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They've already tricked everyone into dropping the better plan with free upgrades ever 2 years in exchange for a hike in data service fees... best marketing sno

They've already tricked everyone into dropping the better plan with free upgrades ever 2 years in exchange for a hike in data service fees... best marketing snowjob ever. Plus, with their "pay the phone off a month at a time" crap almost everyone opts for they still effectively have contracts.

mikeash 11y ago
I got a nice upgrade in service and a discount in cost when I made that switch. And I get to buy my phones outright so I don't have to worry about convincing AT&T to unlock them. Seems like a total win to me. I've always been dissatisfied with carriers selling phones on contract, and I'm glad to see that this whole model is dying. With the Next plan you so criticize, people still have the option of paying for their phone gradually, but now it's genuinely a choice.
- fluxquanta 11y ago
  Are the fees for the phone and the service separate, such that, say, I can get a new $600 phone with minimum advertised $25/month payments over two years, but I could pay it off in 3 months at $200/month, and from then on out just pay for service?
  - Karunamon 11y ago
    I know Verizon lets you do this - you can pay off the phone by itself at any time.
    - fluxquanta 11y ago
      Looks like that's probably true for all of them now. I have Sprint and after posting my question I looked up Sprint's "Easy Pay" option, which is exactly this. For some reason I thought it was a rebranding of the current subsidized model where your phone and service payments were locked together.
      - mikeash 11y ago
        A phone company providing reasonable options and not screwing you over at every opportunity is rather weird, and I didn't believe it at first either.
        Karunamon 11y ago
        Agreed - there's probably a business reason for it. Perhaps the fact that it's now a bog-standard financing arrangement forces them to allow it to be paid off separately?
        fluxquanta 11y ago
        Here's an idea: What if they studied customer behavior and found that when the traditional 2-year contract is up people started shopping around with other providers to see if they could get a better deal, and an unacceptable number were then lost as customers? I'm betting this happened quite a bit, actually. With the new system when the two years are up (assuming the phone wasn't paid off before then) the customer automatically sees a nice little drop in their bill, which may make them feel more positive about staying with the company, or upgrading their phone again with the thought of "I was already paying that extra amount before anyway". Just a thought, but I wonder what kind of research has gone into this sort of thing.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    Yep, totally separate. Pay it off early, buy the phone outright, pay it off on schedule, however you do it the service itself stays the same.
  - smackfu 11y ago
    Yes, a current AT&T phone bill for a 64GB iPhone line looks like this: Mobile Share Value iPhone: $40 Discount for Mobile Share Value Savings: $-25 Equipment Charge ($749 financed over 24 months): $31.21 If you were on contract, the second two lines would go away. After the phone is paid off, the equipment charge goes away.
matwood 11y ago
> Plus, with their "pay the phone off a month at a time" crap almost everyone opts for they still effectively have contracts. A contract as in you have to pay for the phone? I mean, why pay $700 up front when I can get a free loan over 2 years that I can at any point pay off? T-Mo will buy the phone back from you which is usually within ~$100 of what you would owe after the year. I should sit down and do the math if the Apple plan or TMo way is better to keep an up to date iPhone.

mikeash 11y ago

I got a nice upgrade in service and a discount in cost when I made that switch. And I get to buy my phones outright so I don't have to worry about convincing AT&T to unlock them. Seems like a total win to me. I've always been dissatisfied with carriers selling phones on contract, and I'm glad to see that this whole model is dying. With the Next plan you so criticize, people still have the option of paying for their phone gradually, but now it's genuinely a choice.

fluxquanta 11y ago
Are the fees for the phone and the service separate, such that, say, I can get a new $600 phone with minimum advertised $25/month payments over two years, but I could pay it off in 3 months at $200/month, and from then on out just pay for service?
- Karunamon 11y ago
  I know Verizon lets you do this - you can pay off the phone by itself at any time.
  - fluxquanta 11y ago
    Looks like that's probably true for all of them now. I have Sprint and after posting my question I looked up Sprint's "Easy Pay" option, which is exactly this. For some reason I thought it was a rebranding of the current subsidized model where your phone and service payments were locked together.
    - mikeash 11y ago
      A phone company providing reasonable options and not screwing you over at every opportunity is rather weird, and I didn't believe it at first either.
      - Karunamon 11y ago
        Agreed - there's probably a business reason for it. Perhaps the fact that it's now a bog-standard financing arrangement forces them to allow it to be paid off separately?
        fluxquanta 11y ago
        Here's an idea: What if they studied customer behavior and found that when the traditional 2-year contract is up people started shopping around with other providers to see if they could get a better deal, and an unacceptable number were then lost as customers? I'm betting this happened quite a bit, actually. With the new system when the two years are up (assuming the phone wasn't paid off before then) the customer automatically sees a nice little drop in their bill, which may make them feel more positive about staying with the company, or upgrading their phone again with the thought of "I was already paying that extra amount before anyway". Just a thought, but I wonder what kind of research has gone into this sort of thing.
- mikeash 11y ago
  Yep, totally separate. Pay it off early, buy the phone outright, pay it off on schedule, however you do it the service itself stays the same.
- smackfu 11y ago
  Yes, a current AT&T phone bill for a 64GB iPhone line looks like this: Mobile Share Value iPhone: $40 Discount for Mobile Share Value Savings: $-25 Equipment Charge ($749 financed over 24 months): $31.21 If you were on contract, the second two lines would go away. After the phone is paid off, the equipment charge goes away.

matwood 11y ago

> Plus, with their "pay the phone off a month at a time" crap almost everyone opts for they still effectively have contracts. A contract as in you have to pay for the phone? I mean, why pay $700 up front when I can get a free loan over 2 years that I can at any point pay off? T-Mo will buy the phone back from you which is usually within ~$100 of what you would owe after the year. I should sit down and do the math if the Apple plan or TMo way is better to keep an up to date iPhone.