When your cell phone provider web site offers you to plug in your phone number to see if you qualify for an upgrade to the new iPhone 4, and it says you do qualify, you might hear a nagging little voice inside your head that says "There must be a catch!"Listen to that voice, because it's a very intuitive little yapper, as it turns out. When I called my provider, giddy with the promised opportunity to upgrade my older iPhone 3G to the new iPhone 4, I was informed that although I did in fact 'qualify', since I was not far enough along in my contract, I would have to pay full price for the phone. In the case of the model I want, that's $779. Of course - I am free to use my [insert customer retention value dollar name here] dollars towards the price.
I asked the next obvious question, "If I pay full price for the handset, is it locked to you guys?"
"Yes it is."
So I'm thinking, why would I pay full price for a locked handset when I can walk into any Apple store and get an unlocked phone for the same price?
"OK, thanks. We're done here." [click]
Needless to say, I'll be waiting until I'm close enough to contract renewal time to upgrade the phone. For a lot less money. But be forewarned. Just because the web site says you qualify for an upgrade doesn't necessarily mean squat.
No comments:
Post a Comment