT store and buy one. So I called up the premier store, talked to a service rep who told me that the phone was actually shipping that day but it was still in the warehouse. He then stated that he can't cancel but can't put a note on the order saying DON'T SHIP and when the warehouse people see it they will hold it. IF they do ship it I can just refuse delivery and send it back getting a refund.
Satisfied with that response I jumped in my car, went to the ATT store and picked up my new 32GB 3GS for the upgrade price of $299. Then it dawned on me...did I really have a second phone coming to me for $299? Well hot dog I did, I accepted the delivery, noting the $299 listed on the invoice. Well what did I do next? EBay, up it went and 5 days later I was stuffing $705 in my pocket before taking into account the difference for shipping, PayPal fees, original cost, etc. Long story short I was about $350 richer. All this without swindling the system, If anything I think ATT should have paid more attention to what they were doing...especially because I told the store rep the situation I went through with the Premier store and that the phone will probably ship at the upgrade price.

This is a touch unrelated but worth mentioning. With My 2G I had it jailbroken and had used an app to change my ATT logo next to the signal strength indicator to iPwn3d. Well obviously I backed up my phone before moving to the 3GS. Well when I synced the 3GS with the 2G backup magically my ATT logo changed to iPwn3d? I was just curious has anyone else experienced such good fortune?
Click to expand...


As the other poster said - when ATT charges you the full price of the phone you won't have anyone to blame but yourself.
 
samcraig said:
As the other poster said - when ATT charges you the full price of the phone you won't have anyone to blame but yourself.
Click to expand...


True, but the full price is $599. Still a $100 profit. Either way, yes this is a little shady on the OP's part...but If that happened to me, I'd probably do the same thing. He's only different because he posted it.
 
When and if I come to that road I won't sweat it, figure at least I got a loan.
 
truncj said:
True, but the full price is $599. Still a $100 profit. Either way, yes this is a little shady on the OP's part...but If that happened to me, I'd probably do the same thing. He's only different because he posted it.
Click to expand...

I wasn't judging - just stating the obvious that ATT can and most likely will catch up with the order and when they do, they'll probably charge the account. But as the OP already stated - he's cool with that...
 
Yeah, I think the policy is that if you don't activate it on your line within 30 days, you get charged the difference.
 
JBaker122586 said:
Yeah, I think the policy is that if you don't activate it on your line within 30 days, you get charged the difference.
Click to expand...

That is exactly the great thing about this, I did activate a newly purchased 3GS on the line. I have only one account never more.
 
i think he's in the clear... they can't legally recharge his card for their error...

if you buy something and it rings up for $10 cheaper... that's what you pay... they can't come back to you the next day, week or month and say "we're going to charge your card the extra $10 cuz we goofed."

not saying what he did is right... cuz he DID use the system.... but they can't, AFAIK, legally charge him anymore than what he originally authorized them to charge.....

that's why so many people jump on pricing errors on websites... get your order in and hopefully shipped before they find their error and change the price/stop shipments.... i've been on a lot of websites where people (me included) have gotten great deals.... all legally....
 
caligurl said:
i think he's in the clear... they can't legally recharge his card for their error...

if you buy something and it rings up for $10 cheaper... that's what you pay... they can't come back to you the next day, week or month and say "we're going to charge your card the extra $10 cuz we goofed."

not saying what he did is right... cuz he DID use the system.... but they can't, AFAIK, legally charge him anymore than what he originally authorized them to charge.....

that's why so many people jump on pricing errors on websites... get your order in and hopefully shipped before they find their error and change the price/stop shipments.... i've been on a lot of websites where people (me included) have gotten great deals.... all legally....
Click to expand...

amazon.com is really good for that.
 
caligurl said:
not saying what he did is right... cuz he DID use the system.... but they can't, AFAIK, legally charge him anymore than what he originally authorized them to charge.....
Click to expand...

I believe that on the iPhone box, it says that the phone must be activated on your account within 30 days.
 
caligurl said:
i think he's in the clear... they can't legally recharge his card for their error...

if you buy something and it rings up for $10 cheaper... that's what you pay... they can't come back to you the next day, week or month and say "we're going to charge your card the extra $10 cuz we goofed."

not saying what he did is right... cuz he DID use the system.... but they can't, AFAIK, legally charge him anymore than what he originally authorized them to charge.....

that's why so many people jump on pricing errors on websites... get your order in and hopefully shipped before they find their error and change the price/stop shipments.... i've been on a lot of websites where people (me included) have gotten great deals.... all legally....
Click to expand...
They can legally do so if you contractually let them.
 
caligurl said:
i think he's in the clear... they can't legally recharge his card for their error...

if you buy something and it rings up for $10 cheaper... that's what you pay... they can't come back to you the next day, week or month and say "we're going to charge your card the extra $10 cuz we goofed."

not saying what he did is right... cuz he DID use the system.... but they can't, AFAIK, legally charge him anymore than what he originally authorized them to charge.....

that's why so many people jump on pricing errors on websites... get your order in and hopefully shipped before they find their error and change the price/stop shipments.... i've been on a lot of websites where people (me included) have gotten great deals.... all legally....
Click to expand...

massive FAIL - and not just on your use of poor language :)

There are terms when accepting a phone at a subsidized price. He signed for the package and/or picked up the phone at a store. So with that, he made an agreement to pay for the item at the going rate.

Your store/price example is a wrong analogy
 
blueteg44 said:
I got a good one for you, I had a 2G iPhone, dating back to the original launch. On Tuesday June 16th I purchased a pre-order of a 32GB 3GS at the upgrade price of $299, figuring what the heck I can wait a bit since they said pre orders were going to be 10-14 days behind. Well Friday morning I decided that since I had not received any updates in regards to the status of my pre-order I was going to cancel it and just drive up to my local ATT store and buy one. So I called up the premier store, talked to a service rep who told me that the phone was actually shipping that day but it was still in the warehouse. He then stated that he can't cancel but can't put a note on the order saying DON'T SHIP and when the warehouse people see it they will hold it. IF they do ship it I can just refuse delivery and send it back getting a refund.
Satisfied with that response I jumped in my car, went to the ATT store and picked up my new 32GB 3GS for the upgrade price of $299. Then it dawned on me...did I really have a second phone coming to me for $299? Well hot dog I did, I accepted the delivery, noting the $299 listed on the invoice. Well what did I do next? EBay, up it went and 5 days later I was stuffing $705 in my pocket before taking into account the difference for shipping, PayPal fees, original cost, etc. Long story short I was about $350 richer. All this without swindling the system, If anything I think ATT should have paid more attention to what they were doing...especially because I told the store rep the situation I went through with the Premier store and that the phone will probably ship at the upgrade price.

This is a touch unrelated but worth mentioning. With My 2G I had it jailbroken and had used an app to change my ATT logo next to the signal strength indicator to iPwn3d. Well obviously I backed up my phone before moving to the 3GS. Well when I synced the 3GS with the 2G backup magically my ATT logo changed to iPwn3d? I was just curious has anyone else experienced such good fortune?
Click to expand...

did you ship off the pre-ordered one?
if so, its bound to your number, and the buyer will need your SSN to activate (last 4 numbers at least), they'll activate on your line (shutting off the one you actually have), and then swap SIMs and activate on theirs, at which point you can then reactivate yours (I think, although your SIM MAY be useless at this point, not too sure how this works)

either way, you really shouldn't give your SSN out, so you may have a bit of a problem

truncj said:
True, but the full price is $599. Still a $100 profit. Either way, yes this is a little shady on the OP's part...but If that happened to me, I'd probably do the same thing. He's only different because he posted it.
Click to expand...

its actually $699, he bought the 32gig
 
caligurl said:
i think he's in the clear... they can't legally recharge his card for their error...

if you buy something and it rings up for $10 cheaper... that's what you pay... they can't come back to you the next day, week or month and say "we're going to charge your card the extra $10 cuz we goofed."

not saying what he did is right... cuz he DID use the system.... but they can't, AFAIK, legally charge him anymore than what he originally authorized them to charge.....

that's why so many people jump on pricing errors on websites... get your order in and hopefully shipped before they find their error and change the price/stop shipments.... i've been on a lot of websites where people (me included) have gotten great deals.... all legally....
Click to expand...


Read the terms again when you actually pre-order online.

Damn someone beat me :(
 
samcraig said:
massive FAIL - and not just on your use of poor language :)

There are terms when accepting a phone at a subsidized price. He signed for the package and/or picked up the phone at a store. So with that, he made an agreement to pay for the item at the going rate.

Your store/price example is a wrong analogy
Click to expand...

While they did FAIL, so did you. The language isn't poor the use of it is, so it should have been "poor use of language". You could also have went with "poor language use."
 
TMar said:
While they did FAIL, so did you. The language isn't poor the use of it is, so it should have been "poor use of language". You could also have went with "poor language use."
Click to expand...

Massive fail on your part as well.

Find it and fix it. It is pretty obvious.
 
Absolutely NOT true. The pre-ordered phone is not bound to anything. I have sold 2 unopened "pre-ordered" 32GB iPhones already without any problem (or giving out my SSN to the buyer). The only thing that you are "bound to" is keeping basic service for 2 years .... not even iPhone service or data service, just basic phone service. All they MIGHT need is a new free sim from an ATT corporate store.

dccorona said:
did you ship off the pre-ordered one?
if so, its bound to your number, and the buyer will need your SSN to activate (last 4 numbers at least), they'll activate on your line (shutting off the one you actually have), and then swap SIMs and activate on theirs, at which point you can then reactivate yours (I think, although your SIM MAY be useless at this point, not too sure how this works)

either way, you really shouldn't give your SSN out, so you may have a bit of a problem



its actually $699, he bought the 32gig
Click to expand...
 
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