My at&t iPhone didn't put me on a 2-year contract...or their website is messing up.

[geekmommy4]

I just went to see the iPhone Black that has been mentioned here and my line shows: This line is eligible for reduced equipment pricing when you sign up for a new 2-year service agreement.

That cannot be right! I bought my iPhone in February. I extended my contract and received a generic free phone before activating my iPhone the following day.

My husband has a Treo 680 that he got last November and his line shows him as ineligible for an upgrade until 2009.

Weird!! Does anyone else see this on their account or did I just get lucky?

 

[Diode]

Since you paid full retail price (ie the phone was not subsidized by AT&T) for the first iphone you are still eligible for a phone upgrade.

With AT&T a phone upgrade allows you to get the same deals as a new customer with the catch of renewing your contract.

 

[geekmommy4]

But they gave me a different free phone when I extended my contract for 2 years. I would think that would have kept me from being eligible for another phone upgrade 2 years. I can't imagine the fact that I bought an iPhone (even if it wasn't subsidized) after getting their free phone 1 day before would make me eligible for an upgrade. Not that it matters...I'll be with at&t for a long, long time.

 

[avaloncourt]

Since you paid full retail price (ie the phone was not subsidized by AT&T) for the first iphone you are still eligible for a phone upgrade.

With AT&T a phone upgrade allows you to get the same deals as a new customer with the catch of renewing your contract.

I never had an AT&T account prior to the iPhone and the line on my upgrade phone link in my AT&T account management page says:

This line may be eligible for an equipment discount on 08/15/2009

I sure paid full price for my iPhone. That's not even a correct date for a two year contract. I got my iPhone on 12/14/2007.

 

[question fear]

AT&T has crackmonkeys writing that upgrade page. It changes depending on how good you are at paying your bill in full, on time, and how much your bill runs. So if you have a data plan and a voice plan, and your bill routinely runs over $80-100, you've got a good shot they're going to offer to upgrade you at a year and a half or even a year. Then they're locking you in to another 2 years, and even if they keep dangling the upgrade carrot every year or so they still keep locking you in. The idea is that you never go off contract.

Besides which, a nice CSR or a lot of patience and you can upgrade whenever you want. It's GSM, so they figure if you are that desperate for an upgrade you'll grab a phone from somewhere and hop on their network, if they give you the upgrade they get the money AND the contract extension. They're pretty loose about that, unlike some providers (cough, verizon, cough).