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Upgrade Fee!

Nanotyrns said:
Yeah, give them the finger. That'll show 'em.

By the way... where is your complaint about big corporation Apple? You know that fancy box? The marketing? The shipping? The Lightning cable? All of that is figured into the cost of your phone. It might be $300 cheaper if they just xeroxed a flyer "New Phone. Come get it". They don't break those costs out for you. You don't see "iPhone X - $500. Marketing fee - $200. September Event Broadcast Fee - $50. All The Engineers That Had To Be Sent To Fix Jony Ive's New Finish Process - $300". It's all neatly wrapped up in $999/1149. Enjoy that sweet Apple sticker you paid for.

Your carrier told you up front about the cost. Choose... but choose wisely...
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That’s a product we are paying. An upgrade fee is just a few because. They don’t need it to make the business better or thrive. They do it jsut cause they can... and that is the problem... The only thing the consumer gets out of this is the carrier wars that go on.
 
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Nanotyrns said:
So, they should operate only at cost and no profit? Who would invest in a business like that? Where will the money come from to build out infrastructure? To open more stores so we can all line up and ask if they have any of the newest Android phone? Haha... no body is doing that but still... this is something we all expect. We all expect the upgrade fee. We all know it's coming. One way to avoid the fee is to not upgrade at all or postpone it until our phone is obsolete. My 7 works just fine. I could've saved $25 and gotten to bed early a couple of days ago if I believed the upgrade fee was egregious and unnecessary. I didn't. You do. Now where does that leave us?
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Making profit is built into the charge for the service. If you think that if they only charged the monthly service fees that they would only cover their costs you are extremely naive.

The carriers love this new data model as they have been able to sell way more profitable plans then when they were selling voice minutes and SMS bundles. They literally make outrageous amounts of profit. Why do you think they can afford to spend so many billions every year on lobbyists to try to get laws passed to allow them to circumvent anti-trust law, and to try to tear down net neutrality?

My analogy before was flawed by the way, the real one would be:

Apple does analysis and realizes they can cover costs, service charges, support, and long term costs on the iPhone X by charging $999. So they do that, but when you check out [bold]then[/bold] you are told there is the $30 turn on fee. Without it you can’t turn the phone on without that turn on fee. This is what the carriers are doing.
 
Shawn Parr said:
The US carriers are making huge profits on their data plans, if they weren’t they would still be trying to charge us per minute or per text message.

No one is saying they can’t have profits. We are saying with the profits that they do make it is pretty scummy to charge extra when you just turn on a device and stick a SIM in it.
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I get what you're saying. I also think it was equally scumming for Apple to charge an extra $100 for a more storage when the part cost them an extra $12 bucks.
 
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Shawn Parr said:
But that exactly is the difference. Apple is giving you one price that includes everything they’ve figured into the service.

Imaging if Apple sold the iPhone X at $969, then when checking out they said, “Oh wait, you need the $30 turn on fee. That covers you turning on the device for the first time.” That would seem a bit scummy, no?

The cost of the US carrier plans is designed to cover the costs of their operation. The fees and other charges they give are all gravy money. First of all they are just extra that are purely profit, and they allow them to do some funny accounting for things like tax breaks. If they want to do all that fine, but don’t have a bunch of fees you *told us about in advance (in tiny print no where near where other prices are listed).
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Do you know what is great about the free market? You are welcome to protest with your wallet. If you are not happy with the fee, you can easily refuse to pay it and take your business elsewhere. Isn't America great?
 
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Nanotyrns said:
Yeah, I'm soooo told.

And... I'm not sweating the upgrade fee at all. It's not like they never charged it and now all of a sudden are. I understand it's all part of the upgrade process and at the end of it I get something shiny and sweet. It's my cost of doing business with my carrier. I can complain and grump about the indignity of it all or I can choose to do business with another carrier that doesn't charge as much or at all. It's all up to me just like it's all up to you. We can both see what path we've chosen.

I believe they levy these fees as a way to offset the cost of this sort of event. You believe they charge it just to be money hungry jerks. Meh. Makes no difference in the end. We're both nobody's in the grand scheme of things.
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Oh you're so understanding to the stupid carriers, how noble of you. Now, am I allowed to post where the carriers should stick their upgrade fee?
 
Never understood why we have to pay an upgrade fee?
Shouldn't the carriers be happy we are staying with them and upgrading to a new device on THEIR network....
SMH. Greedy M0f0s.
 
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Renho said:
i know we all Pay it and have for years now. But it still pisses me off! It’s not bad enough we have to spend $1250 on the phone you gut punch us with this!!

ATT is $25, what are the other carriers?
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Mine are waved per business account.
 
It not just buying from Apple. Be default there is a Carrier upgrade fee even for an iPhone purchased from Apple if it is tied to a carrier account in the USA and it is activated on the carrier's network using the new SIM.

Only 3 exceptions: the Carrier does not charge an upgrade fee or they waive the fee or you are reusing an existing "Active" carrier SIM from your carrier or any Carrier SIM when purchasing an unlocked iPhone.

For those playing along, ever wonder why they want to complete the activation for you at the Apple store. Apple gets a commission fee from the carriers for every activation using the new SIM pre-installed in the iPhone.

So please share your magical method if it is not covered by one of the above methods.

Dave
 
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Nanotyrns said:
I don't work for any carrier but those costs are real and they are generated just one time a year by one phone. Yes, it's the business they are in, and doing business costs money but they are not there out of the goodness of their heart or to make it a better world for all humankind. They are for-profit businesses that have a responsibility to shareholders.

They didn't slam you with this fee. It's up front and right there for you to see. You can say yes or no. The choice is yours. If there is another carrier that doesn't charge the fee you can switch. It's all up to you.
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So iPhones are the only phones that incur an upgrade fee? Didn’t know that.
 
Renho said:
i know we all Pay it and have for years now. But it still pisses me off! It’s not bad enough we have to spend $1250 on the phone you gut punch us with this!!

ATT is $25, what are the other carriers?
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No, no we dont. Those of us who rejected installment plans, layaway, or whatever buzzword they use for financing loans for tech widgets, we do not. We just swap sim.
 
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It's the carrier upgrade fee to support the phone which is total BS. It's just another fee tacked on to make money. If you have a problem with the phone, whom do you call? The carrier? I think not. You're gonna call Apple. The only time you call a carrier is if there is something wrong with the network.

I bought a phone using a spare SIM that I activated from VZW. I'll wait until I get the phone, take out the SIM, install my TMo SIM and be on my merry way. I'll ensure it's never activated on VZW. In fact, after I get home and put in the TMo SIM, I'm canceling the my VZW account.
 
KGWVU said:
Do you know what is great about the free market? You are welcome to protest with your wallet. If you are not happy with the fee, you can easily refuse to pay it and take your business elsewhere. Isn't America great?
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Ah yes, the free market lie.

Please tell me what carrier that is available in my area allows me to buy a new phone and not have an upgrade fee on a newly released device?

Quick hint, it is none of them. I either have to pay the upgrade fee, or wait an unknown amount of time for the manufacturer to release a “SIM free” edition, which even then may lead to shenanigans with activation.

There is no such thing as a free market. Consumers have a limited choice, and the barriers to entry for a cellular provider are so huge it is unlikely a new competitor will show up.

Ever notice how when one of the providers changes something (like adding an upgrade fee, they haven’t existed forever), within a couple months most of them have it? That’s called the real world anti-consumer market, and it’s what we live with. Especially with telecom in the US.
 
Newtons Apple said:
All you have to do is pull you SIM from your existing phone and insert it in your new one. No fee!

Do not turn your new phone on until you have swapped SIM cards. You will not have to pay an upgrade fee.
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Wow, I really wish I had known that. Used to pick up my new iPhones in-store and the AT&T representative there would charge me the fee. Been looking up the best way to set up my phone since delivery was the only option I could get this year. Thanks for the tip!
 
myscrnnm said:
Wow, I really wish I had known that. Used to pick up my new iPhones in-store and the AT&T representative there would charge me the fee. Been looking up the best way to set up my phone since delivery was the only option I could get this year. Thanks for the tip!
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Yep, I have been an ATT customer for over 10 years and never go into the store. They want you money.
 
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