Unfortunately the iPhone is controlled by Apple for pricing structure (to put it simply), so when the store rep and the customer service agent and the supervisor told you the same thing it is the truth, there are no exceptions for the iPhone when upgrading, also the iPhone is on sale for new lines of service at that price point, and is not truly a $0.99 phone, this will be the same for all carriers, the only difference is that if you go to another carrier you will get their lowest price for the iPhone for all the lines, but if a new one comes out next year, the same thing will happen again you will not be able to get the new customer pricing for the iPhone so you are back to square 1 but with a new company now.

If the IPhone 4 is that important or money maker for AT&T and Apple then why is it only .99 cents?  I wonder if Apple is still making IPhone 4, since IPhone 4S and now IPhone 5 are newer?    I'm sure Apple already has a new IPhone version they are working on to put out. From my experience when you have a new product to sell and you have a surplus of older molders you want to get rid of them to make room for the new ones.  How do you do that, by selling them at a low cost.  If you upgrade your phone then the contract starts over when you upgrade, now you have the customer on a new contract.   I just know AT& T and Apple would have made more money from me and probably a lot of other customers too, if they would allow the upgrade for .99 cent and start the contract new.  With today's economy people can't afford a $250 IPhone 4. 

 

Here is a saying that holds a lot:  If you take care of the customer, you will have a happy customer which means you will have a customer for life and a free advertising (word of mouth goes a long way and brings in more customers).  An unhappy customer means you will lose a customer and how many more potential customer have you lost.

 

 I guess it's safe to AT&T and Apple doesn't care about that.

That $0.99 price tag, is to bring the new people in, you got the same basic deal when you activated your service originally. as for the older models, they are still selling very well for Apple even with the newer models out, Apple is very dominant with what they do and what they allow other companies to do that they deal with.

iPhone 4's retail price is $449, so there is a deal, in fact AT&T is the only one that offers this deal, if you're in the middle of your contract and AT&T hasn't recouped the discount they gave you on the previous phone, they will let you upgrade early and take $200 off, instead of $448, which you can get when you fulfill your end of the contract (usually in 20 months from last renewal). 

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stamperdj wrote:

If the IPhone 4 is that important or money maker for AT&T and Apple then why is it only .99 cents?  I wonder if Apple is still making IPhone 4, since IPhone 4S and now IPhone 5 are newer?    I'm sure Apple already has a new IPhone version they are working on to put out. From my experience when you have a new product to sell and you have a surplus of older molders you want to get rid of them to make room for the new ones.  How do you do that, by selling them at a low cost.  If you upgrade your phone then the contract starts over when you upgrade, now you have the customer on a new contract.   I just know AT& T and Apple would have made more money from me and probably a lot of other customers too, if they would allow the upgrade for .99 cent and start the contract new.  With today's economy people can't afford a $250 IPhone 4. 

 

Here is a saying that holds a lot:  If you take care of the customer, you will have a happy customer which means you will have a customer for life and a free advertising (word of mouth goes a long way and brings in more customers).  An unhappy customer means you will lose a customer and how many more potential customer have you lost.

 

 I guess it's safe to AT&T and Apple doesn't care about that.

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The customer also has to fulfill his/her contract that was signed.  You received your son's Pantech phone in exchange for a two-year service agreement.  You have only fulfilled 12 months of this agreement.  AT&T is not offering full upgrade pricing to you at this time on that line.  AT&T is offering the opportunity to upgrade early with a $250 fee.  This offer is yours to accept or reject.  If you reject it, you can keep the same phone that you have on that line, or pay the ETF that was quoted to you.

 

A company will not be able to stay in business if they keep giving 60-100% discounts on their products without getting completed service agreements in return.  Free advertising from happy customers won't matter if they have to shut down due to giving away a product every time a customer asked for it.