I fully admit that I got all caught up in the hype. I was all set to go, stand in line mind you, and buy an iPhone almost forgetting how much I actually dislike AT&T. The allure of the pre-paid phone plan broke down my defenses and got the better of me.
Here I was thinking that I could go out and buy an iPhone without having to sign up a contract to what I consider to be the one of, if not the, worst wireless carriers in the United States, buy using the iPhone pre-paid option that we talked about a month or so ago, however, low and behold, AT&T finds a way to disappoint yet again.
You wouldn’t believe what you have to do in order to utilize the iPhone pre-paid option…
That’s right… You have to fail a frigging credit check.
It would be one thing if AT&T were subsidizing the price of the phone banking on consumers signing up to long term contracts to recover their costs. AT&T, however, is making anywhere from 4% to 8% margin, by some analyst reports, on each iPhone sold.
AT&T is basically saying that if you credit sucks, we will let you buy an iPhone outright and pay for your service month to month up front. If, however, your credit is good, we are still going to make you buy your iPhone outright up front, and, were going to make you sign a service contract on our crappy, slow ass network.
Looks like my Friday has just cleared up…
[Via BGR]
Did you really expect anything less from AT&T?
Sorry, but the name of the game is making money and attempting to keep customers happy.
I see no complaints from verizon people for their company doing the same thing
I see no complaints from sprint fans for their company doing the same
yet constant moaning from those not on the service about at&t having the audacity to actually want to make money.
yet to see verizon or sprint give away anything to you, no one complains.
at&t enters into agreement with apple for the iphone and everyone whines…don’t understand the complaint.
since you hate at&t for some unapparent reason, seems simple enough to never ever not buy from them, no matter the product or price or or service or event. problem solved.
Sigmamason,
AT&T numbers, albeit this may change tomorrow, are shrinking. They are hemoraging customers. Whether it be because of their shoddy network, horrible customer service, or whatever, they are loosing customers faster than they are adding them.
If the name of AT&T’s game is keeping customers happy, why is the previous statement true?
I am just going to go out on a limb and guess that AT&T won’t make too many people happy by stating “If we think you can afford it, you must subscribe to a 2 year plan in order to get an iPhone. If your credit is all jacked up, however, we will let you pre-pay month to month.
Sprint is dropping faster than AT&T. Not sure what stores you are walking into, but the few times I go into a AT&T store, people are line signing up, not returning.
I don’t spend as much time as you analyzing the numbers since this is more a small hobby (telecom and it’s nuisances) as my real job is in finance…
People leave one carrier and go to the next all the time, they follow the special ad of the moment especially now that you can take your number with you…
Sprint is offering SERO (which is the best deal going) and they are still bleeding customers.
Verizon has the “network” which in my book isn’t as good as the hype based upon the amount of people that have the phones on the network and complain about signal, cost, the universal UI, etc…and I have friends that are counting the days until they can leave even though they don’t pay the bill. Most of the people I know on Verizon are there because of the job requirement, yet carry Cingular or T-Mo for their personal use. Go figure.
Nextel is none existent nowadays
T-Mobile has price as its strength and is slowly building it’s network, but not much else going. No knock on the company itself.
You struck me as the guy that while he loves Verizon wasn’t that filled up with angst about other companies…
I see complaints about the AT&T/Cingular customer service, yet the few times that I deal with them, never had an issue, if the billing get’s messed up, one call and it is solved and that has been one time in 4+ years with Cingular and three times total with the ATT/Cingular/AT&T model of which I been on it since 1996.
In the 3 years that I was with Verizon/AirTouch, I had to constantly go into the store and stay calm while a rep tried to figure why I got a $200 bill or how I got nights and weekends deleted when I hadn’t called anyone to authorize it. My sister goes thru that every few months, features added or deleted without her authorization. Last time she actually dealt with customer care at Verizon, she bought a phone 2 years ago. She has had the same plan for about 5 years.
My business partner was in the same situation and he paid the ETF and went to Cingular. Got tired of bad billing, no customer service and having to spend an hour proving that he never told anyone to change features on his plan every month.
In the Sprint days, that was even worse since they had 15 numbers to call and “Claire” was the worst system to try and deal with…I would have been better sending up smoke signals.
I can name a lot of people that literally loathe Sprint and their service, customer service and the name itself…of course they don’t spend time talking about it, they moved to another company and let it go…
As far as the Iphone is concerned…I can safely say that apple is playing a bigger role in how that phone is being sold to the public than what people think…
It is nothing more than an iPod with phone capability, it will sell and people will drool over it, however the business crowd and business/consumer crowd will not be the biggest consumers of it…it will be the kids and appleites that will be anything apple…No disrespect to them or you…
You have a great site, I like the newsbits and data and even the celeb stuff but the constant “I hate Cingular/AT&T” is similar to another site that I use that is “I hate Nike Golf”.
Sometimes that drumbeat gets old…fast…
It’s interesting how much crap is being exchanges here. Network coverage will vary with any carrier from one loaction to the next, and there is one thing I can tell you and that is here in sunny California, all up and down the bad boy coverage for ATT/ Cingular is great, I hsaver no idea where you nay sayers live, but in my neck of the woods service and network coverage is great. I am slo a Verizon subscriber, andf can tell you that the first thing I notice about Verizon folks is how defensive they are, which if I had a trinkle of phones and collected the highest network costs per subscriber I would be defensive too. Someone said Att is hemoraging customers, that is flat out false, the only company going through that is Sprint whom is bound to be out of buisness in the next ten years if something does not change for them and soon. Verizon has great network coverage, but there phones are basicaly boring and limited, nevermind being expensive. I have not once used a CDMA phone that got battery life like a comparable GSM phone. An again I have nothing but good things to say about ATT;’s cell network and customer service. So, I do not know what antient time period it was when yiou all tried ATT, but sure isn’t now. Lastly as far as the iPhone is concerned, priority one for any carrier is a service contract, so I don’t know what is wrong with ATT wanting that. Also since GSM phones are sim based I would be willing to bet that when I get mine I ccan simp0ly bypas the whole setup procedure, and exchange the sim card form by BB 8800 with that of the iphone and wholah instant talkie talkie, then placing a call to customer care to enable the iPhones features, and removing my (more expensive) BB serice plan (sniff, sniff). So me I can’t wait til 6 o’clock for ya nay sayers don’t knock em til you try em, I assure you in this case it really is what I say it is. If your not excited then go read one of the reviews on the iPhone and see what they are talking about.
Robb: I have the solution for you: simply max out your credit cards, forget to pay your mortgage and car payments on time, and voila, you will have instant bad credit and can then get the prepaid plan 🙂
As an alternative, you can always find someone who really does have bad credit and have them attempt to activate for you…nothing wrong with that, as it would be prepaid anyway.
While this is a bit heavy handed of AT&T, I must say that it really isn’t any different than what VZW would do if it had the iPhone. As someone else noted, carriers want postpaid activations first and foremost, and to leverage such a high demand device for that isn’t so different than all of the other ways that carriers stick it to the public. In fact, I’m surprised they’re offering any prepaid option on such a high end phone; that’s more than usual for hot new expensive devices.
I will say that AT&T is not really losing customers, they are gaining them (net), just that they have been adding net subscribers at a pace less than Verizon. In fact both carriers have been posting some very healthy numbers of late, it’s just that VZW has been better.
This is odd for me, actually kind of sticking up for AT&T 🙂
Truth be told Sigmamason, I am not really filled with angst towards the other carriers. It’s just that I thought that I was going to be able to get a pre-paid iPhone without having to jump through hoops and that dream was dashed based on the leaked pre-paid details.
I am a die-hard Verizon subscriber but you would probably find that they receive more than their fair share of criticism here on RIMarkable.
I just think if AT&T is going to offer a pre-paid option, they should offer it to those of us with good beacon scores as well. I don’t think that I would have a problem with it if they didn’t offer pre-paid option at all…
They do give you another choice…
Open a pay-as-you-go account with an old phone, then buy your iPhone and move it to your pre-existing prepay account.
However, make sure you pay by rubber cheque to prove you are a poor risk
Problem solved. I found a college student with jacked up credit willing to fail the credit check for me and stand in line all day at the local Apple store.
I have to say reading some of these posts is very informational. Regarding the Iphone, dont have one not going to buy one. No need, its nice, I saw it I touched it but just not for me.
Regarding Carriers, had Cingular/AT&T for 5 years, regarding there network and connection’s NEVER EVER HAD A PROBLEM. Left them because of double billing for 6 plus months. Switched to Verizon, NO problems with service or billing . I DO HAVE A PROBLEM with them taking a perfectly good product and crippling / disabling it. That would be the only reason to leave them and I have to say between the BB 8800 and VZW 8830 which are what I am looking at right now, the 8800 wins. Its not crippled, and from past experience if I wanted to alter something on a GSM phone I could read a couple of articles and enable it. This VZW crippling is like nothing I have scene nor want to describe in full. Plain and simple its BS. I sure the hell am NOT going to pay for a phone or PDA and have the manufacturers original hardware disabled because the provider wants to make extra money on a subscription for a crappy service to be exact.
I’d like to see VZW buy sprint and AT&T buy T-mobile , VZW could never get there push to talk network up, and AT&T’s is up and running, its not Nextel but than again Nextel/Sprint has to find an alternate to IDEN, that is in the works and will more than likely succeed .
The network is the network, if you like it pay for it, if you dont move ON, IPHONE I hope it makes zillions cause theres going to be more down the line, this is NOT a one time thing. VZW is trying to compete with it but there not even close.
MY 50 Cents
I deliberately failed the credit check so I could go prepaid and I think it’s a great deal, especially if you don’t talk a lot on the phone. I got unlimited text messages, unlimited data, 300 minutes plus 1000 night/weekend minutes for $86 monthly. NNo sign-up fee, and no cancellation fee, and you can bet I’ll cancel as soon as another wireless carrier (like T-Mobile) opens up the iPhone competition. If you signed a two-year contract with AT&T, you’re a sucker.
prepay man, did you read anything abot this phone before you bought it? The contract betwee apple and At&T is clear as day. No wireless provider in the US will have an Iphone for at least 5years. Besides, tmobile wont be around then anyway. As far as verizon goes, I left them because of the iphone and I was getting pretty bored with them anway. The phones suck and they are all the same. I hate that stupid interface that they put on all their phones. it makes them boring. I can also say that everyphone at ATT is rich in features and att does not restrict the capabilities of their phones unlike verizon who cripples every bluetooth phone they have. Burn in hell verizon, and ill watch the clips of the fire on my iphone through my awesome YouTube feature.
My credit suks and ATT gave me a 2 year plan.. FYI carriers only go back a couple years unlike credit card companies..
i hope i fail the credit check just so i can go prepaid so i can use the phone withouth being locked into a contract.
Use 999-99-9999 as your social.
I, like an idiot, bought the iPhone. While I agree that it is a gorgeous device (i am using it to type this), AT&T is a joke. I was a verizon customer for almost 10 years, back when they were airtouch (at least in az). I left because customer service became a miserable experience. I decided to switch to tmobile, and it has been a very pleasant experience. I upgraded to a pearl, and while it may not be as beautiful as the iphone, it let’s me take photos with both a flash and zoom-the iPhone does not. I can answer work email on the bberry when my unreasonable, life sucking CEO wants something taken care of (at 10pm when I am at, say for instance, coachella). I can’t do that on my iPhone (wait, that sounds like a selling point…
In the end, all of the cell companies pretty much suck, if you can’t make a call- of depends on your location, and in phoenix, Cingular/ AT&T stinks. So, excuse me while I go wander around and look for a signal so I can send this….
Hey guys,
Im not sure if this fourm is hot or not but i will throw my 2 cents in.
I work for Cingular as a salesman and i will never own an iphone. That is my personal stand on the phone and i, being in sales with the iphone, have enough info on the phone to back it up. I will now give you all some reasons to NOT buy an iPhone.
1. 14 day return policy unlike Cingular’s 30 day return. it is a return to Apple not Cingular, so returns will follow Apple policys
2. All returns must be taken back to the Cingular store where it was purchased with a 10% restocking fee. thats 50 or 60 dollars depending on if you got a 4gb or 8gb.
3. Any defective phones must be sent to Apple. This means if you open your box and the screen wont light up, tough toenails, you gotta send it to Apple and be phoneless for 3 weeks.
4. This will be the most fragile phone ever made. Apple had to go with the glass display screen because the plastic screen didnt respond to the touch like Apple wanted. So if you drop it you now have a 500 paperweight.
5. Iphone and windows vista are not meshing well on some apps. Microsoft is saying its Mac and vice versa. Dont expect it to be fixed soon.
6. Email from a Microsoft exchange server for what i know so far will not work. Thats sux for anyone wanting it as a business phone.
7. The typing on the keyboard is impossible if you are not looking at the phone. there is no keys to feel which is which.
8. Zero customer service help from Cingular or its stores. So if your phone quits working its all up to Apple to try and fix a phone. Not really their fortae.
9. Apple made the iphone a really cool ipod but should have focused more on the phone aspect of it. I know that my N75 Nokia gets better reception that the iphone. I know, I have tested it.
10. All activation of the iphone is to be done at home by the customer. Hope you dont have any questions, lol, but really and the whole price thing on how its the same price to buy without a contract as it is with or as a go phone or pay as you go.
11. Internal sim card makes it impossible for any Cingular rep to work on the phone.
12. Apple has a 33% return rate on the ipods, what is going to say that the iphone wont be the same.
that was my info on the phone. if any of you want to chime in and have anymore info please let me know.
oh yeah one thing i forgot to say.
Cingular/AT&T have a 5 year exclusive to any Apple wireless device.
Only compititon for the iphone right now is the Blackberry Curve (8300), Blackberry Pearl (8100), or AT&T 8525 (HTC Hermes).
There is a phone that LG is in the works of making. LG and Prada teamed up and are making a iphone look-a-like. Check it out on phonescoop.com
I had to respond to this mis-information.
1. 14 day return policy unlike Cingular’s 30 day return. it is a return to Apple not Cingular, so returns will follow Apple policys (its not like any cell phone so why shhould it be treated like one?)
2. All returns must be taken back to the Cingular store where it was purchased with a 10% restocking fee. thats 50 or 60 dollars depending on if you got a 4gb or 8gb. (hat is standard Apple Policy and its ten bucks too high in either case, not to mention; who’s taking back an iPhone?)
3. Any defective phones must be sent to Apple. This means if you open your box and the screen wont light up, tough toenails, you gotta send it to Apple and be phoneless for 3 weeks. (Actually Apple replaces it on the spot like they did mine after I fucked it up, again “I” fucked it up)
4. This will be the most fragile phone ever made. Apple had to go with the glass display screen because the plastic screen didnt respond to the touch like Apple wanted. So if you drop it you now have a 500 paperweight. (wrong, already have any they replaced it on the spot)
5. Iphone and windows vista are not meshing well on some apps. Microsoft is saying its Mac and vice versa. Dont expect it to be fixed soon. (Windows Vista Blows, now that I am done with that, only the 64-bit version is having trouble, which only 1% of the people run, and Microsoft has admitted there is a driver bug)
6. Email from a Microsoft exchange server for what i know so far will not work. Thats sux for anyone wanting it as a business phone. (there is already a service $4 a month, and FYI exchnge is just prapriatory IMAP, and as such has a gateway, so technicaly exchange has been compatible from day one)
7. The typing on the keyboard is impossible if you are not looking at the phone. there is no keys to feel which is which. ( I am sorry, why would you be typing on any “Smartphone” without looking?)
8. Zero customer service help from Cingular or its stores (who cares). So if your phone quits working its all up to Apple to try and fix a phone. Not really their fortae. (if they can’t fix it they replace it on the spot, period..for a full year, I don’t know any cingular phone after 30 days they will do that with)
9. Apple made the iphone a really cool ipod but should have focused more on the phone aspect of it. I know that my N75 Nokia gets better reception that the iphone. I know, I have tested it. (yeah, I was using a much more expensive BB8800 which got about the same reception (I loved my 8800 by the way, one of the best BB I have ever owned)
10. All activation of the iphone is to be done at home by the customer. Hope you dont have any questions, lol, but really and the whole price thing on how its the same price to buy without a contract as it is with or as a go phone or pay as you go.
( I am sorry how is this bad for the consumer? it means if your credirt sucks you can still have one, which mind you all the “go phones” blow, and if you want to make a regular phone into one, its full price city)
11. Internal sim card makes it impossible for any Cingular rep to work on the phone. (Dude, you claim to work for a Cingular Store, well I would bet its not company owned but some indirect who can’t even sell iPhones yet, speak on what you know, the sim is removable; it’s in a tray at the top of the phone.
12. Apple has a 33% return rate on the ipods, what is going to say that the iphone wont be the same. ( what a lie, Apple has a 1%, again 1% return rate on iPods, how do I know this, I am a former full-time Apple Emplyee.)
Don’t be misguided by BS. An Alex comparing anything to an iPhone is Apple’s and Oranges. An FYI Apple is ranked number one in customer service every single year,. higher then ATT for sure, so do some thinking on your statements from this point forward, please, giving people bad info is just bad buisness especialy since you claim to be in the buisness.
So how does the iphone prepaid work? I have a sidekick III prepaid and I love it. I don’t talk on the phone much, but I use the internet A LOT and texting. With the sidekick III, I just put money in to it by buying the t-mobile prepaid cards. Does it work the same for the iphone? Can I just buy the prepaid go-phone cards at a convience store like wall mart?
I think iphone sucks already because I heard that if you drop your iphone to the ground,the screen breaks since its glass. So yeah I was going to get the freakin iphone but never mine I am going with the t-mobile sidekick lx because its cool and it now has an improved screen display. It also has a awsome prepaid plan with a dollar a day you get unlimted email, web browsing, instant messaging, all that for a dollar a day.But I still wished the sidekick could have you tube and a touch screen.
I’m pretty sure you just have to enter 555-55-5555 as your social secuirty number on the application to be denied credit. I could be wrong.
Exactly, just enter a not-real SSN and your credit is denied, activating your option to sign up for pre-paid.
This article isn’t totally fair– the prepaid iPhone has not been released as such, the process you’re describing is a hack! We may soon see the prepaid iPhone for real though, as there are many reasons people want a prepaid iPhone.