Hahaha, unethical against corporate America.
Sir, you must like it up where the sun doesn't shine.
Sir, you must like it up where the sun doesn't shine.
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Will my evil plan to ditch T-Mobile for an AT&T iPhone work?
- Thread starter thebossone
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Thanks
I called T-Mobile and you are RIGHT! Thanks for letting me know! But, if I decide I can live with myself by committing this heinous act, There's still a $200 difference between having to pay $100 of my own money to cancel, and profiting $100 off of the whole deal.
I called T-Mobile and you are RIGHT! Thanks for letting me know! But, if I decide I can live with myself by committing this heinous act, There's still a $200 difference between having to pay $100 of my own money to cancel, and profiting $100 off of the whole deal.
Yikes
I didn't know Verizon had done that. Makes me feel something... I think it's guilt. Thanks. How's your iPhone?
-Jerk
I didn't know Verizon had done that. Makes me feel something... I think it's guilt. Thanks. How's your iPhone?
-Jerk
I purchased my phone from AT&T at the subsidized rate of $299 plus tax. I have a two year contract with AT&T, which I fully intend to honor. I pay $30/mo. For unlimited data. I unlocked my phone for use when traveling overseas, a perfectly valid reason for unlocking a cell phone which AT&T recognizes. Nothing in my contract requires me to use AT&T for international roaming. In fact, all my previous phones were unlocked for this purpose by AT&T. I imagine that the only reason they will not do this with the iPhone is because the phone is so popular and has such a high resale value that too many people might do the sort of thing you are contemplating.
I will note that none of this at all relates to jailbreaking, the unethical act which you claimed so forcefully (and redundantly) made me a hypocrite.
Lol it's too funny with the ethics police attacks here latelly.
I'm sure the op can care less what u think, if you got nothing helpfull to contribute keep the negativity to yourself.
He didn't ask about your opinion whether u feel its right or wrong.
I'm sure the op can care less what u think, if you got nothing helpfull to contribute keep the negativity to yourself.
He didn't ask about your opinion whether u feel its right or wrong.
I don't really care if someone jailbreaks a phone. I kinda hate Apple's control too. All I'm saying is buying or selling a jailbroken new iPhone on eBay to use on another network is a lot like what I proposed to get out of that my T-Mobile contract without losing money. Both beat the system and will probably cause companies to raise prices in the long run to compensate.
Cool
You're using it on AT&T and you bought it fair and square. That's cool. That's unquestionably ethical. Sorry for calling you out on something you're not guilty of. Sorry for being redundant. You're a better man and a better writer than I. And I will admit that I thought jailbreaking and unlocking were the same thing. Now i know better.
You're using it on AT&T and you bought it fair and square. That's cool. That's unquestionably ethical. Sorry for calling you out on something you're not guilty of. Sorry for being redundant. You're a better man and a better writer than I. And I will admit that I thought jailbreaking and unlocking were the same thing. Now i know better.
Personally, I don't see the ethical problem here.
Let's be clear - the EFT is not somehow "cheating." it may end the contract, but it is nonetheless itself a part of the contract, which t-mo not only entered into but wrote in the first place. Moreover, T-mo set the level of subsidy on the BB 9700 knowing full well its full retail price.
In short: I see nothing unethical about using the rules that A sophisticated corporation drafted and agreed to to your advantage.
Let's be clear - the EFT is not somehow "cheating." it may end the contract, but it is nonetheless itself a part of the contract, which t-mo not only entered into but wrote in the first place. Moreover, T-mo set the level of subsidy on the BB 9700 knowing full well its full retail price.
In short: I see nothing unethical about using the rules that A sophisticated corporation drafted and agreed to to your advantage.
Let's not be biased towards teenagers.
I think paying $200 (or was it $100?) for the early termination fee would be more profitable. Why? You can earn more money and $200 is a small amount compared to the time/effort you invested in this thread. If you had gone straight to executing the plan and not ponder about it, then I retract my previous statement. But you probably wasted a few hours on this. You can get more money, but time is priceless.
You're right. Sorry for that. I really hoped you wouldn't take it personally if you didn't "fit the bill" of the person I was guessing you were. I was also very redundant in my use of the words "IF you" because I realized I might be wrong in my assumptions. But perhaps I did get carried away defending my "evil plan." The negative feedback has given me some new insight, which is something I hoped to gain from this dialogue. I'm not entirely unreasonable. It's good to hear arguments on both sides. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. But I apologize that I made you mad.
Haha
You are SOOOO right. Except for the fact that I'm in grad school and am making zero dollars and my wife's outta town and I am REALLY tired of reading about liabilities and contingencies. I guess I could be sleeping.
Let's not be biased towards teenagers.
I think paying $200 (or was it $100?) for the early termination fee would be more profitable. Why? You can earn more money and $200 is a small amount compared to the time/effort you invested in this thread. If you had gone straight to executing the plan and not ponder about it, then I retract my previous statement. But you probably wasted a few hours on this. You can get more money, but time is priceless.
You are SOOOO right. Except for the fact that I'm in grad school and am making zero dollars and my wife's outta town and I am REALLY tired of reading about liabilities and contingencies. I guess I could be sleeping.
Argument fail. You are breaking the TOS Apple has set in place. Congratulations for running yourself into a hole, noob. LOL.
Before you call another persons idea unethical, be sure you are set yourself
.
Before you call another persons idea unethical, be sure you are set yourself
What a load of BS. This is nothing more than a way of shutting people up. You don't have to be perfect to recognize unethical behavior.
I haven't decided what I am going to do yet. But I don't think it's a black-and-white issue. What is so clearly unethical to some posters is perfectly acceptable to others. The part of me that tells me it's "okay" is that T-Mobile wrote the contract and the contract does not say I can't do it. As consumers, we accept the parts of a contract that might not be "fair." For example, how is it fair that even if I cancel my service two days into my billing cycle, and am not using the service, that I am still charged for a full month? It's not fair in my opinion, but it's what I agreed to, so I can't complain. T-Mobile may not feel that it's fair for me to renew my contract to get a discount on a phone, and then cancel the contract immediately, but it's not in the contract that I can't. The people who wrote the T-Mobile contract are much smarter than I am. They know that this can and does happen, and to this point have decided to allow us to do so. I'm not trying to perpetuate this ethical war I started. But what would you say to this?
You know what's unethical?
Dipping a kitten in frying oil.
The OP's idea and jailbreaking? Those don't even have an ethical status one way or another.
Dipping a kitten in frying oil.
The OP's idea and jailbreaking? Those don't even have an ethical status one way or another.
I did it
So I did it. I bought renewed my contract with T-Mobile to get a BlackBerry Bold 9700 for $240 with taxes, shipping, and renewal fee. I sold it for $500 on eBay. I used the $500 to pay for the new phone ($240), the early termination fee ($200), and the other $60 was spent on eBay and shipping fees to the seller. So basically, I broke even. I was hoping to profit on the deal, but I didn't get quite as much for the phone on eBay and wasn't expecting such high fees from eBay and PayPal. But I DID get out of my contract for no money "out of pocket."
When I renewed and upgraded, my billing cycle started over. Since T-Mobile charges you for the whole month of service even if you cancel at the very beginning of your billing period, I used the service up to the day before the period ended, and then I ported my number to AT&T, automatically canceling my contract. If I would have canceled with T-Mobile a week after renewing, I still would have had to pay for the rest of the month with them, and would have also had to be paying for my new service with AT&T. So by waiting until the end of the period to port my number over, I avoided paying for two services when I was only using one.
Was it worth all the time and risk that went in to it? Probably not! I spent lots of time thinking about it, and selling anything on eBay is risky. So while if I were to do it all over again, I would've just paid the $100 cancellation fee with money I made myself, it's done and it worked. I love the new iPhone. The best part is that my friend let me onto his family plan with AT&T. The five of us on the plan all have iPhones and we split the bill. Sharing 2100 minutes (AT&T's A-List makes the minutes last) and taking advantage of the $30 unlimited family messaging package, we each pay about $70 with taxes and fees for iPhones with unlimited data and messaging! That is less than I paid at T-Mobile and I didn't even have a data plan!
Thanks for everyone's advice and input.
So I did it. I bought renewed my contract with T-Mobile to get a BlackBerry Bold 9700 for $240 with taxes, shipping, and renewal fee. I sold it for $500 on eBay. I used the $500 to pay for the new phone ($240), the early termination fee ($200), and the other $60 was spent on eBay and shipping fees to the seller. So basically, I broke even. I was hoping to profit on the deal, but I didn't get quite as much for the phone on eBay and wasn't expecting such high fees from eBay and PayPal. But I DID get out of my contract for no money "out of pocket."
When I renewed and upgraded, my billing cycle started over. Since T-Mobile charges you for the whole month of service even if you cancel at the very beginning of your billing period, I used the service up to the day before the period ended, and then I ported my number to AT&T, automatically canceling my contract. If I would have canceled with T-Mobile a week after renewing, I still would have had to pay for the rest of the month with them, and would have also had to be paying for my new service with AT&T. So by waiting until the end of the period to port my number over, I avoided paying for two services when I was only using one.
Was it worth all the time and risk that went in to it? Probably not! I spent lots of time thinking about it, and selling anything on eBay is risky. So while if I were to do it all over again, I would've just paid the $100 cancellation fee with money I made myself, it's done and it worked. I love the new iPhone. The best part is that my friend let me onto his family plan with AT&T. The five of us on the plan all have iPhones and we split the bill. Sharing 2100 minutes (AT&T's A-List makes the minutes last) and taking advantage of the $30 unlimited family messaging package, we each pay about $70 with taxes and fees for iPhones with unlimited data and messaging! That is less than I paid at T-Mobile and I didn't even have a data plan!
Thanks for everyone's advice and input.
Sorry, I flew off the handle a little bit. I liked Verizon. I had service with them for several years before getting the iPhone. I waited a year before switching to At&t in hopes that Verizon would get the iPhone. Verizon is reacting to the dishonest customers in raising the ETF's on smartphones, but in doing it they are also punishing all the customers who aren't crooked. How? Because even if you fulfill 23 out of 24 months, your ETF will still be 120 bucks. I canceled Verizon early by about 6 months and my ETF was 80. That's very fair IMO. Anyway, long story short, I am angry with crooked people for making me hate Verizon because of the high ETF's.
The sad part is, if people keep this crap up, eventually all the carriers will be forced to follow suit. So, I guess you people can endorse this kind of behavior all day long but know that you will eventually pay the price. Literally.
I _LOVE_ my iPhone, thanks.
Man did I burn myself back in my college years.
Damn those pieces of pizza or t-shirts giving away high interest blood suckers and to this day I swear never to have several different credit cards. After being burnt once I swore those credit companies/banks off. After the latest meltdown certain companies that did this went out of business! Karma is a bitch, isn't it?
Sorry, I flew off the handle a little bit. I liked Verizon. I had service with them for several years before getting the iPhone. I waited a year before switching to At&t in hopes that Verizon would get the iPhone. Verizon is reacting to the dishonest customers in raising the ETF's on smartphones, but in doing it they are also punishing all the customers who aren't crooked. How? Because even if you fulfill 23 out of 24 months, your ETF will still be 120 bucks. I canceled Verizon early by about 6 months and my ETF was 80. That's very fair IMO. Anyway, long story short, I am angry with crooked people for making me hate Verizon because of the high ETF's.
The sad part is, if people keep this crap up, eventually all the carriers will be forced to follow suit. So, I guess you people can endorse this kind of behavior all day long but know that you will eventually pay the price. Literally.
I _LOVE_ my iPhone, thanks.
Yeah, I understand that. I think you're right that if enough people do it, the carriers will raise their ETF's. But I wonder if Verizon raised their ETF not because they were losing money because people were doing what I did, or in a desperate attempt to keep people from jumping ship for the iPhone.
The conversation in the Verizon boardroom went something like this (I have the tape):
Executive Bill: "Dude, we're losing too many smartphone customers to the iPhone and AT&T. What should we do?!"
Executive Ted: "Raise the early termination fee to an amount so large no one can pay it and they have no choice but to say with us."
Executive Bill: "Righteous!"