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Not Eligible For Upgrade - Loophole?

M

mynameisraj

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 14, 2008
341
0
Boulder, Colorado
I'm currently uneligible for an upgrade and am on at&t.

There are two lines and I'm on a familyplan - one line has an iPhone 3G and the second is a 9.99 add-on to the basic 59.99 or whatever it is plan.

I want to upgrade the lines to the 129.99 plan but is there any way to do this? I'm looking to buy the iPhone 3G 16GB but was unhappy when I found out it would cost me 500 dollars - I read of a loophole to get it for 300 but does it work?

Am I better off just getting a used one or is that going to cost even more?

I would love it if someone could explain to me just what I need to do to get an iPhone 3G on my current plan. Thanks everybody, I appreciate it!
 
The $299 iPhone deal I saw here in Washington was for a new line of service @ an extra $9.99 / month for the new line.

I have no idea if this $299 deal is still active, uniformly available nationwide, etc.

I went this route to get mine, and then put my AT&T Tilt up on ebay. The amount I got for the sale was just short of an unsubsidized iPhone and I got an extra phone line out of the deal.
 
Hmmm.

We have a family plan on AT&T. My phone is the primary line and DH's was an add-on. I am eligible for upgrade but he is not. Are you saying that I will not be able to get the $299 upgrade because *all* of our phones are not eligible?
 
mynameisraj said:
I'm currently uneligible for an upgrade and am on at&t.

There are two lines and I'm on a familyplan - one line has an iPhone 3G and the second is a 9.99 add-on to the basic 59.99 or whatever it is plan.

I want to upgrade the lines to the 129.99 plan but is there any way to do this? I'm looking to buy the iPhone 3G 16GB but was unhappy when I found out it would cost me 500 dollars - I read of a loophole to get it for 300 but does it work?

Am I better off just getting a used one or is that going to cost even more?

I would love it if someone could explain to me just what I need to do to get an iPhone 3G on my current plan. Thanks everybody, I appreciate it!
Click to expand...

i remember ATT told me that if you have a family plan and one line is not an iphone, it can mess up a whole lot of things: such as employee/school discounts, plan changes, and yes, upgrades.
 
ratattak said:
i remember ATT told me that if you have a family plan and one line is not an iphone, it can mess up a whole lot of things: such as employee/school discounts, plan changes, and yes, upgrades.
Click to expand...

Not true with school/employee discounts - there is 10% off on my account through an employee discount. Upgrades, yes.
 
mynameisraj said:
Not true with school/employee discounts - there is 10% off on my account through an employee discount. Upgrades, yes.
Click to expand...

yes, when i upgraded from the original iphone at the apple store, the activation part of the purchase failed and they told me i needed to call ATT. ATT told me I could not activate/upgrade because of the school discount on my account. they then told me that i could activate only if they remove the discount to even enable me to buy an iphone36 thru the apple store. After I bought the phone and activated it, I called back ATT and they applied the discount back to my account. Its sooooooooooo stupid, but i still have the 15% discount. The funny part is none of the 3-4 people at ATT (and the lady I dealt with at Apple) could tell me why this is. "I dont know, its just how we have to do it," is all ATT could (or would) tell me.
 
Was the other phone (not the iPhone 3G) on the plan bought within the last 2 years with a contract? If so, that's the issue.
 
mynameisraj said:
Yeah, it was added on as a second line the day after the iPhone was added and I got the 2 year contract pricing which makes me think it was.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the issue then. Did you get the 2nd phone for cheap? That's how they get you to buy the phone for other models, and why the first iPhone had such a high price compared to the iPhone 3G.
 
nickspohn said:
Yep.

You could sell that phone on eBay or Craigslist and pay the full price for a 2nd iPhone. That's what i'd do. Unless of course the value of the w580i wasn't anywhere near $200, I have no clue.
Click to expand...

I could get about 150 dollars for the phone (it's unlocked & debranded).

$500 - $150 = $350

Add in the activation charge which is like 20 bucks and it's gonna run ~$375

Is it a good idea to do that now, or should I just wait for the updated processor and space?
 
Well the next iPhone should be out next summer, so it's up to you. Who knows, maybe you can post up a craiglist asking for like $225, and see what happens. You have nothing to lose. You could try ebay too, but of course the listing fee.
 
nickspohn said:
Well the next iPhone should be out next summer, so it's up to you. Who knows, maybe you can post up a craiglist asking for like $225, and see what happens. You have nothing to lose. You could try ebay too, but of course the listing fee.
Click to expand...

Yeah usually my experience with craigslist is you get about 10-20% less than asking price, so if I list it for 225, I could theoretically get 200 bucks. Fat chance, but it's worth it :)
 
mynameisraj said:
Yeah usually my experience with craigslist is you get about 10-20% less than asking price, so if I list it for 225, I could theoretically get 200 bucks. Fat chance, but it's worth it :)
Click to expand...

Go a little higher then. And i know what you mean.
 
mynameisraj said:
I'm currently uneligible for an upgrade and am on at&t.

There are two lines and I'm on a familyplan - one line has an iPhone 3G and the second is a 9.99 add-on to the basic 59.99 or whatever it is plan.

I want to upgrade the lines to the 129.99 plan but is there any way to do this? I'm looking to buy the iPhone 3G 16GB but was unhappy when I found out it would cost me 500 dollars - I read of a loophole to get it for 300 but does it work?

Am I better off just getting a used one or is that going to cost even more?

I would love it if someone could explain to me just what I need to do to get an iPhone 3G on my current plan. Thanks everybody, I appreciate it!
Click to expand...

When I bought ours (2 for a family plan) AT&T had us has upgrade ineligible, even though we NEVER HAD A CONTRACT OR RECEIVED any new equipment from them. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get upgrade pricing.

So-I ADDED two new lines to the family plan-got the 3Gs and then canceled two numbers. It worked fine-the only hitch is you have to be willing to loose your cell number-because I tried for THREE WEEKS to port over one of the existing numbers to the new lines, and was repeatedly told that AT&T's computers would recognize that as a termination of contract and the ETF would be charged.

It was worth it-but it is a PAIN.
 
Enigmafan420 said:
When I bought ours (2 for a family plan) AT&T had us has upgrade ineligible, even though we NEVER HAD A CONTRACT OR RECEIVED any new equipment from them. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get upgrade pricing.

So-I ADDED two new lines to the family plan-got the 3Gs and then canceled two numbers. It worked fine-the only hitch is you have to be willing to loose your cell number-because I tried for THREE WEEKS to port over one of the existing numbers to the new lines, and was repeatedly told that AT&T's computers would recognize that as a termination of contract and the ETF would be charged.

It was worth it-but it is a PAIN.
Click to expand...

how is it worth it if you pay the ETF
 
i would ask them, im sure if you are upgrading to the 129.99 plan they will make an exception. they want expensive (rip off) lines to proliferate as much as possible.
 
They aren't going to make any kind of concession for you. They have the iPhone upgrades on lockdown and are not making ANY exceptions. I have a line that is upgrade eligible on December 24th and they will not even let me upgrade that line to an iPhone early. If I wanted any other phone they would do it, but not the iPhone.

You can always try to get them to be easy on you, but so far in my experience, it ain't gonna happen...
 
mynameisraj said:
how is it worth it if you pay the ETF
Click to expand...

I didn't pay the ETF-I just lost my BELOVED (and extremely EASY to remember) cell number. The number had ONLY 3s, 4s, and 5s in it-so it was a great number.

What I meant was loosing that number was worth it.

This method will only work if you have lines on your family plan that are not under contract-I guess I didn't make that very clear :(
 
alot of confusion going on in here... if someone isnt eligable its because they havent completed enough of the contract to resign and get the subsidy on a new phone, whether iphone or any other phone. now if another line IS eligable on an account, you can renew their 2yr agreement and get the lower cost on the iphone for YOUR line (can only be done at at&t stores, apple employees dont have the capability).

upgrading your minute plan will do nothing but upgrade your minute plan. the 129.99 is for two lines on the 700 minute plan (69.99) and assuming 2 data plans (30+30). which obviously u wouldnt add the data if u didnt have the phones.

yea u can always add another line on your acct, but thats $10 for 24 months extra u will pay for it, while the extra cost on the iphone when u arent eligable is $200 on top of the regular price, so might as well do that.
 
cWeems said:
alot of confusion going on in here... if someone isnt eligable its because they havent completed enough of the contract to resign and get the subsidy on a new phone, whether iphone or any other phone. now if another line IS eligable on an account, you can renew their 2yr agreement and get the lower cost on the iphone for YOUR line (can only be done at at&t stores, apple employees dont have the capability).

upgrading your minute plan will do nothing but upgrade your minute plan. the 129.99 is for two lines on the 700 minute plan (69.99) and assuming 2 data plans (30+30). which obviously u wouldnt add the data if u didnt have the phones.

yea u can always add another line on your acct, but thats $10 for 24 months extra u will pay for it, while the extra cost on the iphone when u arent eligable is $200 on top of the regular price, so might as well do that.
Click to expand...

I only hate your company because 611 customer service is a NIGHTMARE. Oh yeah, and my choices for text messaging on family plans are LAME :)

For the record-this is NOT directed at you :) Just wanted to blow off some AT&T steam...
 
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