Question on AT&T's terms of service

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yopingo

New Member
Jun 30, 2007
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The link (http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/iphone-terms.jsp) says that:

"An early termination fee of $175 applies if service is terminated before the end of the contract term. If phone is returned within 3 days, activation fee will be refunded. If phone is returned within 14 days in like-new condition with all components, early termination fee will be waived. Service may be cancelled after 14 days but within 30 days and early termination fee will be waived, but equipment may not be returned. All other charges apply."

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A few questions:
Refer "Service may be cancelled after 14 days but within 30 days and early termination fee will be waived, but equipment may not be returned."
1. Does it mean that I can activate it and play with it for upto 30 days and then cancel the service and keep my brick?
2. Will it still work as the tablet (iPod + wifi) without the phone features?

Refer "All other charges apply."
3. Activation charge of $36 will be forfeited, fine. Anything else?

4. Finally, What does it mean that they will charge $175 as termination fee? Its most likely that I will get rid of AT&T but then will I land up with a brick?
 
A

art

New Member
Bronze
Jun 29, 2007
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yopingo said:
The link (http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/iphone-terms.jsp) says that:

"An early termination fee of $175 applies if service is terminated before the end of the contract term. If phone is returned within 3 days, activation fee will be refunded. If phone is returned within 14 days in like-new condition with all components, early termination fee will be waived. Service may be cancelled after 14 days but within 30 days and early termination fee will be waived, but equipment may not be returned. All other charges apply."

------------------------

A few questions:
Refer "Service may be cancelled after 14 days but within 30 days and early termination fee will be waived, but equipment may not be returned."
1. Does it mean that I can activate it and play with it for upto 30 days and then cancel the service and keep my brick?
2. Will it still work as the tablet (iPod + wifi) without the phone features?

Refer "All other charges apply."
3. Activation charge of $36 will be forfeited, fine. Anything else?

4. Finally, What does it mean that they will charge $175 as termination fee? Its most likely that I will get rid of AT&T but then will I land up with a brick?
Click to expand...
1.) No
2.) No
3.) No
4.) All carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, etc) charge ETF, early termination fees. That's to discourage you from terminating before the end of the contract.
If you read the terms of service very closely, you NEVER own the phone. Any phone you pay for. It's more like a lease. However if you use if for the entire two year contract period, pay your bills on time, and cause no other problems for them, they will overlook taking the phone back at the end of the contract.

If however you cancel your contract at Any Time, they will demand you return the phone.

I have personally experienced this with AT&T, T-Mobile and Cingular.

There is only ONE Way to get all your money back from AT&T, and that's to use the phone for no more than three days, and return it to a store on the third day before they close. Explain nicely that it's not the phone for you, and they will refund the ETF, the activation fee, taxes, and everything except the air time which you have used. If you keep it for any longer than three days then it's much more expensive to get out of the contract, and again in no case are you allowed to keep the phone.

Hope this helps
 
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chenyichung

New Member
Jun 30, 2007
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I disagree with all of your answers.
Check this out:
http://www.gearlog.com/2007/06/iPhone_what_happens_if_you_swi.php

once your iPhone is activated, as long as you have a ATT SIM card in the SIM tray, all features will work except for the phone features.

Also, no where on the iPhone cancellation terms does it say that you HAVE TO return your phone, you bought the phone directly from Apple or cingular, it doesn’t matter, you paid full retail price.
It’s like if you were to buy the sony ericsson W600 directly from sony’s website, you DO NOT need to return your iPhone if you cancel your plan at anytime.
In fact, if you read carefuly here:
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/iphone-terms.jsp

Line 5 under Terms Applicable to AT&T Nation/FamilyTalk® GSM Plans: Credit approval required says, “Service may be cancelled after 14 days but within 30 days and early termination fee will be waived, but equipment may not be returned.”

They actually won’t let you retune the iPhone if you cancel after 14 days, and you’ll be waived from the $175 termination fee.

So yes, the safest thing to do is to activate through iTunes so that your iPhone is ACTIVATED for LIFE. This way no matter what happens, you can still at least have all the features except for the phone features.
Cancel BEFORE 3 days so that you can receive the activation fee back and also be waived from the cancellation fee. And KEEP YOUR iPHONE, and wait for someone to unlock the SIM read function.

Or just try what I’m gonna try.
 
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Y

yopingo

New Member
Jun 30, 2007
12
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art & chenyichung --- thanks for your responses. Really appreciate it.

I would like to believe chenyichung's response. :)
But then don't want to do it unless it is confirmed. I understand that most folks wont do that.
I am ok with using a $599 iPhone as a iPod + wifi browser but not ok with paying AT&T.

BTW chenyichung, did you try out what you intended to try in your other post? (I have been following your post closely (-; )

Another thing, I called up AT&T support and asked them what it means by de-activation, will they provide any unlock code like they do for other phones. The rep clearly said that for iPhone it doesn't work that way and that the iPhone is designed to work only with AT&T. Other forums (macrumours, digg, hackint0sh etc.) also say that the iPhone is double locked (SIM+iPhone with AT&T).
 
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chenyichung

New Member
Jun 30, 2007
47
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0
i just got off the phone with cingular customer service

quote from rep:
"it does not matter where you bought the phone, if you cancel your serivce, doesn't matter when, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO RETURN THE PHONE! It's your phone, you can use it as a really cool media player and surf the web using wifi if you want. But it's yours, heck, it better be yours, you paid over $600 for it"

i will not be trying my plan because you can't reuse old SIM cards :(
although i think you can, they just don't you to know how to, that's the whole unlocking businesss.
 
Y

yopingo

New Member
Jun 30, 2007
12
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0
So to summarise,

- I can activate and cancel within 3 days for no charges (specifically $36 activation & $175 ETF) except usage fees. Then the iPhone can be used as a very expensive iPod + wifi browser.

Would it (iPod + wifi) work for any SIM? (maybe an old unused SIM?)
 
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