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iPhone 5: $399 + $250 +$36

d21mike

d21mike

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 11, 2007
3,320
356
Torrance, CA
I am a Small Business Premier Customer. I have the iPhone 4s so not eligible for the FULL Discount as expected. When I called yesterday I was told I had to pay an extra $150. Today it is extra $250 (rep said sorry the person yesterday was wrong). I ask what is the ETF if I was to cancel my contract. He said $125. I said that doesn't make much since. Why charge me $250 extra to upgrade but $125 to cancel and move to Verizon. He had no answer. I was actually okay with the $150 extra and was going to order 2 phones but this $250 (x2 = $500) is too much considering the ETF amount.

Am I missing something? Do you think this $250 will be reduced over the next couple months? I usually just keep my old phone as a spare but maybe I will just trade it in.
 
+~$75 tax if you're in CA where you have to pay tax on the unsubsidized price of the phone. I paid $50 in tax for my fully $200 16gb iPhone 5.
 
The $250 early upgrade fee won't go down, but your ETF will for every month you stay on your plan. Keep in mind that this also re-ups your contract for another 2 years.
 
Dang $650 ($400+$250 early upgrade)+$36+$74 taxes on unsubsidized price = $760. That's an insane amount also tied to a 2-year contract in this day and age.

$924 after tax for a contract free 64 gb with tax. Assuming you don't get whacked with a $36 activation fee on this one as well, it's really almost not worth doing an early upgrade on 64GB in CA or RI. I think I'd rather pony up the extra at that point and preserve the upgrade so you can either get the 2013 iPhone next year or get it and sell it to offset the cost of the iPhone this go round.

I dunno...
 
This is the main reason I'm skipping the iPhone 5 right now. I got the 4S on launch and now the 5 will cost $549 + $36 upgrade fee, + $30 lightning adapter (for my car) + tax. Over $600 is a bit more than I can spend right now.

I do find it amusing that my ETF (210) is $40 less than my upgrade cost (250). It's actually cheaper to cancel, pay the ETF and sign up as a new customer. Plus you'll save the $36 "upgrade" fee. Still, you'd lose unlimited data if you were grandfathered.
 
tehfunk said:
This is the main reason I'm skipping the iPhone 5 right now. I got the 4S on launch and now the 5 will cost $549 + $36 upgrade fee, + $30 lightning adapter (for my car) + tax. Over $600 is a bit more than I can spend right now.

I do find it amusing that my ETF (210) is $40 less than my upgrade cost (250). It's actually cheaper to cancel, pay the ETF and sign up as a new customer. Plus you'll save the $36 "upgrade" fee. Still, you'd lose unlimited data if you were grandfathered.
Click to expand...

That $36 activation fee is BS if you ask me... I am gonna try to see if I can get it removed.

ADDITIONAL: Especially when I can buy a phone off of craigslist, and throw my sim card in it... and it works. just like that...
 
If I didn't just pay $550 cell phone bill(due to cycle due date change) then I would've considered an early upgrade. I got 4 lines eligible late next month so I'll just use of those lines and give one of children my 4S that I got back in April and purchase either a 4 or 4s for my other 2.
 
You're better off paying full price for the phone and sticking with AT&T if they've been good for you. VZW does not and has not historically moved upgrade dates up to more than 20 months. It's a contract, VZW expects you to really live most of that out. AT&T used to not care but they do now. If you want the iPhone you will bend over ... unfortunately.
 
xerenthar said:
may be porting to Verizon given that 286 is way more expensive than 215's ETF.
Click to expand...

Well, if you have unlimited data with ATT you'll be posting a thread next month at how much the overage charges on data are on Verizon since you'll be on a data restricted plan with a phone that will chew through that little amount in no time flat.
 
Why couldn't he just wait a week or two, use the phone on another line and cancel the new account and keep the phone? That's what I did.

I have line one since last October with an iPhone 4S. I couldn't get the early upgrade, so yesterday I switched to Share Everything plan. Wife will join me in a few weeks anyway since her AT&T contract is up. Anyway, when I pre-ordered iPhone 5 last night, I created a new line, line two, and got the iPhone 5 for $299. When iPhone 5 comes in, I'll move the iPhone 5 to line one and ask for a new sim card, remove iPhone 4S from line one to sell and then cancel line two since it's within the 14 day period or whatever it is.
 
d21mike said:
I am a Small Business Premier Customer. I have the iPhone 4s so not eligible for the FULL Discount as expected. When I called yesterday I was told I had to pay an extra $150. Today it is extra $250 (rep said sorry the person yesterday was wrong). I ask what is the ETF if I was to cancel my contract. He said $125. I said that doesn't make much since. Why charge me $250 extra to upgrade but $125 to cancel and move to Verizon. He had no answer. I was actually okay with the $150 extra and was going to order 2 phones but this $250 (x2 = $500) is too much considering the ETF amount.

Am I missing something? Do you think this $250 will be reduced over the next couple months? I usually just keep my old phone as a spare but maybe I will just trade it in.
Click to expand...

As a business person it would be worth paying the extra money and KEEPING my phone number that my customers have used for 12+ years. When you bail on your contract, you do not get to take your number with you.
 
Starbuckpga said:
Why couldn't he just wait a week or two, use the phone on another line and cancel the new account and keep the phone? That's what I did.

I have line one since last October with an iPhone 4S. I couldn't get the early upgrade, so yesterday I switched to Share Everything plan. Wife will join me in a few weeks anyway since her AT&T contract is up. Anyway, when I pre-ordered iPhone 5 last night, I created a new line, line two, and got the iPhone 5 for $299. When iPhone 5 comes in, I'll move the iPhone 5 to line one and ask for a new sim card, remove iPhone 4S from line one to sell and then cancel line two since it's within the 14 day period or whatever it is.
Click to expand...

you need to return phone in that case. :cool:
 
KidStallyn said:
Well, if you have unlimited data with ATT you'll be posting a thread next month at how much the overage charges on data are on Verizon since you'll be on a data restricted plan with a phone that will chew through that little amount in no time flat.
Click to expand...

do you think that i'll suddenly use a ton of data? i use between 1.5 and 2.5GB reliably on my 4S now... the below is also my issue.

Starbuckpga said:
Why couldn't he just wait a week or two, use the phone on another line and cancel the new account and keep the phone? That's what I did.

I have line one since last October with an iPhone 4S. I couldn't get the early upgrade, so yesterday I switched to Share Everything plan. Wife will join me in a few weeks anyway since her AT&T contract is up. Anyway, when I pre-ordered iPhone 5 last night, I created a new line, line two, and got the iPhone 5 for $299. When iPhone 5 comes in, I'll move the iPhone 5 to line one and ask for a new sim card, remove iPhone 4S from line one to sell and then cancel line two since it's within the 14 day period or whatever it is.
Click to expand...


you won't be able to cancel line two, you will have to continue paying for it(or pay an ETF). i want to do this to share costs with my girlfriend, but we both have unlimited...
 
HowardSmith said:
As a business person it would be worth paying the extra money and KEEPING my phone number that my customers have used for 12+ years. When you bail on your contract, you do not get to take your number with you.
Click to expand...

That's why I use GoogleVoice. :)
 
HowardSmith said:
As a business person it would be worth paying the extra money and KEEPING my phone number that my customers have used for 12+ years. When you bail on your contract, you do not get to take your number with you.
Click to expand...

yes, you do. you tell VZW (or whoever) that you want to port number X. ATT gets that port and automatically cancels you, incurring an ETF.
 
xerenthar said:
you won't be able to cancel line two, you will have to continue paying for it(or pay an ETF). i want to do this to share costs with my girlfriend, but we both have unlimited...
Click to expand...

Why would I pay an ETF when I am within the 14 day window to cancel the line and still keep line one active? I'm not canceling line one, just line two that would have been started today when I pre-ordered the iPhone 5.

Worse case I'll pay ETF which is what, $250? And still save money rather than the $749 full price. Not to mention the $350 or so I'll get for selling my iPhone 4S.
 
Starbuckpga said:
Why would I pay an ETF when I am within the 14 day window to cancel the line and still keep line one active? I'm not canceling line one, just line two that would have been started today when I pre-ordered the iPhone 5.

Worse case I'll pay ETF which is what, $250? And still save money rather than the $749 full price.
Click to expand...

325. the 14 day window would require you to return the iPhone 5. many have observed (i'll find and bump the thread) it's cheaper to leave that line open with $10 per line on a family plan (not mobile share, then it is $30) than it is to pay the 250.
 
xerenthar said:
325. the 14 day window would require you to return the iPhone 5. many have observed (i'll find and bump the thread) it's cheaper to leave that line open with $10 per line on a family plan (not mobile share, then it is $30) than it is to pay the 250.
Click to expand...

Yeah I am on the new Share Everything Plan, not Family Plan. As you said, standard phones on the Share Everything plans are $30, not $10. Smartphones are $40.

I don't think they will require me to return the phone once it's active on line one. Maybe they will fall asleep and forget about it...lol.
 
HowardSmith said:
As a business person it would be worth paying the extra money and KEEPING my phone number that my customers have used for 12+ years. When you bail on your contract, you do not get to take your number with you.
Click to expand...
This isn't the 1990's. Of course you can keep your number. Sign up with another carrier, number is ported to them, AT&T automatically cancels, sends final bill including ETF, you pay that and the contract legitimately completed. It is not "bailing" in the manner you seemed to imply.




Michael
 
Thanks for all of the feedback. I will not be leaving AT&T since I am happy with the service in my area and we have 4 iPhones on our account. We also just switched to the Shared Data plan and dropped the data plan on our 4 iPads since we now get tethering with the plan (this has worked very well). We also had unlimited data before but none of us ever used that much data. So we have saved quite a bit of money on our new plan. So all in all pretty camper with AT&T.

However, with a ETF of $125, I feel a little abused to have to pay a $250 upgrade fee. To me the $125 ETF means that they have covered all but $125 of the discount they gave me on the iPhone 4s or the ETF would/should be higher. Maybe if the ETF was also $250 I would not feel so bad about it. Just does not seem to make sense.
 
I'm sure the carriers will reassess and promptly jack up ETFs for the next go-round. :thumbdown:
 
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