response to Bretm
That's pretty weak that they would censor those pretty basic questions. They're in no way offensive and they're asked all the time. Why they didn't just answer them I don't know.
But I'm curious as to what upgrade plan you wish them to have? If you took a loan out for a car a year ago, and then another came out this year, do you expect your loan company to swap your 1 year old car for the new car? What if we're just talking about a car lease for 2 or 3 years? Does that analogy work better for you?
ATT loaned you $300 when you got your iphone for $200. They PAID apple $300 and you paid Apple $200 for the phone. You basically signed a contract saying you'd be a customer for 2 years and ATT has calculated that even with the $300 in the hole they started with, that eventually (after a year or so) you'd be a profitable client. So here you are, just about to be profitable to ATT and you're asking them for another $300 loan. Now, sure they could extend your contract another 2 years and eventually you'd be close to profitable again for them. Of course next year you'll want a new one again. They're not really in business to break even or lose money. Even if every dime you sent them was pure profit (as if they didn't have empolyees, stores, taxes, R&D and marketing) it would take 6 months to pay back the $300 they loaned you.
Sooooooo- they are happy to set you up for another 2 years. But they've got to recoup the investment they made in you that you want to back out on. So, they have to charge you an extra $200. Depending on when you bought the phone that still might not be a win for them.
Make sense?
For starters, at least in Canada, I believe that carriers should get rid of the requirement of a THREE year contract which only aggravates matters all the more. (I believe, too, that Apple could exert its influence with carriers to achieve better results: greater customer satisfaction and increased sales of iPhones when upgraded.)
for an answer that is AT&T specific, I would defer to what a columnist, MG Siegler, in the
Washington Post wrote about the subject: (he contends that AT&T is making a mistake by not being more flexible in letting existing 3G iPhone owners to upgrade to a new model.)
Here are a couple of excerpts:
"There are no shortage of AT&T iPhone customers who are ****** off at the company. Not only is their service sketchy at best in many places (I have spotty service in San Francisco, but it was much worse when I was in NYC this past week), but they do things like delay the roll out of features that the rest of the world is getting because they have other providers. And they do things like block the Sling player app from streaming over 3G on just the iPhone, while it works fine on other phones. And they rip us off with text messages... The list goes on."
"Apple is at some point going to move the iPhone beyond the AT&T network. That move could happen as soon as next year. If you buy this iPhone 3G S now, you'll be locked in for two more years (or have to pay the large cancellation fee). Now, AT&T is trying to negotiate with Apple to extend its exclusive deal through 2011, in which case the move to the iPhone 3G S would make some sense. But that has not happened yet, and AT&T is playing in risky waters. If I learned tomorrow that AT&T and Apple were ending their exclusive deal in 2010, there is no way I would upgrade. I'd suck it up and wait for a year.
"That's why it may have been smart for AT&T to extend an olive branch to current iPhone users and give them the same subsidized price as new users. Sure, they would have taken a hit, probably a fairly big one, but big picture, I don't think it would be all that bad. First of all, not all current owners would upgrade even at the lower price. Second, if you think about it, it's not really that big of a hit for them. It's really only $200 per customer. AT&T makes that off of me in two months with my bill. And if they do lose the Apple exclusivity, they will effectively be losing $1,200 (one year's worth of bills) that I otherwise would have been paying them.
"Instead, basically what it will sound like to most current iPhone owners is AT&T saying that, "we love you as a customer so much that we're going to make you pay an extra $200 for this new device since you stuck around with us." That $399 to $499 for the iPhone 3G S could end up costing you a lot more if Apple moves the iPhone beyond AT&T."
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I think that we get gouged when we buy a subsidized iPhone from the present carriers. A $200 subsidy is not worth what we go through... and
what we have to pay... over a 2 or 3 year period. This is not like renting a car... but even car rentals, especially in today's market, do not impose the onerous conditions of cell phone companies.
So I hope that Apple -- a company that, after all, WANTS us to desire and buy each new thing...will find a way of persuading carriers to offer service that is in alignment with Apple's own philosophy.
