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I apologize if this has already been posted, but I was looking at my upgrade...
- Thread starter LoganT
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You are eligible for the $199 pricing on the iPhone on 1/3/2009. Since the iPhone requires a 2yr contract, "no-commitment" pricing is not an option.
That's bulls-it. You're telling me that I'm not allowed to buy the phone until January? Why?
You must have bought a phone at a subsidized price. You can still buy an iPhone just not at $199.
Yeah but why would it say "with the exception of the iPhone"? ATM I have to pay the full price for any phone on AT&T. So if I had to pay an unsubsidized price for the iPhone, what would be the exception?
My mom's line says:
You can take advantage of our no-commitment pricing option with the exception of iPhone.This line may be eligible for an equipment discount on 04/08/2009. More Details
My line says:
This line is eligible for equipment discount pricing when you sign up for a 2-year service agreement. You can also take advantage of our no-commitment pricing option. All iPhone purchases require a 2-year service commitment.
So basically you (the OP) will be able to buy an iPhone, but not for 199 or 299, but a higher price.
You can take advantage of our no-commitment pricing option with the exception of iPhone.This line may be eligible for an equipment discount on 04/08/2009. More Details
My line says:
This line is eligible for equipment discount pricing when you sign up for a 2-year service agreement. You can also take advantage of our no-commitment pricing option. All iPhone purchases require a 2-year service commitment.
So basically you (the OP) will be able to buy an iPhone, but not for 199 or 299, but a higher price.
The exception is that you can't get a no-commitment price on the iPhone. I am not sure exactly what this means. I assume the offer subsidized phones after you have been a customer in good standing for awhile. The exception is the iPhone which requires a 2yr contract.
Well, there's no-commitment pricing for the iPhone since any purchase of the iPhone "requires" a commitment of a 2 year contract.
Which makes the iPhone come into a one of a kind of category, where if you are forced to pay a full unknown price for the phone you still have to commit to 2 years.
That to me seems strange and backwards. It defeats the whole purpose of subsidizing with 2 year contracts. So if you are forced into a 2 year contract, and others get a discount, it seems unfair no matter how you look at how much ATT paid for your last phone. If they are going to do this, subsidized price and a commitment no matter what, then it should be one universal price for everyone, no matter the status of your upgrade eligibility. How can they think they can have it both ways? Hopefully this will all be cleared up soon.
EDIT: I edited my post to remove the data plan, I thought it was forced too. Can't recall where I first read that, but ATT's iPhone page under features specifically says you can add a consumer data plan.
Are you sure you will be forced into a data plan. ATT is saying they are treating the iPhone like a smartphone. Smartphones don't require a data plan. I don't think this point is entirely clear yet.
I put an edit on my post. I swear I read that somewhere, not sure if it was one of the many memos or I got mixed up. On the iPhone page at ATT it does say "Add a Consumer Data Plan," Listed under features. So maybe it's not forced.
I think it means
My upgrade status:
You can take advantage of our no-commitment pricing option, with the exception of iPhone which requires a 2 year commitment.This line may be eligible for an equipment discount on 01/06/2010
Ok, what I guess it means is that you can not take advantage of the discount you get when u have been with them for 2 year since its too soon. Except for the iphone! Meaning that you can still get the iphone for 199.99 or 299.99 if you renew your contract for 2 years regardless of the time left.
My upgrade status:
You can take advantage of our no-commitment pricing option, with the exception of iPhone which requires a 2 year commitment.This line may be eligible for an equipment discount on 01/06/2010
Ok, what I guess it means is that you can not take advantage of the discount you get when u have been with them for 2 year since its too soon. Except for the iphone! Meaning that you can still get the iphone for 199.99 or 299.99 if you renew your contract for 2 years regardless of the time left.
Wow, you managed to put an optimistic spin on it! I hope you're right. When I saw the change in language this morning, I found it negative, but it's really just very cryptic, as everything has been.
You may be right, they say right there, you can't buy the iphone at a no-commitment price because it requires the 2 year contract. Thus, only two options from there, either they refuse to sell it to you at all, or you get the $199-$299 price after signing for two years.
Lets see the them try to invent a third pricing category. Right now they refer full price as no-commitment pricing, and then there's equipment discount with 2 year contract pricing. So what do you call the pricing on a phone that requires a 2 year contract?
The third option is obviously the one we hope isn't true: a higher price plus the 2 year contract, therefor it's not "no-commitment pricing," but higher "commitment pricing." I hope not!
I think the line is cryptic only if you're trying to force an optimistic spin on it. AT&Ts documents so far say that there will not be a no-commit price on the iPhone. Thus "You can take advantage of our no-commitment pricing option with the exception of iPhone." Meaning you can't buy the iPhone at the subsidized price (199/299) until the date in the text, and you can't buy one full price without a contract extension.
The gray area is what will they charge for ineligible subscribers. Not published yet.
The gray area is what will they charge for ineligible subscribers. Not published yet.
You sure your message doesn't say this?
If so, it means that you can buy any phone from AT&T for full price and not be locked to a contract, EXCEPT the iPhone. I suppose they're saying there's no way for you to buy an iPhone without renewing your contract for 2 years. That way, you can qualify for the $199 and $299 pricing.
And if that's the case, then doesn't that mean EVERYONE is eligible for the $199 and $299, regardless of upgrade status? That's what that message sounds like, to me at least.
If so, it means that you can buy any phone from AT&T for full price and not be locked to a contract, EXCEPT the iPhone. I suppose they're saying there's no way for you to buy an iPhone without renewing your contract for 2 years. That way, you can qualify for the $199 and $299 pricing.
And if that's the case, then doesn't that mean EVERYONE is eligible for the $199 and $299, regardless of upgrade status? That's what that message sounds like, to me at least.
No, that will not be the case. If you are not upgrade eligible, you will have to pay some unspecified higher-than-199/299 price AND sign a two-year contract. What you won't be able to do is buy an iPhone at a no-commit price.
You can't say that for sure. The bottom line is that we've heard 50 billion different possibilities. There is still nothing official, so don't tell this guy that he will "100%" be paying some higher price. NOBODY KNOWS FOR SURE!
Mine says this-
Upgrade
This line is eligible for equipment discount pricing when you sign up for a 2-year service agreement. You can also take advantage of our no-commitment pricing option. All iPhone purchases require a 2-year service commitment.
.. I sold mine but kept the data plan on. It's a little different than what the original poster put up. I dunno if this really helps anything but mine seems to lean more towards me being upgradable for the iphone.
Upgrade
This line is eligible for equipment discount pricing when you sign up for a 2-year service agreement. You can also take advantage of our no-commitment pricing option. All iPhone purchases require a 2-year service commitment.
.. I sold mine but kept the data plan on. It's a little different than what the original poster put up. I dunno if this really helps anything but mine seems to lean more towards me being upgradable for the iphone.
You can't say that for sure. The bottom line is that we've heard 50 billion different possibilities. There is still nothing official, so don't tell this guy that he will "100%" be paying some higher price. NOBODY KNOWS FOR SURE!
The policy may change between now and the 11th, but what I stated is "for sure" the current intent. No speculation.
Hmmm...
Cingular customer since Feb 2007, bought on iPhone on launch day.
This line is eligible for reduced equipment pricing when you sign up for a new 2-year service agreement. All iPhone purchases require a 2-year service commitment.
No idea what their actual criteria is, but yay?
Cingular customer since Feb 2007, bought on iPhone on launch day.
This line is eligible for reduced equipment pricing when you sign up for a new 2-year service agreement. All iPhone purchases require a 2-year service commitment.
No idea what their actual criteria is, but yay?
When you signed up in Feb, did you get a discounted phone?
I thought the way it worked, trying to recall what I read on ATT pages on launch, was that if you were a current customer in a 2 year contract and not eligible for an upgrade, you could still buy an iPhone (being full price anyway) and the 2 years starts over, not adding to your current contract. But your upgrade eligibility would stay the same, if it was 18 months away, it was still 18 months away before you could do a regular upgrade.
But what gets me is ATT says any iPhone owner will be allowed to upgrade at the lower price. What happened to their upgrade eligibility being based on their last contract before buying the first iPhone? You were not given a clean slate from what I read.
Example, say someone a few months ago bought an expensive smart phone subsidized for 2 years, say a Blackberry. He'd be 18+ months away from an upgrade. Then right after this person bought the first iPhone full price. The 2 years start over, but the upgrade eligibility stays the same. Few months later the 3G iPhone is out. Is ATT saying all iPhone owners will get the subsidized price no matter how recent that customer got a subsidized phone? Shouldn't the equipment discount qualification be counting from the date of that Blackberry purchase in this example? Not give that customer a free ticket to the next iPhone lower price, yet hold use to our upgrade status for not buying the first iPhone?
What the heck. This is so confusing, should I just borrow a friends iPhone, activate it on iTunes, then give it back to the friend, but now that my plan is an iPhone plan, I automatically get the subsidized price despite just moments ago I would have had to wait months for my upgrade eligibility?
Just wanted to clarify this more:
Here's a snip-it from someone's reply from ATT:
"You must accept AT&T and Apple's Terms and Conditions, as well as select a 3G iPhone Data plan before leaving the store. You can add the $30.00 per month 3G iPhone Unlimited Data (Email-Web) plan that includes Visual Voicemail to your qualifying voice plan. "
That's from this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/501955/
And then there was that leaked internal ATT memo, which said:
"All iPhone 3G customers are required to have one of the new data plans and qualifying voice plan."
One of the many sites with that memo: http://www.mobilewhack.com/att-internal-3g-iphone-memo-leaked/
Unless that memo was proven false, as I can't seem to find it here.
Because at the moment, while you have to pay for the full price of any phone, you aren't committed to that phone (as in it doesn't renew your contract). The iPhone is the exception since it requires a two year contract (thus, it will not only cost whatever the unsubsidized price is, it will also renew your contract).
So all phones: no-commitment pricing option
iPhone 3G: commitment pricing option.