Early adopters penalized $85 for sticking with AT&T

I called them to point out that their promise of subsidy pricing for their loyal customers offered me list price when I have been a loyal customer for three years who even purchased his original device at list price. I have been a milk cow for these guys. The rep stuck to the 0% subsidy. I chose then to order my 4S from Apple directly. They never promised anything but full prices. ATT is not getting a 10% cut from me for lying about the subsidy and then being dodgy when I ask about it.

I went by my local AT&T store yesterday to speak to them about this. My upgrade date is November 24, 2011. If I upgrade now, I will be charged the $250 early upgrade fee in addition to the cost of the phone. My ETF is only $175. I told them that if I went to Verizon, I could actually save $75. They agreed and asked how they could help me move my number to Verizon.

However, they also mentioned that I could upgrade my phone for no additional fees on the first of the month in which my upgrade date falls. This means that instead of waiting until November 24, I can upgrade without the $250 fee on November 1. It might not seem like much, but I'm willing to wait two weeks to stay with AT&T (with whom I've never had an issue until right now).

Just to be sure I wasn't being fed a line by one representative, I did go to another AT&T store in town and ask them. They also stated that they could upgrade my line on the first of the month (23 days early) without the $250 fee. They even gave me that in writing.

Thank you setectuaw for explaining WTF the writer was talking about.

I'm not a preferred customer either, since I have two lines and therefore spend less than $100 per phone. As I understand it, if you pay more than $100 per phone, you're a preferred customer and get early upgrades. Back when I only had one iPhone, I got upgrade availability after around 18 months. I added my wife with her iPhone to my plan and my bill went from around $115 to around $150. But now that I'm paying <$100 per line, I lost preferred status and now only get upgrades every 24 months. Thanks, AT&T.

Given enough time (on your part) and enough calls, you can pretty much get out of anything. My wife got out of a concrete Sprint contract one time, it just took about 2 weeks of phone calls and not taking 'no' for an answer.

I called AT&T after Apple confirmed the October 4th iPhone event, to see if they would move up my upgrade eligibility date. (It was set for 11/18/2011) I have been with AT&T for 9 years (most of that time I was actually with a company AT&T bought out, CellularOne, but AT&T's records show me as a customer since 2002), and I got the iPhone 4 on Day 1 last year.

After explaining that I wanted to talk them into moving up my eligibility date from November '11 so that I could "stay with AT&T and get the new iPhone on Day 1" they were happy to oblige. However, something occurred in their computer system, and the operator told me that if for some reason the new iPhone was not released in October, that I would lose the opportunity to upgrade. I was confused and the operator suggested calling back when the release date was firm, just to be sure I wouldn't miss out. After the call, I took the automated customer survey, and indicated that my issue was not resolved. I got a call back from someone at AT&T that same day and they left a message saying they were able to help me and wanted to get me the new iPhone on Day 1 again. They also said there's no need to call back, someone from AT&T would call me back again to resolve the issue. Another AT&T rep called the next day and even told me that October 7th was the release date showing in their system, and she wanted to set up another callback for October 7th to order my new iPhone. That call on the morning of the 7th never came, however, so after about an hour of waiting, I decided to call AT&T myself. The rep I reached apologized that I wasn't called back and said they were slammed; even managers were answering phones that morning. I said no problem, I just wanted to be sure that I could "stay with AT&T and get the new iPhone on Day 1". The rep was happy to complete my order and didn't charge me anything extra besides the standard upgrade fee ($18?).

I think the moral of the story is that if you're calling AT&T, praise their service and tell them you "want to stay with AT&T". I didn't mention Verizon this time but I have dropped the name of their competitors in the past and have gotten faster results from AT&T in doing so.

Erica please stop acting like cray baby because att did not allow their iphone customers to upgrade early this year. I doubt that Verizon is allowing any of their current iPhone customers a full standard upgrade too if they aren't eligible. Also, you are no better then when the iphone 3G first came out and it had no picture messaging.

If your are eligible for a standard upgrade then you pay the standard price, but seeing how you were not you paid the SAME early upgrade price that any other person would have paid no matter what phone they were upgrading too. So don't make it sound as if att is penalizing you for wanting and iphone, again it would have been the same answer for any other phone you were buying.

In fact why don't you check with verizon and see if they are doing the same thing. I know that sprint isn't doing a thing for their customers as my mother has them and they won't change her upgrade date so she can buy an iphone at the standard upgrade price.

Why not write a fair and balanced story and say that none of the carriers are providing a standard discount for any of their customers looking to buy the iphone if they are not eligible? Or do you hate your dropped calls on att so much that you are targeting them?

@setectuaw...thanks for clarifying. I was confused by the article. That is actually standard practice with AT&T and any cell phone company such as Verizon, Sprint, etc. If you are not eligible for an upgrade, depending upon your LTV (lifetime value) you may qualify for an exception upgrade, which is the standard price, plus a $75 or in this case $250 fee. An exception upgrade was NOT a normal practice for an iPhone when I was working for them. I'm sure they made the adjustment because other companies now have the iPhone.

This is part of the contractual agreements and has been this way for some time...the prices have been adjusted over time but it's normal. To avoid the fee we can wait until we are eligible to upgrade.

This isn't so dire. I'm a day-1 iPhone 4. My full subsidy upgrade date is 11/25. That's almost perfect timing. I have to wait about 6 weeks. Big whoop. Even that is a great deal--it's only 16 months into your 24 month contract. This is a bogus complaint.

The real slap in the face is discontinuing ALL the non-unlimited text plans. This is insane. Now even light users are forced to pay $20 a month for this feature that costs AT&T nothing, or risk paying hundreds of dollars in a la carte text fees.

This is a move even meaner than Verizon's typical moves, and I HATE Verizon.

I went about it another way. My ETF is $90.00 (upgrade eligibility date is Nov 23). So I ordered the 4S as a new line. When it comes in, I will cancel my current account, pay the $90.00 and have number ported to the new phone.