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Will my evil plan to ditch T-Mobile for an AT&T iPhone work?

T

thebossone

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 18, 2009
17
0
I've been a T-Mobile customer for 6 years, but the time has come to switch networks for various reasons. I am still under contract and need it to go away so that I can get an iPhone with AT&T. I have an evil plan and I am wondering if it will work.

I'm sure I'm not the first to try this.

I renew my contract and upgrade to a BlackBerry Bold 9700 right now for $199 and immediately sell it on eBay for $500, making a profit of about $300. I can then take $200 of that money to pay the T-Mobile early termination fee, and have money left over.

My only fear is that T-Mobile has a policy that says you can't cancel your contract within X days/months of renewing or upgrading my phone or else you will get a bill for amount your new phone was discounted or something. That would really kill the deal for me.

Anybody know anything about canceling a T-Mobile contract, or if this works?

Thanks,

B
 
thebossone said:
I've been a T-Mobile customer for 6 years, but the time has come to switch networks for various reasons. I am still under contract and need it to go away so that I can get an iPhone with AT&T. I have an evil plan and I am wondering if it will work.

I'm sure I'm not the first to try this.

I renew my contract and upgrade to a BlackBerry Bold 9700 right now for $199 and immediately sell it on eBay for $500, making a profit of about $300. I can then take $200 of that money to pay the T-Mobile early termination fee, and have money left over.

My only fear is that T-Mobile has a policy that says you can't cancel your contract within X days/months of renewing or upgrading my phone or else you will get a bill for amount your new phone was discounted or something. That would really kill the deal for me.

Anybody know anything about canceling a T-Mobile contract, or if this works?

Thanks,

B
Click to expand...

how much do you have left on your contract?
Umm why would you go buy a blackberry bold renewing your contract just to pay off the etf, isnt cheaper just to pay the etf? Does tmobile make a deduction each month toward your etf fee. Ex. $5 month off your etf?
 
if you start a new contract, i also believe you must wait at least 30 days to cancel your contract.
 
Further explanation

Yes, I am still under contract and the ETF is $200. I don't want to spend $200 to get out of the contract, and this is the best way I can think of. Renewing my contract and upgrading to the Bold for $199, and then selling the Bold for $500 means I can pay for the Bold ($200), the ETF ($200), and still have made a profit of $100 to put towards my iPhone with AT&T. So instead of simply paying the ETF of $200, I end up with $100 profit to put toward an iPhone. Make sense?
 
usually if you upgrade before you're eligible to..you don't get the discount. have you already checked if you are eligible for the $200 phone price?
 
polishmacuser said:
how much do you have left on your contract?
Umm why would you go buy a blackberry bold renewing your contract just to pay off the etf, isnt cheaper just to pay the etf? Does tmobile make a deduction each month toward your etf fee. Ex. $5 month off your etf?
Click to expand...

No, my contract is old. Contract ETF's are only prorated for contracts entered into after a certain day in '08 or '09. I signed my contract before the date.
 
2056 said:
usually if you upgrade before you're eligible to..you don't get the discount. have you already checked if you are eligible for the $200 phone price?
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm eligible for the $200 price. My contract is up in March, but I don't want to wait.

Applejuiced said:
Yes, but now you gotta include a months bill also in there.
But still better than paying $200 out of pocket.
I dont see why not.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "include a month's bill ... in there?"
 
polishmacuser said:
well you still have to pay the bill even though your canceling your contract.
Click to expand...

But If I cancel at the end of my billing cycle, it doesn't really matter, right? They can't charge me for the next month if I cancel before the next billing period starts.... right?

Thanks for your help.

B
 
And this is exactly why Verizon now has a 350 dollar etf on smart phones...because jerks pull stunts like this. Just suck it up and pay your stinking etf if you want the iPhone so bad. I did.
 
thebossone said:
I've been a T-Mobile customer for 6 years, but the time has come to switch networks for various reasons. I am still under contract and need it to go away so that I can get an iPhone with AT&T. I have an evil plan and I am wondering if it will work.

I'm sure I'm not the first to try this.

I renew my contract and upgrade to a BlackBerry Bold 9700 right now for $199 and immediately sell it on eBay for $500, making a profit of about $300. I can then take $200 of that money to pay the T-Mobile early termination fee, and have money left over.

My only fear is that T-Mobile has a policy that says you can't cancel your contract within X days/months of renewing or upgrading my phone or else you will get a bill for amount your new phone was discounted or something. That would really kill the deal for me.

Anybody know anything about canceling a T-Mobile contract, or if this works?

Thanks,

B
Click to expand...

Why BB Bold and not HTC touch Pro2. You can get it for $49 and they sell like hot cakes on Ebay. Google wmdeals.
 
hushmartin said:
And this is exactly why Verizon now has a 350 dollar etf on smart phones...because jerks pull stunts like this. Just suck it up and pay your stinking etf if you want the iPhone so bad. I did.
Click to expand...

sorry we are not as honorable as you. I'm sure you've never done anything in your life to help you save money. Fact of the matter is, nothing he is doing is illegal so you should probably just shut up.

for the OP, you have to wait 30 days after renewing to cancel, so that is where that first month's bill comes into play. So add a month's bill into your equation and see if it is worth it.
 
Hey, here is a crazy idea. Why not wait the extra few months? You are gonna buy the iPhone sometime in December or January. Most likely by June we will be hearing about the next iPhone. Wait till that comes out and switch then. I would only switch right now if you had to get rid of t- mobile for some reason.

Just my worthless .02$
 
Since your contract is up in March, you're within the 6 month period and your ETF should only be $100 making this scenerio pretty much pointless.
 
A bit hypocritical, maybe?

thelatinist said:
Why should T-Mobile subsidize your iPhone? Pretty unethical.
Click to expand...

I was feeling a little bit guilty and reprimanded and they I noticed that you have a jailbroken iPhone. Some would argue that's unethical, don't you think? There's a reason it's locked. Thank you much, guilt trip. Boom!
 
thebossone said:
I was feeling a little bit guilty and reprimanded and they I noticed that you have a jailbroken iPhone. Some would argue that's unethical, don't you think? There's a reason it's locked. Thank you much, guilt trip. Boom!
Click to expand...

In what way is it unethical to jailbreak my iPhone? I'd love to hear this.
 
I would love to know as well.

How is it unethical? Oh because I don't want to sit in Apple's walled garden of apps. So I can choose to use an app that Apple decided I shouldn't have through their app store for whatever stupid reason?

If that's unethical then so be it.
 
Wow I should find a hobby...

thelatinist said:
In what way is it unethical to jailbreak my iPhone? I'd love to hear this.
Click to expand...

Well, I guess it's not unethical if you're using it on the AT&T network. If so, then whatever. But I don't think people unlock their phones to use them on the network they were locked to in the first place.

If you're using your iPhone on T-Mobile or a network other than AT&T, then it's not much different than what I am proposing. It's just that I'm "screwing" T-Mobile, and you "screwed" AT&T. I'm sure you don't need a lesson in how the cellular carriers operate, but here's my thinking:

I used to work for AT&T and they typically sell their phones well below cost. The carrier makes its money back over the course of the service contract. I'm not sure, but I'd imagine that AT&T subsidizes a substantial part of the iPhone and really banks on the customer sticking around to earn back their "investment" in the customer.

So... if AT&T is your carrier and you paid the no-obligation (retail) price for your iPhone, then I would say there's nothing wrong with unlocking or jailbreaking it.

But if you bought it new or almost new on eBay and are using it on another network, then you are a supporter of the very behavior you call unethical. Right or wrong, eBay'ers renew contracts to get discounts on phones, and then sell them for a profit all the time. If you bought your phone on eBay, it is likely that someone did exactly this, which means that AT&T will not be making that $30/month for the data plan that they factor into the selling price of the phone, and they will not get the chance to earn their subsidy back. If everyone did this, AT&T would eventually raise the price of the phone to compensate. How ironic - if everyone did what I am planning on doing, then T-Mobile's prices will have to increase as well. If this is what you did, then you are just as guilty as I [will be], my friend. It's just that I did the dirty work myself, and you paid someone else to do it.

What I'm doing is definitely ethically questionable. I appreciate some peoples' comments. It's making me rethink things a little bit.
 
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