[MrTW]

The title says it all:

Can anyone within the LA County tell me which ATT store sells the Torch outright without a commitment to a contract?

Due to ATT's warranty, i would much rather prefer to buy direclty from ATT as oppose to Best Buy, Amazon, etc.

Thanks for any help.

[shansmi]

All of them. Full retail price with no contract is $499USD plus tax.

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[MrTW]

All of them. Full retail price with no contract is $499USD plus tax.

Nope, unfortunately that is not the case.

It is true that all stores are advertising the full price but so far, I have not found one single store to actually giving out the Torch for the $499 and without commitment.

It appears to be a store-by-store policy as certain stores told me they release within 3, 6 month; others told me to just shop around as some other stores are selling without contract.

[shansmi]

I cannot speak for francise stores in any way but corporate stores will certainly sell them outright. There is no policy against it. The sign by each live phone has all of the pricing. If they refuse to sell it at the advertised price, report them.

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[MrTW]

I cannot speak for francise stores in any way but corporate stores will certainly sell them outright. There is no policy against it. The sign by each live phone has all of the pricing. If they refuse to sell it at the advertised price, report them.

Funny, the corporate stores who refused told me to go to the franchisees.

I do appreciate that every business needs to make money but since the phone is available at other retailers without contract i am really not understanding ATT's positioning here.

Giving the above, i want to be honest that 'begging' to be allowed to buy a device for $500 kind of ruins the Blackberry experience for me.

[mike448]

The corporate stores who are telling you this are lying because they don't wanna be bothered with a sale that they don't make commission off of!

[shansmi]

I purchased mine outright in a corporate store.

The corporate stores who are telling you this are lying because they don't wanna be bothered with a sale that they don't make commission off of!

They do get a comission. It is just on the device vs a contract.

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[MrTW]

I purchased mine outright in a corporate store.

They do get a comission. It is just on the device vs a contract.

Hmm, i will try it tomorrow with the couple of stores within my neighbourhood... lets see what they have to say.

Thanks for the input here

[MrTW]

Just to cloose the loop on this thread:

Today i went to two ATT stores in my direct neighborhood and they both refused to sell the phone to me without a two year contract.

Later today i went to a different part of town and coincidently drove past a random ATT store; went in and asked politely for a Torch out of contract and... voila... got one

Thread closed

[dchawk81]

It should ruin your AT&T experience, not your BlackBerry experience.

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[MrTW]

It should ruin your AT&T experience, not your BlackBerry experience.

good point - agreed.