fyi On a new line reservation, I was not charged with any activation fee whatever maybe that's the difference, you reserved as an upgrade.
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iPhone 5 Reservation at Apple Store
- Thread starter Marco123
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fyi On a new line reservation, I was not charged with any activation fee whatever maybe that's the difference, you reserved as an upgrade.
Perhaps. The amount of time I've wasted on this is quickly approaching not worth it territory. Might as well work an extra half day and it would be all taken care of with less aggravation.
Just purchase on a new line then cancel the line without returning the phone. The most you'll pay is the etf, one months service, and activation over the subsidized price of the phone.
Do you have to return the phone as well? I've heard conflicting reports, as in AT&T won't cancel your service unless you return the phone as well.
Sorry, I meant if you cancel within 14 days, they say you're within your trial period and you need to return everything, and they will bill you for a few days' service, not return your upgrade fee, leaving you with no iPhone 5, but bills for a few days of service, taxes, an activation fee, and whatever assorted nastiness that a cell phone carrier can think of to charge you...I guess the only safe way would be to attempt to cancel service after 14 days, as opposed to picking up the iphone 5 from Apple and then heading directly across the street to the AT&T retail store.
I normally would not be afraid to just cancel service, but EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. EVERY SINGLE FREAKING TIME I have tried to do this, it's been a hassle. I've gotten mystery bills, later, and then another bill for next month's service. Then call in and tell them that i've already quit, and then some database didn't talk to the other one so that's why the bill was sent in error. Then I'll get another bill saying I owe $7. Then I 'll be like whatever, I"ll just pay the stupid thing to have them stop calling me. Then I'll get antoher bill for $1.35 after a credit adjustment and I'll be like WHAT THE FALAFEL? Why do I still owe $1.35 and why are they trying to imply that they're being generous by only billing me an additional $1.35. And then another customer service circus of ineptitude resumes, so this is why I'm hesitant to buy and then cancel. This has happened on every major carrier I've tried, but I have not been to Verizon yet.
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Hmmm, somebody on this thread, was able to cancel, pay ETF with just one day pro-ratedly charged of service with Verizon and keeps his iP5.
Pardon my naïveté, but why wouldn't you want the discounted price? I'm partly just curious and partly wondering if you know something that I don't. Feel free to tell me to mind my own beeswax if you must.
No, it's a legit question. There are more and more people who have done the math and realize that for their usage patterns going prepaid is the best way to go. The catch is that you must bring your own device, so that means full price. Cell phones are way more expensive than they appear to the average consumer. You *should* not be able to get an iphone 5 for $199 and an ipad for $499. The iphone 5 is so "cheap" b/c of the contract.
I've realized that I can pay $30 a month for my usage patterns for the identical service on T-mobile. I only get 100 min a month, but unlimited data and texts, which fits for me. I can also get skype out for $3 a month or less. This includes all taxes. It's truly $30 and I'm done. No contracts, no nothing. Couple this with the outrageous policies (in my opinion) of the cell phone carriers (20 cents per text, shady billing practices, upgrade fees which are moronic and unethical), and I'm perfectly willing to pay full price. Whether we're idiotic or ahead of the curve is up to you to decide.
Personally I see no reason for anyone to ever sign a contract, but we'll see who is right in a few years.
Just so you guys on the East Coast know, I'm in PA and this is how I got my iphone 5 through the reserve system. At exactly 10:00 PM on my iphone 4 the button became available. So it is based on your time not any of this pacific whatever garbage.
I got two phones one for my fiance and one for me.
I got two phones one for my fiance and one for me.
I never put the math together and can totally see your point. I assume T-mobile is a decent company, that their service is fast enough and that their customer service is adequate. Your usage pattern sounds very similar to mine so of course you've got me to thinking. Maybe there's a reason that my AT&T phone hasn't been shipped yet. Thanks SO MUCH for the great detailed info!
The typical caveats with the T-mobile service:
--no LTE until 2013
--their "4G" is faster than AT&T's, but they're just not rolling it out across the US, so you may be stuck with EDGE for a few months
--I do not have mission critical needs, so "OK" service is fine with me. I am someone who was completely fine with Sprint service. The only service that I believe is truly better is likely Verizon. The rest to me are all equally bad/good.
--I don't talk on the phone anymore, and if I do, I'll just use skype out for unlimited calls.
If you do go over your minutes, it's only 10 cents a minute so it's not the end of the world. Plus you can add $10 to your t-mobile prepaid account and deduct from that. This is different than other prepaids where if you use up your 100 min, you've got to either deposit another $30 and start your next month "early" or you just need to wait until the end of the month.
I had a discount with AT&T and it was nearly 25%. Our monthly bill was $120 after taxes or a bit more. Using T-mobile for 2 lines, it will save I believe $580 every 2 years. It would be even more if I calculated the actual AT&T bill without a 25% corporate discount. Plus I really hate the idea of a contract.
Because right now they'll only discount me $200 but extend me for another year. Instead our being out on contract in October next year (2013) my contract would go till October 2014. If I want to buy the iPhone next year I would only get a $200 discount again. With the strong resell market though I could most likely sell a great condition UNLOCKED iPhone 5 64Gig for $700 or more sometime in September before the announcement. This would set me up for top of the line (if things don't change) for $399 on the full discount, a little more then half what I might sell the previous gen for. Or I stay out of contract & just shell out a couple hundred bucks for the newest with the freedom of any service & any travel plans I might have. Hell, there's a good chance next year ill be in a position that AT&T forces a move off unlimited data if you want a discounted device, I would rather be able to sell a higher value unit then missing the discount AND having a locked device.
Also, and this is a long shot, but if tmobile or sprint really turn around and have a good fast nation wide LTE I might want to head there. Although, I think they'll remain 2nd class compared to AT&T and Big Red, which is fine since they offer more data and better prices.
The shift used to be toward the service, offering video streams or music service or built in features only on one device with one service but that's shifted away now toward the device maker. Now you want the freedom on the service side because most of them are all the same (voice + data; excluding features is just a little pain in the ass by the carriers, not a technical limit or anything) but the phone is where you stay long term. (I have a couple apps that I still use from the 3G or 3GS days, etc)
EDIT: with how strong apple has got and with it being on the big three here in the states I'm shocked they still don't let you preorder or reserve off contract. I would be FINE with them still collecting account details and only selling to users with current service to keep the gray market down but seriously, I'm forced to use a discount and resign unless I go into the store and get "lucky" with stock being there...
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I had black one and wanted white.. I purchased a white one online to pickup in store next day. I added it as an extra line to my shared data plan ($199-16gb). Walked in to store next day and returned it on the spot. I then did an exchange of my black one for this one.. I called att later to confirm I returned phone and extra line was cancelled. This was my solution to "reserving" a white one in store..
It appears to really be hit or miss. I even notice NYC doesn't get huge inventory.
Just found out that the iP5 I picked up was manufactured week 39 (last week) - newly made, fresh from the oven, that's why it's flawless!
how can you decipher that?
wow, just wow. an almost year old phone for selling only $200 less than full price brand new? esp with the latest model just around the corner? a bit optimistic there buddy
Currently 16gb iphone 4S are going for around $300 on CL (add $100-150 for 64gb). This trend is consistent with prices of 2nd hand previous-gen iphone prices around this time of year, in the past 2 years that I've been buying/exporting new+2nd hand iphones. The insanely cheap ebay unlock solutions have killed the higher prices that "factory unlocked" iphones used to command.
Monday not Sunday. Meaning would they have got shipments today and have them available for sale at 10PM for next day pickup.
None of my stores got any shipments last night either. They HAVE to have stock for tonight! I went 20 minutes before my local Apple store opened today, and they had two phones left over from Sunday. Ill be on my Macbook updating my cart frantically tonight. Im tired of waiting!!!
last night was a total bust, i'm guessing because it was sunday, i'm holding hope tonight has a little somethin somethin for us.