> If you have the money to spare, the Apple program is the most hassle free, just also the most expensive. Next upgrade, I will either be buying outright or us

> If you have the money to spare, the Apple program is the most hassle free, just also the most expensive. Next upgrade, I will either be buying outright or using the Apple plan. AT&T Next was a disaster for me. When you purchase an AT&T Next upgrade via Apple, an email is sent from Apple with forms and instructions for returning your old phone. For one of my phones, I received this documentation. For the other, it was nowhere to be found. The link on Apple's site to resend the email didn't do anything. First I talked to Apple. They said talk to AT&T. People at AT&T didn't even know why I was trying to return my phone. Basically, they didn't even know what AT&T Next is. I finally got someone at Apple who immediately said "don't talk to AT&T; we'll take care of this." And he tried. Even though the email comes from Apple, it hits a backend AT&T system. And it was AT&T's system that was stuck. All said and done, it took me a month to get my form, just so I could actually send the phone back. And then one of my fears was realized. Not having received the phone in a timely manner, AT&T charged my account for not sending it back. That took another month to resolve. I wasted hours and hours trying to fix this and it was one of the worst consumer experiences of my life.