$200 “surcharge” for new iPhone 3G S? Not here.
Special thanks to GigaOM for reporting this story
Thousands of AT&T customers with Apple iPhones are expressing outrage over the company’s “surcharge” to upgrade to the new iPhone 3G S. And rightfully so. While the world was slamming AT&T over their miscalculated move, I sold my 16GB iPhone 3G and reserved my 32GB iPhone 3G S for $299. View the slideshow that confirms my pricing.
Know what’s funny? I’ve only fulfilled eleven months of my AT&T contract. Here are a few suggestions for AT&T customers:
- Dial ‘611′ from your iPhone
- Inquire about your eligiblity to upgrade
- Kindly explain to the CSR that you’d like your eligbility corrected
- If the above doesn’t work;
- Stress that you’ve been a loyal customer
- Stress that you’d like to remain a loyal customer
- Remain kind and calm while working with the CSR
Using a variety of techniques, AT&T credited my account $59.99 last month for “being a good customer.” And the only reason I’ve reserved my new iPhone for $299 is because I asked. I made sure ahead of time that my account would qualify without the headaches fellow subscribers are experiencing now. I did this months ago and followed up several times to confirm there wouldn’t be any last minute surprises.
Be sure to pick up a copy of my new book, Stick It To The Man, on June 23 at your favorite bookseller in the US or Canada. There’s a seven part series on cell carriers that will be useful for these type of issues.
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5 Responses to “$200 “surcharge” for new iPhone 3G S? Not here.”
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[...] Lewis, author of a soon-to-be-released book called Stick it to the man, has figured out a way to beat the subsidy. While the world was slamming AT&T over their miscalculated move, I sold my 16GB iPhone 3G [...]
Thank you very much. I was so upset about this, but this gives me hope. I’ll try calling them and see what happens
@Sean – You’re welcome and good luck!
Hmm.. Ive called AT&T CSR’s several times and have gotten the same response: “There is nothing we can do. Apple dictates the early upgrade schedule for my account (baloney!). I explained that Ive been a loyal customer, and plan on remaining a loyal customer but to no avail. They simply state that they are following their procedure as dictated by Apple to only offer early upgrade packages to current customers and new standard packages for new customers :-/
Did you guys try using MS Bing Cashback for new orders if planning on getting the device and later canceling it?
ATT’s support is poorly trained since I see no consistency in their answers. I recently got a rep (Ashley) who spoke more like a high school girl and gave me no straight answers, put me on hold several times. I encountered few good ones but recently my experiences with ATT customer care has been bad!
The author is lucky enough. I personally feel it is next to impossible to get iPhone 3G S subsidy if we don’t even have 12 months iPhone 3G contracts under our belt…