AT&T wireless to screw ya...others to follow?

• DeadliestWarrior34

  

  inb4 sleeper
• thavoice

  justincredible;1084950 wrote:Their idea is "**** you."

  Pretty close.
  
  
  I do see what is on the horizon next though, and that is waiving the fee's online. I wouldnt be surprised that is the next step as the company does more and more to try and get their customers to do it online by offering much better deals than to go into their dealers to do so. They would rather give away and waive fees online then to pay the dealers compensation and residuals for the sales.
  
  It really does suck, and frustrate the dealers who sell the services when ATT is supposed to be in support of them, but instead are in direct and unfair competition to try and steal the business away from ya.
• I Wear Pants

  thavoice;1084927 wrote:Eh. The musical phones isnt that big of a deal. People do it without any help or work from ATT. Ya just buy a phone off someone, or ebay or whatever and swap it out. You dont need any assistance from ATT to do such a thing nor does it cost them for you to do it. Their idea on this is that the phones are better and more complicated and that extra money is to recoup and educating the customer of the new phone.

  I don't require assistance from ATT to get a new phone either. I get a new phone and put my SIM card in it. Tada new phone.
• sportchampps

  We have sprint and when we upgraded our sales person told us to call their office and they would get rid of the fee. When we called they said they couldn't get rid of the fee but would give us a 50$ credit each.
• ts1227

  

  thavoice;1084927 wrote:Eh. The musical phones isnt that big of a deal. People do it without any help or work from ATT. Ya just buy a phone off someone, or ebay or whatever and swap it out. You dont need any assistance from ATT to do such a thing nor does it cost them for you to do it. Their idea on this is that the phones are better and more complicated and that extra money is to recoup and educating the customer of the new phone.

  It's no work by ATT, but they're missing out on the money had you bought it straight from them. Thus, you'd figure they'd go after it.
• sherm03

  

  thavoice;1084968 wrote:Pretty close.
  
  
  I do see what is on the horizon next though, and that is waiving the fee's online. I wouldnt be surprised that is the next step as the company does more and more to try and get their customers to do it online by offering much better deals than to go into their dealers to do so. They would rather give away and waive fees online then to pay the dealers compensation and residuals for the sales.
  
  It really does suck, and frustrate the dealers who sell the services when ATT is supposed to be in support of them, but instead are in direct and unfair competition to try and steal the business away from ya.

  It's not just their dealers. And it's not just AT&T. All carriers offer better deals online and waive fees, and then will go an hand cuff the associates in stores and not allow them to match those deals. When you have a company's website in direct competition with its retail stores, it's not a good idea.
  
  But you can't really blame the carriers for doing it. They don't have to pay out commission or anything when someone buys online. The downside, they miss out on a lot of accessory sales when people shop that way.
  
  As far as the $36 upgrade fee...that's a terrible idea. Wouldn't be surprised if they decided against doing that.
• lhslep134

  

  sherm03;1084995 wrote: The downside, they miss out on a lot of accessory sales when people shop that way.
  

  Eh they do a pretty good job of advertising accessories for the phone when you buy from their site.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  sherm03;1084995 wrote:It's not just their dealers. And it's not just AT&T. All carriers offer better deals online and waive fees, and then will go an hand cuff the associates in stores and not allow them to match those deals. When you have a company's website in direct competition with its retail stores, it's not a good idea.
  
  But you can't really blame the carriers for doing it. They don't have to pay out commission or anything when someone buys online. The downside, they miss out on a lot of accessory sales when people shop that way.
  
  As far as the $36 upgrade fee...that's a terrible idea. Wouldn't be surprised if they decided against doing that.

  
  I bought my iPhone online and paid $18 fee.
• Con_Alma

  DOesn't AT&T subsidize the cost of the hone for you in an attempt to recoup those costs in the service contract? Doesn't this simply recoup their costs a little quicker?
  
  I don't know. I am truly asking.
• Fly4Fun

  

  Sprint here. I just wait till my upgrade is up then I go out and get a new smart phone for a grand total of $50 or less. This year I got the new HTC Evo with a dual core processor (1.2 GHz). Good deal if you ask me.
• thavoice

  sherm03;1084995 wrote:It's not just their dealers. And it's not just AT&T. All carriers offer better deals online and waive fees, and then will go an hand cuff the associates in stores and not allow them to match those deals. When you have a company's website in direct competition with its retail stores, it's not a good idea.
  
  But you can't really blame the carriers for doing it. They don't have to pay out commission or anything when someone buys online. The downside, they miss out on a lot of accessory sales when people shop that way.
  
  As far as the $36 upgrade fee...that's a terrible idea. Wouldn't be surprised if they decided against doing that.

  
  That is correct. They all do it that is for sure. It really does screw the dealers though as they cannot do nearly as much as online. Hell, i work for a dealer since 1998, and when I got my wife and daughter a phone I did it online. In the store the phones combined would have been $270 bucks after mail in rebate. I would have had to pay $420 up front as one had a 100 MIR and the other 50. Also online it was free activation. So, even though i work for them, I had to do it online and saved $342 bucks! Pretty sad when that stuff happens.
  
  
  
  Enrest BASS....that upgrade fee to 36 just started on February 12th.
• thavoice

  Con_Alma;1085447 wrote:DOesn't AT&T subsidize the cost of the hone for you in an attempt to recoup those costs in the service contract? Doesn't this simply recoup their costs a little quicker?
  
  I don't know. I am truly asking.

  Tehy are just like any other carrier...you get a big discount on the phone when you get it. What is going on now is that they are now charging double for the upgrade...36, instead of 18.
  
  Hell......the upgrade fee is more expensive than almost half the smart phones.
• thavoice

  lhslep134;1085387 wrote:Eh they do a pretty good job of advertising accessories for the phone when you buy from their site.

  To be quite honest....most times you are a fool to buy those accessories directly from att or in the stores. Now..sometimes that is the easiest way to find exactly what ya need, but they can be much, much more expensive.
• Gblock

  id be more upset about their fake unlimited data plans if it were me
• FatHobbit

  

  thavoice;1085549 wrote:To be quite honest....most times you are a fool to buy those accessories directly from att or in the stores. Now..sometimes that is the easiest way to find exactly what ya need, but they can be much, much more expensive.

  You can save a ton of money on accessories on amazon.
• Jawbreaker

  Con_Alma;1085447 wrote:DOesn't AT&T subsidize the cost of the hone for you in an attempt to recoup those costs in the service contract? Doesn't this simply recoup their costs a little quicker?
  
  I don't know. I am truly asking.

  This has always bugged me with Verizon. If I buy a subsidized phone through the carrier, the data price is $30 a month. If I buy my own phone out of contract and pay full price for it, the data package is $30 a month. Why is it the same price?
  
  Also, more great news from ATT: http://www.bgr.com/2012/02/14/att-declares-war-on-unlimited-data-users/
• thavoice

  Gblock;1085550 wrote:id be more upset about their fake unlimited data plans if it were me

  ATT doesnt offer unlimited plans for data.
  
  If ya had one, you can keep it but they slow down your speeds once you get over a certain amount...which is BS as well.
• thavoice

  Jawbreaker;1085553 wrote:This has always bugged me with Verizon. If I buy a subsidized phone through the carrier, the data price is $30 a month. If I buy my own phone out of contract and pay full price for it, the data package is $30 a month. Why is it the same price?
  
  Also, more great news from ATT: http://www.bgr.com/2012/02/14/att-declares-war-on-unlimited-data-users/

  Yeah.....the throttling has been in affect for awhile, and is supposed to start when you get to the 2gb of data. Sucks.....but I havent really heard any complaints about it. Verizon throttles as well.......Sprint doesnt though according to their commercials.
  
  
  as far as the subsidizing of the prices....they pretty much have to offer deep discounts to get people to buy them. The data prices will always be the same no matter if you get a subsidized price or not. That price is for the usage of the data. It really is no different than cable/satellite carriers offering you free DVRs and such in paying a monthly fee for the service
• Con_Alma

  thavoice;1085548 wrote:Tehy are just like any other carrier...you get a big discount on the phone when you get it. What is going on now is that they are now charging double for the upgrade...36, instead of 18.
  
  Hell......the upgrade fee is more expensive than almost half the smart phones.

  Doesn't that fee still cost you less than the phone would if they didn't subsidize it for you? I don't know how much the phones cost. Is it less than $36?
• Gblock

  i have sprint but this is what i was referencing
  
  http://news.yahoo.com/t-customers-surprised-unlimited-data-limit-080906861.html
• thavoice

  Con_Alma;1085560 wrote:Doesn't that fee still cost you less than the phone would if they didn't subsidize it for you? I don't know how much the phones cost. Is it less than $36?

  Yes It is less.
  
  The issue is though the changing of that fee from 18 to 36 bucks.
• Con_Alma

  Got it. The lessening of the subsidy.
  
  I understand better now. Thank you.
• Jawbreaker

  thavoice;1085559 wrote:Yeah.....the throttling has been in affect for awhile, and is supposed to start when you get to the 2gb of data. Sucks.....but I havent really heard any complaints about it. Verizon throttles as well.......Sprint doesnt though according to their commercials.
  
  
  as far as the subsidizing of the prices....they pretty much have to offer deep discounts to get people to buy them. The data prices will always be the same no matter if you get a subsidized price or not. That price is for the usage of the data. It really is no different than cable/satellite carriers offering you free DVRs and such in paying a monthly fee for the service

  I understand the throttling and it has been in place for a while but it seems as if it is more than originally thought.
  
  Why should the data and voice plans be the same? Isn't that how they subsidized the cost of the device? So you are paying subsidized pricing when you pay full price for equipment.
  
  It is also different than cable providers offering dvrs and cable boxes since you are renting them from the cable company. When I switch from a dvr to my media pc w/ cable card I will no longer be renting a cable box and dvr service from TWC. Thus my cable bill will be lowered subtracting out the price of the cable box and dvr service. I can't do the same with a phone I OWN.
• thavoice

  Jawbreaker;1085591 wrote:I understand the throttling and it has been in place for a while but it seems as if it is more than originally thought.
  
  Why should the data and voice plans be the same? Isn't that how they subsidized the cost of the device? So you are paying subsidized pricing when you pay full price for equipment.
  
  It is also different than cable providers offering dvrs and cable boxes since you are renting them from the cable company. When I switch from a dvr to my media pc w/ cable card I will no longer be renting a cable box and dvr service from TWC. Thus my cable bill will be lowered subtracting out the price of the cable box and dvr service. I can't do the same with a phone I OWN.

  Ok. Maybe a bad analogy. How about this....kinda like maybe buying your own wireless router for your home. You still have to pay for the internet each month even if you buy the router yourself of get a discounted one from your cable place. I know our cable company said they would give us a router for free if we signed a contract...or no contract if we had our own router or purchased one from them.
• Jawbreaker

  thavoice;1085599 wrote:Ok. Maybe a bad analogy. How about this....kinda like maybe buying your own wireless router for your home. You still have to pay for the internet each month even if you buy the router yourself of get a discounted one from your cable place. I know our cable company said they would give us a router for free if we signed a contract...or no contract if we had our own router or purchased one from them.

  Are you always this bad with analogies? Also, I don't think I need an analogy to explain what the wireless companies are doing.