An Open Letter To AT&T
June 17, 2009 by Guy
Dear AT&T:
To fill you in on where I’m coming from regarding the iPhone 3G S upgrade that you state I have to wait until December 12th to get without paying in full for the phone:
I’m a purchaser of the original iPhone, I didn’t wait in line the first day but I got it the first weekend it was available. I ditched my previous carrier of several years that I was perfectly happy with to get your service as the exclusive carrier for the iPhone. I paid $200 to cancel that contract on top of the $500 I paid for the phone (unsubsidized).
Happy with your wireless service and seeing your new uVerse service available in my area I switched from Comcast to AT&T for my internet, television and phone. My wireless bill is combined with that bill.
I was in line the first day the iPhone 3G came out. That phone was subsidized but I had to extend my contract which I happily did as I was pleased with your service.
I have been pleased with my service aside from a couple of dead spots (all carriers have their dead spots) and have been an evangelist for AT&T and its wireless and uVerse services as providing me good service and value.
Because of me, and people like me, who are using the iPhone and extolling its virtues to others (I know of several people I convinced to get one) you’re able to sell more contracts to go along with all those phones. Market data clearly indicates AT&T has reaped great windfalls from the iPhone having sold over one million of them on the first weekend of the iPhone 3G release alone.
How do you reward me for being an early adopter of your service, paying good money for your services and advocating it to others? You tell me I have to pay $600 for the new iPhone unless I want to wait until December 12.
I don’t expect you to fully subsidize my next iPhone but you could at least come up with a nominal charge to keep me satisfied with your service.
I hear you’re in negotiations with Apple regarding your exclusivity agreement for the iPhone. I wonder how many of us you will be keeping having stuck it to us on the iPhone 3G S if say, Verizon is added as a carrier for the iPhone. I also wonder how long it will take me to call Comcast and get them to cut me a good deal to switch from uVerse.
You alone can answer that question.
Had a similar issue with AT&T the other day. I was 2 weeks from the end of my contract, the point at which they subsidize a new phone in exchange for a contract extension, and my Nokia crapped out on me. I went in to a store, and they flatly refused to move the date up two weeks, insisting I pay full price for a new phone. At that point, it only made sense to get the iPhone (8gb 3G no s) because if I’m going to spend the money, I may as well buy what I want. I’m happy with the phone and the service ON the phone, but the customer service is TOO strict. I understand from years of working in that industry that such draconian measures only come along when the economy is bad and the employees are too quick to help (let’s call it what it is, it isn’t stealing from the company, it’s helping the customer) the customer, but AT&T needs to remember that a HAPPY customer is a returning customer. In this economy, you NEED to foster loyalty, or when things turn around, and people have money again, they WILL leave…
I also think it sucks that they’ve blocked tethering on US iPhones, and that MMS won’t be active for another month or more…
They could make this really simple by allowing us to trade in our old iPhones for the new one in lieu of waiting or a separate fee. That way they have reman stock of the 3G and/or taking potential jailbreak phones off the street.
I don’t know that they REALLY care about jailbroken phones though, but they do have to APPEAR to. Trade ins would allow them to capitalize on the refurbs they could sell to those who WANT the iPhone, but can’t afford several hundred dollars… All in all though, what this comes down to is micromanagement. Corporate does NOT trust the street level folks to do the right thing, and thus has mandated policy as god. You don’t go against god if you want to keep your job, not in this economy, so we get the short end of the stick.
I just went to at&t to buy the iphone 3GS. I switched off my parents plan to have my own. I get to paying for everything and they guy there tells me i owe 200 for the phone and i said ok. But then he says i owe another 500$…i asked if i could pay later and he said yes so i could figure out what was going on. Does anyone know why i got charged?
If you have bad or limited credit they may be looking for a security deposit for the plan. They should have told you what the additional charge was for.