Upset by Bait and Switch Tactics... [ Edited ]

[jyhash]

So I bought my iPhone 4s in October of 2011, and held off until now to upgrade to a new iPhone 5. I go into the local Best Buy because I have $50 in reward zone coupons to help whittle the cost down on a 32GB iPhone 5 which should cost me $299. I wait for an hour, The Best Buy Rep goes through the process and tells me I'm elligible for an early upgrade, and at checkout the cost comes up as $549 which gives me pause. I ask why the price is so high, and I'm told that the extra $250 is the early upgrade fee. I tell them that I've upgraded my iPhone early numerous times and have never had to pay more than $18 -$36 for renewing my contract for another 2 years.

At this point it gets handed over the the AT&T rep who tells me that she can't alter pricing, and proceeds to roll back the upgrade to my original iPhone 4s. This takes another half an hour. I am fuming mad, and the Best Buy mobile manager (not the AT&T rep) tells me to call AT&T customer service. I go outside to cool off, call up AT&T customer service, and speak to a wonderfully pleasant woman named Alexandria who assures me that I am elligible for an early iPhone upgrade and the price is $299. I double check to make sure, and she says yes. She even says that she'll put it in the notes on my account so if there's any question, all they have to do is call in to AT&T. I figure that I may have wasted a couple hours, but I'd surmounted the confusion, so I go inside and tell the AT&T rep that I spoke with customer service and they said I could upgrade for $299. She looks at the notes on her iPad and says that it is still showing at the $299 +$250 price. She calls into customer service to see if she can resolve the issue, and they say they can't do anything, even though I can upgrade freely in 3 months.

90 Days. That's what all this headache is about: 90 days.

She calls into the corporate store, and they tell her that if I was only a month out, they'd be able to do something, but not 3 months. Which I still think is rather ridiculous. I mean, what's the difference? It seems so arbitrary. I leave angry that I'm unable to upgrade my phone via Best Buy (as I won't be able to use those coupons, they expire today BTW). And the other added problem is that I wanted to bequeath my iPhone 4s to my brother as a present, and I'll have to dissappoint him if I can't get my upgrade.

So I doggedly try AT&T customer service again, explaining what I've just been through, hoping that someone would realize that they've been found out trying to pull a bait and swtich and that they've wasted large amounts of my time (I'm going on trying to get it resolved for 3 hours at this point in the story), and also get an answer as to why the customer service is saying I can get an iPhone 5 for $299, but not the AT&T Rep at Best Buy. Antonia from customer support gets ready to process everything for $299, when it makes her begin to process the order for $549, and she doesn't understand why either. A coworker (not a supervisor or manager) says that it is a mandatory fee that Apple levies on anyone upgrading before their upgrade date. She says there is nothing more she can do, unless I want to get a different phone, because Apple won't let AT&T waive the fee. I thank her and call up Apple to talk with their sales department.

Apple, too, gives me the runaround. They say that if I have problems with the $250 early upgrade fee, I have to take it up with my service provider and that Apple has no control over it.

So now I'm back at square one, with no upgraded phone, and no phone to gift to my sibling. I find it hard to believe that the arbitrary "upgrade date" is not malleable, especially for a customer of 8 years who is early by 3 months. I noticed when the iPhone 4 came out, that they pushed my upgrade up to its release day (I had recently purchased a 3GS), why am I all of a sudden having touble when I'm told I have the ability to upgrade, that a factor of 90 days costs me the price of another iPhone?

I'm not looking for something for nothing, I just strenuously object to being told you have the ability to upgrade and then to find out that it is nothing short of a scam, and something that Customer Service associates don't even know about when they're talking to you. I feel like I was misled, and no one is helping me resolve the issue to my satisfaction by making good on what they say.

I feel that this problem has a solution, and as of right now, the only thing I can see is sit around for 3 months while AT&T tels me to go jump off a cliff at present.

Just an upsetting bait and switch.

[Edited to comply with Guidelines]

[gregzoll_1]

Sounds like a typical Best Buy scam. Why they are still in business is beyond anyone's guess. This is not the only thing that Best Buy pulls this on, they also do it by having people purchase over priced cables for A/V equipment, and pulling the "We need our Geek Squad" to go through your computer before you can complete the sale, to "Optimize" it.

You can send a Private message by clicking the Blue Envelope at the top, to ATTCustomer Care. It is a different department than normal customer service. Also you can check with Apple itself, and if there is a Apple store in your area, you can go in there and talk to them directly.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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gregzoll_1 wrote:
Sounds like a typical Best Buy scam. Why they are still in business is beyond anyone's guess. This is not the only thing that Best Buy pulls this on, they also do it by having people purchase over priced cables for A/V equipment, and pulling the "We need our Geek Squad" to go through your computer before you can complete the sale, to "Optimize" it.

You can send a Private message by clicking the Blue Envelope at the top, to ATTCustomer Care. It is a different department than normal customer service. Also you can check with Apple itself, and if there is a Apple store in your area, you can go in there and talk to them directly.

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looks more like the OP was not eligible for the full discount but seemed to think they should get it. Sorry but have not sen a validated case where the carrier allows a full discounted upgrade when it was not eligibile. If they did get that deal from att then they should have had att process the upgrade and forget about the 50 bucks since it was still saving them 199.00

As posted here in their message

" I could upgrade for $299. She looks at the notes on her iPad and says that it is still showing at the $299 +$250 price. She calls into customer service to see if she can resolve the issue, and they say they can't do anything, even though I can upgrade freely in 3 months."

[dwill05]

Not a bait and switch, but a misunderstanding by the OP on how the upgrade pricing works. Almost all carriers publish the lowest price on their phones, which is for a new customer, or someone who is eligible for a full upgrade. You signed a 2-year contract back in October 2011, in exchange for getting your phone at a full discounted price. They sell you the phone at a loss and get their money back by having you pay them every month for 2 years. You aren't at the point in your contract that AT&T will let you get get another phone at a full discount because they haven't made their money back yet. If you pay them for 3 more months, you'll be at the point where they have decided that they have made enough money to offer you another full discount on a new phone. It's just that simple.

What happened in the past is irrelevant. That was then, but this is now. Apple and AT&T used to offer a full upgrade to previous iPhone owners every time a new one came out. That stopped years ago. Now you have to wait until 20 months into a 2 year contract before you can get a full upgrade. It is what it is, and it isn't going to change no matter how many different people at Best Buy, AT&T, and Apple you talk to.