Why as an AT&T customer I paid full price for the Passport....

Just ordered my passport through shopblackberry even though I know at some point AT&T will have it and I can buy it on contract.

Two weeks ago I called AT&T and said
"I want to get the subsidy removed from my phone contract now that I am out of contract on my blackberry".
Reply - "Sir there is no subsidy on your contract".
Me - "Yes there is, if I had cancelled my contract early I would have had to pay an early termination fee based on how much time was left on the contract because I hadn't finished paying the phone. I got a $750 blackberry phone two years ago for only $150 which means somehow over the two years I paid off the rest of the phone, that's called a subsidy. "
Reply "Sir there is no subsidy that you are paying"
Me "Now that I am out of contract how come my cost does not go down"
Reply "Because that is the contract amount you had signed up for"
Me "If I go into a 2 year contract again and get another blackberry phone it will cost $750 and I will only pay $150 who pays the other $600 because I know blackberry gets paid for the phone and AT&T doesn't pay it out of their own pocket which means I am paying for it. So your saying my only option is to get a new phone at a lower price but I can't just remove the subsidy and bring my own phone"
Reply "Sir there are no such things as subsidy's at AT&T"
<went back and for a few more times and logic did not prevail so I hung up>

Fast forward to last week, I am looking at AT&T's specials this month and I can lower my phone service cost by $100 per month for my 3 lines and get a pool of 10 gigs of data to share between the phones. I read all of the fine print and there is online * that read at the bottom of the marketing said If I entered into a new 2 year contract under this new plan I would have to pay an additional 15 to 25 per line per contract.

I called AT&T to ask about this new plan. Gal was really excited to tell me about it. Then I asked "What does this * legal language at the end of the marketing mean" after going back and forth she admitted it meant that with the new plan I wasn't paying any subsidy's for my phones but if I chose to enter into a new contract I would be paying a subsidy for each new phone. Exactly opposite of the rep the previous week told me. She then preceded to tell me that by entering this new plan my current phones were grandfathered in without the Subsidy (Two of my three lines are under contract for the next few months). As long as I don't enter into any new contracts I get to keep the $100 a month discount.

Long story short I switched to the new plan (I chose the 30 gig data so I am saving a little less but a lot less than I was paying for each phone to have only 2 gigs of data).

Going forward I will be buying my phones directly from blackberry and skipping the 2 year contracts and staying away from the subsidy's on AT&T. I will be sticking with AT&T because they have other business integration feature I use but now at least I have a choice on subsidy vs no subsidy.

I know some people would rather spread the cost over the 2 years and I get that but assuming they charge me an extra $25 per month that is $600 for the phone and I will still have to put down something for the phone like $150 or possibly more.

This new plan only goes to the end of the month. For AT&T people you might check it out.

Yeah the way you're doing it, you're basically just buying the phone outright and paying for your line access and data plan. It's pretty much the same as AT&T Next where you'll be paying off the whole price of the phone over 18 (or 26 months - however you do it) and if you decide not to upgrade, THEN your bill gets lowered.

But yeah, I did what you did. And by going up in data, somehow I got more of a discount. Go figure lol

I agree. Pay it in full and not worry about it if one can afford it.

Using PP and Z10

The whole carrier industry is just a racket. Even though I bought my passport outright I can't lower the price of my cell phone bill when my contract is over in March.

So basically i'll need to get some free phone on contract to resell as i'll be paying the same anyway. I could use my old flip phone to get the $15 unlimited plan and then use that plan on my passport to screw at&t over.

Posted via CB10

Yup, always win in the long run if you can afford to pay cash upfront.

I switched from Verizon to AT&T to use the Passport. I wanted a no annual contract option, and having the Passport outright, they give you a $15 discount off of each $40 monthly smartphone access fee (only needed 4GB, but the discount is $25 if you go above 10GB---as the OP noted). I really couldn't care less if they don't provide technical support for my device,.. I've never relied on tech support,.. only support for account and billing issues, which they will provide based on the sim.

Anyway, good choice to take matters into your own hands and to have ordered the Passport!

Posted via CB10

Yep, they finally got consumer friendly. 25*24+250 upgrade > 650 for outright passport. Paying 200 extra every 2yrs. Doesn't make much sense... glad ATT Next is here.

My five family lines had 3 that had unlimited data. Those lines ended in up costing me 100 dollars more a month. I switched a while back to the 10GB plan months ago and this month upped it to the 15GB which equals 30GB for 27 dollars more. So now I have 30GB of data and 5 lines with no contract for roughly $200 a month (do not recall the exact number considering the taxes).

Anyway going full price with the phones and no contract is a good feeling.

Posted via CB10 on the awesome Passport

I took advantage of the new pricing as well. I have two lines with 30gb of shared data. Now, u just need to muster up the money for a Passport.

I'll have it soon enough.

Posted via CB10

If you mean you mean because your not on att your screwed sorry to hear it. But if your on att you can change to the new contract while in the old and it does not extend the contract length i mentioned above, that is exactly what i did.

On another note another reason to switch to the pooled data on att you get to turn on mobile hotspot on you blackberry at no extra charge. I have wanted the option of mobile hot spot but i didn't want to pay the extra fee. Today i am using the hot spot for the first time to write this on my kindle fire awesome....

Originally Posted by jojetski

If you mean you mean because your not on att your screwed sorry to hear it. But if your on att you can change to the new contract while in the old and it does not extend the contract length i mentioned above, that is exactly what i did.

On another note another reason to switch to the pooled data on att you get to turn on mobile hotspot on you blackberry at no extra charge. I have wanted the option of mobile hot spot but i didn't want to pay the extra fee. Today i am using the hot spot for the first time to write this on my kindle fire awesome....

Yes...the hotspot feature was a feature that caused me to jettison my unlimited data plans that I have had for years. It was cheaper and I never used a lot of data anyway.

Posted via CB10 on the awesome Passport

Originally Posted by dcwbearsaint

Yes...the hotspot feature was a feature that caused me to jettison my unlimited data plans that I have had for years. It was cheaper and I never used a lot of data anyway.

Posted via CB10 on the awesome Passport

This is all good to know and having a mobile hot spot feature would be awesome. I have a Passport on the way and it would be nice to renegotiate a cheaper monthly rate with AT&T. I, too, have had the grandfathered "unlimited" data plan that I have been reluctant to give up. But what do I do if I don't have anyone to share a family plan with? No one in my family uses AT&T. Can I just get the family plan and share 30 GB with my self? :rotfl:

I just took advantage of AT&T doubling data on 15 GB plans. Now have 30 for the same cost. I have been buying our phones outright as well last couple of years. Always end up better off that way. Understand people often look at it as a better deal to do the contract but you would be a better off saving a bit over a couple years and just buying the phone.

Passport on AT&T

As much as I'd love to order an unlocked passport now and pay less monthly, I'll be waiting.
A two year contract and an overall higher payout is fine by me since my employer reimburses me for my monthly bill, but not for the cost of upgrading the phone :beer:

Originally Posted by whoppo

As much as I'd love to order an unlocked passport now and pay less monthly, I'll be waiting.
A two year contract and an overall higher payout is fine by me since my employer reimburses me for my monthly bill, but not for the cost of upgrading the phone :beer:

Exactly....each person has different needs. If I had your situation I would do the same thing. I was just unaware how to get rid of the subsidy so I though I would share.