Re: Yet another Rediculous Iphone purchase attempt

Jldnr77 · ‎12-03-2005

My fault.....I'd forgotten what all your original post said....so I have it here again for anyone who wants to refresh. So my last post, altho it has correct information, does not relate to you. However, I now have to wonder where you get your $600 from. You state in this post that you bought cheap phones, AND that you returned them within the first 30 days, so any money you spent on the phones should have been refunded to you THEN. So if the $600 in question is from your T-Mobile bill....then no, AT&T will not reimburse that. Altho they seem to have given you a rather large credit to your account, it's still nowhere near $600. And I doubt that it will be.

Either way, my previous replies DO relate to you. Obviously the contract wasn't removed from your account, OR your upgrade eligibility wasn't reset. So in your situation, as I've stated before, you DO have to go to an AT&T store to get your issue taken care of.

JustMeEdda wrote:
You are not alone in your distress.... here is my story. With a very similar ending to yours. The only thing... is that I do have the authorization from the regional manager already.... and I do not want to buy from AT& T anymore....

I am an old and faithful Apple customer. I had a Macintosh, when all the kids around the block had Tandy’s, and I kept pretty loyal to Apple until I entered the work force and was forced to enter PC World. As the new generation of Apple products emerged I found myself wishing to be in the new cool wave of innovation that seemed to be defined by owning an apple product. Not long after that I had my first I-Pod. And so did my husband. And my Mom. And my secretary. Courtesy of ‘Edda’ – the coolest wife, daughter and boss around the block.

A year later, when my Old PC was ready for an upgrade– which was only 19 months old and it certainly did NOT need an upgrade– I convinced my husband that a McBook Pro would make me SOOOO happy. So he got it for me. A year later it was time to upgrade tmy husbands I-Pod. I believe he needed a new fourth generation I-Pod … an 80G one of course!. Then mine broke.,. and I needed an 80G…you get my drift. As cosumed techies, we tend to be in the bleeding edge of innovation.

Unfortunately when the I-Phone came out I had just moved to Georgia and was a bit reluctant to invest in phone that would not support my business needs. But I kept dreaming and drooling everytime I saw an I-Phone. I was actually green with envy when my neighbor that can barely type, got an I-Phone. But I had to be practical. I really did not need an I-Phone. (BTW… I still do not).

And then a MIRACLE! Apple announced the generation of I-Pods that would fit the enterprise… and to top it… it was a 3G – which my husband assured me was the coolest thing in speed and usability. But excitement lasted very shortly, when it suddenly dawn on my that I had a contract with T-Mobile and AT&T was the sole service provider for my dream phone.

But hope is the last thing to die in my family. So there I drag my husband to the AT&T store, so we could just check. No commitments. MISTAKE… HUGE MISTAKE (As Julia Roberts said in Pretty Woman). Because I fell in LUST. I wanted that phone so badly… It took all of 15 minutes for my husband to read my face of happiness, and he was willing to pay the $600, it took to break the contract with ATT. He just loves to make me happy.

So we go ahead and inquire about the phone, and Sy, a young man in the Mall of Georgia AT&T store, informed us that unfortunately they did not have I-Phone since the launch was very close for the 3G version. But we could go ahead and port the phones that day, because if discount rates were available we would be able to buy the I-Phone at the discounted price when it came out. So we went ahead and ported my phone with the certainty that we would be able to buy the phone when it came out. As we walked out of the store my husband told me… you are one step away from getting your phone. And I was happy. What I did not realize then, was that happiness has a price. And I have come to realize one I am not willing to pay this time.

Almost four months later I still do not have an I-Phone. You see… when we ported our phones from T-Mobile, AT&T in their wonderful computers, tied us to a two year contract.

They insisted we take this ‘free’ phones, even though we did not need them. And in their computers that made us ineligible for equipment upgrade until 2010. Although we realized before thirty days had passed and returned the phones on time.

And even though we had not taken any equipment we can not get an I-Phone at the discounted price, although every client that joins AT&T gets a free phone, or a discounted price on a phone and we got neither.

After many conversations with AT&T they are willing to sell me a phone at a discounted price, with the caveat that I must buy it from them. And to buy it from them I need to pay for it before I get my phone since they have to order it. It seems that the field where the information for equipment upgrade eligibility is stored can not be edited, unless I buy the phone from an AT&T store. But the reality is that I do not care for relinquishing my right to choose who to buy from. I do not want to buy a phone from AT&T anymore. I went to AT&T because I wanted an I-Phone. Since I cannot buy it from Apple at the reduced ADVERTISED price, for which I meet all criteria, because of AT&T, then I am not sure I care to be client for any of the two.

So no, I do not care to relinquish the right to choose where to buy. I do not care to be sold products under false pretenses. I do not care to patronize a company that can not own up to the responsibility of the mistakes they make to meet their sales quota. I do choose to raise my voice to every forum I can reach as a consumer to make sure other people are not discouraged when similar things happened to them as it just happen to me today.

I have asked my husband to cut my service from AT&T. Since he thinks in time it will be resolved, he has decided to ignore my request. On the meantime I have left a message on the voice mail stating to call me at home since I will not be available via mobile phone in the foreseeable future.