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iPhone before 7/11; ETF; Beating the System

A

apb509

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 23, 2008
34
0
Background Info: I was on the phone w/ AT&T Corporate for about.. 2 hours last night complaining about the current customer upgrade eligibility b/c I bought a $30 refurb Curve in April and signed up w/ AT&T specifically for the iPhone. Did not expect to have to pay $200 more when I'm essentially a new customer. I would have just waited had AT&T reps and CSR's not all confirmed that everyone pays the same price.

1) I have a friend who has an iPhone.. although I'm not sure if she plans on upgrading to the new 3G. Could I take her iPhone for say.. 3 days before July 11th, insert my SIM card, upgrade my plan to an iPhone plan... then walk into AT&T on July 11th and be considered an iPhone customer?

This would work correct? So long as my friend can stand being w/o her iPhone for 3 days...

Also.. would this screw her over if she does decide to buy the iPhone 3G? Do you think they would do some sort of IMEI tracking and block that specific 1st gen iPhone from being used as a customer eligible for upgrading after I did so?

2) I'm considering cancelling my contract and making them waive the ETF considering I was blatantly misled and lied to, despite the fact they didn't know what they were talking about--they should have said so. This way, I would be a "new customer", turnaround the next day and sign up all over again. They also said last night that if anybody does cancel their contract, and renew it within 30 days, their number can be kept.

3) AT&T Corporate told me the Store Mgr. at the store where the sales associates told me that I wouldn't have an issue getting the iPhone for the cheapest price if I were to sign on to AT&T early, might be able to change my upgrade eligibility and get me the cheaper prices...


Any thoughts on any of these scenarios?
 
apb509 said:
Background Info:
2) I'm considering cancelling my contract and making them waive the ETF considering I was blatantly misled and lied to, despite the fact they didn't know what they were talking about--they should have said so. This way, I would be a "new customer", turnaround the next day and sign up all over again. They also said last night that if anybody does cancel their contract, and renew it within 30 days, their number can be kept.
Click to expand...

I believe once you cancel the service, you have to wait certain amount of days or months before you can sign up again.
 
FarSeide said:
I believe once you cancel the service, you have to wait certain amount of days or months before you can sign up again.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't have to wait if you pay the $175 ETF. That clears you of all obligation... and I don't think the rules would be changed for me simply because they waived it--it was their mistake.
 
i would go with post three, because if it truly is at&t's fault (which knowing them, it probably is) then you should be able to get them to waive the eligibility
 
I understand that you are upset, but this is hardly at&t's fault. You signed a new contract and got a discount on a new phone. In other words, at&t lost money selling you the phone in exchange for a new contract back in April.

Now, at&t is offering customers two options for existing customers (excluding the no-contract pricing):

1) at&t will subsidize the price for new customers, and customers who've had their current phone for a LONG time (or are out of contract) and discount the old price by $200.
2) at&t will let non-upgrade eligible people get the phone for the exact same price as it was before. $399 for 8gb and $499 for 16gb.

Now, if they didn't offer option 2 and wanted to bill you $900 for a new iPhone, I could understand why you'd be upset.

However, you didn't lose out here. You are getting the same deal you would have before the iPhone 3Gs announcement. It's not at&t's fault that they are subsidizing the price for new and eligible customers. Just because you didn't plan or expect this doesn't mean they screwed you over.

I don't see how this is now different then any other cell phone ever sold. They are giving you the option of the old deal, or a more conventional discount scheme. You really can't be upset at anyone except yourself.
 
If you terminate service you must wait I believe 90 days to sign up again. This is to prevent people from signing up, getting a phone, cancelling, unlocking the phone, reselling it, and then signing up again.

Doesn't matter if it releases you of obligation, a party with whom you sign a contract has a right to refuse to reenter a contract with you after a previous one was terminated early, even if all obligations were met.
 
apb509 said:
I'm considering cancelling my contract and making them waive the ETF considering I was blatantly misled and lied to, despite the fact they didn't know what they were talking about--they should have said so. This way, I would be a "new customer", turnaround the next day and sign up all over again. They also said last night that if anybody does cancel their contract, and renew it within 30 days, their number can be kept.
Click to expand...
Um ... at that time, you were given the correct info - the iPhone could be bought by anybody for $399. The 3G Iphone was not announced for another two months, and am certain that no retail-level AT&T employees had a clue that a new pricing scheme would be rolled out. If they give you the 3G for $199 or waive your EFT then they are going way above and beyond ...

Again the sense of "entitlement" shown on these boards is amazing ... :rolleyes:
 
apb509 said:
Background Info: I was on the phone w/ AT&T Corporate for about.. 2 hours last night complaining about the current customer upgrade eligibility b/c I bought a $30 refurb Curve in April and signed up w/ AT&T specifically for the iPhone. Did not expect to have to pay $200 more when I'm essentially a new customer. I would have just waited had AT&T reps and CSR's not all confirmed that everyone pays the same price.

1) I have a friend who has an iPhone.. although I'm not sure if she plans on upgrading to the new 3G. Could I take her iPhone for say.. 3 days before July 11th, insert my SIM card, upgrade my plan to an iPhone plan... then walk into AT&T on July 11th and be considered an iPhone customer?

This would work correct? So long as my friend can stand being w/o her iPhone for 3 days...

Also.. would this screw her over if she does decide to buy the iPhone 3G? Do you think they would do some sort of IMEI tracking and block that specific 1st gen iPhone from being used as a customer eligible for upgrading after I did so?

2) I'm considering cancelling my contract and making them waive the ETF considering I was blatantly misled and lied to, despite the fact they didn't know what they were talking about--they should have said so. This way, I would be a "new customer", turnaround the next day and sign up all over again. They also said last night that if anybody does cancel their contract, and renew it within 30 days, their number can be kept.

3) AT&T Corporate told me the Store Mgr. at the store where the sales associates told me that I wouldn't have an issue getting the iPhone for the cheapest price if I were to sign on to AT&T early, might be able to change my upgrade eligibility and get me the cheaper prices...


Any thoughts on any of these scenarios?
Click to expand...


#1 may or may not work, since they have a tracking system to show exactly WHEN you added the data plan as well. It's a worth a shot but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. Only reason I know this is that I work for Sprint and we can track when customers switched phones, added/removed data plans, etc and once you work for one wireless company you pretty much know how they all operate.

I would definitely not attempt #2 because if they don't waive the ETF you're stuck paying 200 bucks. My recommendation would be try #3 first, and if that doesn't work, then try #1.
 
jrbdmb said:
Again the sense of "entitlement" shown on these boards is amazing ... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That's not true. I think it's perfectly reasonable to walk up on July 11, cut in line, request a free iPhone, and have an Apple representative wipe my butt for me.
 
izibo said:
That's not true. I think it's perfectly reasonable to walk up on July 11, cut in line, request a free iPhone, and have an Apple representative wipe my butt for me.
Click to expand...

That's actually why I always stop to use the bathroom at the Apple store.
 
jrbdmb said:
Um ... at that time, you were given the correct info - the iPhone could be bought by anybody for $399. The 3G Iphone was not announced for another two months, and am certain that no retail-level AT&T employees had a clue that a new pricing scheme would be rolled out. If they give you the 3G for $199 or waive your EFT then they are going way above and beyond ...

Again the sense of "entitlement" shown on these boards is amazing ... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I totally agree, some people are amazing. AT&T didn't screw you over. You gambled and lost, deal with it man.
 
DeuceDeuce said:
I totally agree, some people are amazing. AT&T didn't screw you over. You gambled and lost, deal with it man.
Click to expand...

I agree, I went to At&t a couple weeks ago to sign up for service with the intention of returning the phone I get then (within the return period) and switching to the iphone. The associate did not make me any promises that I'd be able to do this and had me reconsider. I am eagerly waiting 7/11.
 
christf10 said:
I agree, I went to At&t a couple weeks ago to sign up for service with the intention of returning the phone I get then (within the return period) and switching to the iphone. The associate did not make me any promises that I'd be able to do this and had me reconsider. I am eagerly waiting 7/11.
Click to expand...

Good call, I had a friend who did this, but then found that after he returned the phone he wasn't upgrade eligible anymore. Turns out, at&t won't let you upgrade again for something like 30 or 45 days to prevent people from constantly returning and rebuying!

If it makes you feel any better, I am in the same boat. I am currently using a 3 year old Nokia 6682 (only phone I had when I sold my iPhone a month and a half ago). I want to hurt myself.
 
jrbdmb said:
Um ... at that time, you were given the correct info - the iPhone could be bought by anybody for $399. The 3G Iphone was not announced for another two months, and am certain that no retail-level AT&T employees had a clue that a new pricing scheme would be rolled out. If they give you the 3G for $199 or waive your EFT then they are going way above and beyond ...

Again the sense of "entitlement" shown on these boards is amazing ... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

/signed.

the person's story has too many holes, as pointed out, iPhone 3G wasn't even announced yet, only rumors were floating that something might be coming in June. i'm not even sure how you could refer to the iPhone 3G back in April when there is no name for it back then.

the part of all these stories that doesn't quite add up is, why would anyone sign a contract to get a subsidized phone when they knew there was a good chance the phone they really wanted is coming out in a month or two. there is no advantage in being an ATT customer early, no special early launch date for you to buy, no head of line pass, so what was the motivation? i don't want to generalize too much but it seems to me, people were trying to take advantage by getting a free to almost free phone and then turning around and selling that phone and using the money to buy a new iPhone when the new one came out, and essentially double dip. now they are all upset because ATT has decided that they won't let people double dip
 
tritonj said:
/signed.

the person's story has too many holes, as pointed out, iPhone 3G wasn't even announced yet, only rumors were floating that something might be coming in June. i'm not even sure how you could refer to the iPhone 3G back in April when there is no name for it back then.

the part of all these stories that doesn't quite add up is, why would anyone sign a contract to get a subsidized phone when they knew there was a good chance the phone they really wanted is coming out in a month or two. there is no advantage in being an ATT customer early, no special early launch date for you to buy, no head of line pass, so what was the motivation? i don't want to generalize too much but it seems to me, people were trying to take advantage by getting a free to almost free phone and then turning around and selling that phone and using the money to buy a new iPhone when the new one came out, and essentially double dip. now they are all upset because ATT has decided that they won't let people double dip
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. at&t had a huge problem during the first gen launch. I knew many people who went and bought the hottest phone a week before launch with subsidy pricing, never opened the box, and sold it on eBay for a huge profit. Then, they turned around and bought an iPhone for the same price as a new customer. Truthfully, I wish I would have thought of it. I could use better backup than my POS nokia.
 
I don't understand what the big deal is? Sell your curve on ebay for $250, then you net $220 (250-30 you payed for it). Take the $220 profit and apply that towards the $399 inelgible upgrade price. You are getting the same (or better) deal as everyone else...why do you think it is your right to double dip on the subsidies?
 
EDIT: Opps, missed this post above.

Ok, something I don't get. You could have bought the current gen at the time for 399 right? Now you can still buy the 3G for 399, right? You said the rep told you it would be the same price, so what's the problem? You can sell you other phone on eBay to recover some of the money to get you closer to the 199 price point.

On another note, I will be trying the activate before 7/11 on my brothers line. He sold his iPhone and the local store dropped his iPhone plan after he had sold it (they told him he didn't need it). Now, he is not showing upgrade eligible on his line now as I am with my current gen iPhone.

So he kind of screwed himself by dropping the iPhone plan.

EDIT: Just decided to call AT&T and see if they would re-add iPhone plan to line. They looked up imei from old phone added it again. My bro is no upgade eligible. Sweet.
 
enough with the entitilements. You got the refurb phone at the subsidized price, so now you have to pay full for the iphone. Im not eligable for an upgrade, but i lost my old phone(not iphone), so i will have to pay full price. BUT my desire for the new iphone is worth the 200 extra for it. Chalk it up to your previous mistake, sell the old phone on ebay, and drop the extra 200.....my god, enough is enough.....or just keep pondering silly little scams on how to save 200 bux
 
Can I ask why you chose not to review the contract you signed?

If you had done so you would have known exactly what you were getting into...


Sometimes we need to take responsibility for our own actions, and not always look to blame someone else. Especially when there is no reason for our own ignorance.

You agreed with AT&T and said, yes AT&T I will give you $30, and you will give me this nice curve phone. I will also commit to use your service for 2 years, because I know you are giving me a substantial discount on the phone.

Now you want to blame AT&T for something you agreed to do.
 
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