[giper54]

I bought an iphone 4 from best buy in september. Nice phone but I do not need to pay for an extra phone and I have someone who will buy it from me. My question is if I cancel my phone, do I have to pay any extra fees to Best Buy since I am ending the contract early? I know some companies do that to recoup the cost of the subsidized phone.

[Fubaz]

you will not be paying Best Buy, but you will be paying AT&T.

Digging into AT&T's new $325 early termination fee

[Mister Xiado]

iPhone users tend to pull the most fraud with AT&T than any other phone users, which is part of the reason why all smartphones are required to have data service, and why the ETF was raised. People were buying $700 phones for $200, canceling and eating the $175 ETF, selling the phones for near retail cost, and getting an easy 40% profit margin. More, if someone's fool enough to pay for a jailbroken iPhone.

Remember, a contract means you promise to pay 24 monthly bills in exchange for a massive subsidy off the price of your phone. If you cancel, your word is as good as dirt and you have no honor.

If you try to lie your way out of an ETF, there are... shall we say, metaphysical ramifications to account for.

I wish US carriers would stop selling discounted equipment and just make everybody buy the hardware straight up. Then people wouldn't be so careless with their phones, and would pay attention to their usage, and read the terms of service, and test the service before moving to the bottom of a flooded silver mine in Arizona and blaming their carrier for the poor signal in a location two hundred miles from the nearest company store.

[Totalimmortal363]

Most authorized users will charge you a seperate ETF fee for canceling service within six months.

[Mister Xiado]

Eh?

You mean authorized retailers with sub-contracts, right? Like how Wirefly and friends require X-rate-plan and Y-data-feature for Z months or you get tossed into the hurt locker, right? But hey, an EXTRA discount on a phone in exchange for a moderately higher bill? May as well be charging it to your account and paying for it over time.... hey, wait, that's exactly what it's like, except you can use more of the service... and get accustomed to it.... and not cheap out later.

DiaBOLICAL.

[bubbarob1978]

I just purchased an iPhone 4 from Radio Shack and it was on special for $149. There are no extra ETF's with Radio Shack but there is a stipulation that the iPhone has to remain activated on the line for 90 days or the equipment must be returned. I forget exactly how it reads but I am really happy with it so far.

Just FYI in case anyone was deciding on where to get one.