Who preordered for $599/$699?

[dmx]

hey, I paid 599 for the first iPhone, and one could argue that thing was pretty useless compared to the current generation. I mean, it couldn't even run apps without hacking!

So, this is how I talked myself into paying 699 for the 32GB black today. I wasn't eligible for the early upgrade, so I decided screw it, I'll just go the no contract price.

It does kind of suck that I could have gotten a Mac Mini for the same cost

Hey, I'm definitely with you for the most part.

It's kind of tough paying so much, but this is something I'm going to be using all day, every day. Phone, music, movies, games, you name it. And I'll probably be eligible for an iPhone 5 upgrade.

 

[UnseenLlama]

I was told last week I'd get the early upgrade price. Low and behold today when I went to pre-order at Apple.com. Nope. The only option offered was no-commit pricing. I was pissed to say the least. I called the 800 number for ATT and she confirmed my upgrade date was 2/20/11. She also told me that my EARLY upgrade date was 11/20/10. I was more pissed. I asked about the press release that said current iphone users would get the early upgrade price. She told me to keep checking my upgrade status as things could possibly change.

On the way home I stopped at the corp ATT store who told me that info last week. I immediately asked to see the manager. The CSR asked if he could help. I said nope, I need to see the manager now. A few minutes later she came out from the back and I explained my problem. She checked my account and repeated those dates I heard earlier. I asked her what about the media pdf that said upgrade dates were moved up and for those who did not qualify for best pricing; those current iPhone customers would be eligible for early upgrade pricing.

After a few minutes she told me that I was eligible for early upgrade pricing however they had to place my order in the store. I could not order from Apple like I wanted to. I told her last year I was able to do an early upgrade on Apple.com and everything went very well. Oh well. Their system was down so they hand wrote my order, gave me a receipt and would enter my order later. The manager said these early upgrade overrides had to be performed in the store. So be it. I wont have my phone on launch day, but who cares about that part of it. ATT needs to make sure all their people know how these things work. Poor, poor service!

This was exactly my situation. Last week I called into ATT customer service and was finally able to speak to a manager who noted on my account that I was eligible for the early upgrade pricing. Then yesterday, went to the AT&T store where they overrided the price. Received my confirmation email last night around 8pm. Their ordering system was down when I was there just before noon so it was a paper order and manual preauth to my card. Don't know if I will get the device launch day, but I feel good that I was able to at least get my order in.

 

[Odid]

update?

 

[ktex1968]

This document pretty such says it all- http://www.att.com/Common/about_us/files/iphone/pricing_fact_sheet_ip4.pdf They are either ignoring their own documentation or they just don't care.

 

[hobbbz]

I'm in this boat too but look at the math:

700 for unsub. new phone, 300 next year for full discount
$1000 total / 2 phones = $500/phone

which is the same as 2 early upgrades.

So now I justify it by saying next year I have to buy the phone again to get "my money's worth"

 

[dusters711]

Even though AT&Ts own press release said all us current iPhone users not eligible to upgrade would be able to "early upgrade" at the higher price, I guess I ended up not being eligible for that because of the one early upgrade every 18 months (I have yet to been able to verify whether some random AT&T employee made this up). The way I look at it is this... It would have been smarter for AT&T to give me the early upgrade price and lock me in for two more years but whatever...

 

[ktex1968]

Even though AT&Ts own press release said all us current iPhone users not eligible to upgrade would be able to "early upgrade" at the higher price, I guess I ended up not being eligible for that because of the one early upgrade every 18 months (I have yet to been able to verify whether some random AT&T employee made this up). The way I look at it is this... It would have been smarter for AT&T to give me the early upgrade price and lock me in for two more years but whatever...

I have spent at least two hours on the phone with ATT trying to figure wtf is going on and I have yet to be told anything about "one early upgrade per 18 months". I'm supposed to be hearing back from a "specialist" by tomorrow. We shall see.

 

[Young Turk]

I can't be the only one that would pay that much but then I won't have to worry about eligibility for next iPhone.

I dropped $599, and Apple hit my account almost instantly with the charge. When I entered it in Quicken, it autofilled the exact amount from my iPad purchase on day 1 of pre-order So my 16 gb iPhone 4 costs the same as my 32 gb WiFi iPad.

I ordered my wife's iPhone 4 16gb early yesterday morning from ATT's website b/c she was eligible for the full upgraded price of $199.

I received an email confirmation of the order from Apple, and both orders show up on the websites for delivery June 24.

Stoked,

Young Turk

 

[dojoman]

I have spent at least two hours on the phone with ATT trying to figure wtf is going on and I have yet to be told anything about "one early upgrade per 18 months". I'm supposed to be hearing back from a "specialist" by tomorrow. We shall see.

I think early upgrade per 18 months kind of make sense. Because I just tried to order on Apple and as usual gave me $599 price and gave me a date where I can get for $399 which is 12/20/2010. I got 3GS in July. Total months is 18 months between 3GS purchase date and 12/20/2010.
I think if you talk to someone Att stores they might override and give you early upgrade but it really depends on the stores. Definitely YMMV.