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should I not sign the 2yr contract with iPhone?

S

sjivan

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 23, 2009
83
0
I bought my 16GB iPhone from BestBuy. They rang it up and it showed up as $800 and then they applied the 2 yr contract that brought it down to $300. (minus $50 reward zone discount)

It then turned out that the ATT system was down and they were out of contract forms, so they made me sign a best buy generic form stating if I didnt come back and sign the contract, they would charge my credit card $200 for early termination fee.

So if I don't sign the contract, I would effectively have gotten the iPhone for $250 + $200 = $450, compared to $800. The thing is I hate ATT (and the service is not great in my area) The only reason I went with them is because of the iPhone. So the question is should I not sign the contract so that I have other options like using T-Mobile after unlocking it. Or am I overreacting.. and I should just go ahead and sign the contract?

Thoughts?
 
I guess I'm confused about what it is you think you might be overreacting about.

Signing the contract locks you into AT&T for two years of course, so if you hate AT&T AND the service doesn't work well in your area AND If you don't mind paying $450 for the phone AND have the knowledge and expertise in modifying your phone, you should just go ahead and go with TMobile.
 
Check your iphone's firmware to see if it has 2.2 or 2.2.1. If it has 2.2.1, unlocking it is not an option at the moment, though that might change in the future.
 
Keep it!

AT&T charges the ETF, not best buy, so if you never signed a contract with AT&T, then they can not charge you.

But even if you did agree to pay 200, 450 is still a good deal for a new iPhone.
 
The firmware version is 2.2. The point is will I end up switching to T-Mobile, or whether ATT service improves and I end up not switching. If it does improve and I end up staying with ATT for the next two years, I would have spent the extra $200 by not signing the contract.

The question is whether $200 is worth the freedom of not having a contract. Also I'm not very familiar with the unlocking process and side-effects. Will it effectively handicap my use of iTunes or the apple store. Will I be locked to firmware 2.2 for a while? I'd imagine that I can't stay with this version forever. I'll have to do some more reading..

By not having a contract, I can switch to T-Mobile and have a lower cost data plan, or use wifi only. Are they any other advantages?

Thanks.
 
Have you tried T-Mobile service? I personally didn't get anywhere as good of coverage with T-Mobile that AT&T offers. And remember, if you go T-Mobile, you will only get the edge network. 3G is slow enough, I couldn't imagine going back to edge. :eek:
 
If you don't sign the contract I can bet they will also charge you back the $500. As they only get that deal with the 2 year contract.
 
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