Comments on: AT&T iPhone 3G contract obligation and canceling your iPhone 3G contract

By: Johnny C

Johnny C — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:09:14 +0000

If you purchase the iPhone 3GS for the 2 year agreement price (99, 199, or 299) then you are not necessarily stuck with the 2 year plan. You can cancel the plan, but there is a lot of red tape to go through (unfortunately through experience). This sounds like a nice option instead of paying the several hundred dollars extra to get the phone outright, but it’s not.

If you cancel within the first 3 days, they will not deactivate your account without first returning the iPhone. If you want to keep the iPhone, but not have the service plan agreement, then you will have to wait 30 days with the service and then pay a $175 early termination fee. The problem with this is that you are actually paying 2-months work of service for the phone since they conveniently charge you for the following month on the 30th day. And don’t try to call customer service, they will have no sympathy.

I can’t wait for Apple’s agreement with AT&T to end, terrible decision by Apple but kudos to AT&T for roping in so many customers.

By: Bobb

Bobb — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 02:23:28 +0000

Bren says:
“I had an I Phone, one of the older ones. My son lost it. I went to the store to get a new phone, in which when I originally signed up it was a two year contract, I am almost 1 year in, and they told me I had to sign a new two year contract, which means my fees and all change, right? I don’t understand why I have to sign a new contract when I am still in a contract. Does anyone have any advise for me?”

You have to sign a new 2 year contract in order to get a new iPhone 3G at the reduced rate ($200). If you don’t sign a new two year contract, you can only purchase the iPhone at the full purchase price – which is approx. $600. AT&T, of course, would not sell you a new iPhone for a subsedized price, unless they also get a new contract out of it.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:57:55 +0000

My ex has the iphone but its under my name. I’m wanting to cancel it, since we won’t be living together. He’s had it for almost a year now and I know I won’t be able to actually get the phone back. So will I just have to pay the ETF $175 and the rest of the bill or will it be more?

By: Blessed4

Blessed4 — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:35:04 +0000

If I cancel iphone service can I use iphone as an iPod touch? If so, tell me how.

By: Jay

Jay — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:21:18 +0000

My sis and i have 3G iphones, its kind of expensive to have them.
During winter break we left usa, our at&t account was canceled, so we had to pay $1000 to reactivate it.
This summer we r gonna leave again and we dont wanna pay all those charges if we dont even use at&t.
Do u have any suggestions?

we were thinking about canceling our contracts. I
f we do we also have to change our sim cards and unlock iphone somewhere?
is there any damage for the iphone after canceling contract with at&t?

By: michaelelgrande

michaelelgrande — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:42:02 +0000

1. Your math is a little off 2. ATT cannot limit signal stregnth per account. Dumb people give me headaches…….

By: Bren

Bren — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:14:44 +0000

I had an I Phone, one of the older ones. My son lost it. I went to the store to get a new phone, in which when I originally signed up it was a two year contract, I am almost 1 year in, and they told me I had to sign a new two year contract, which means my fees and all change, right?

I don’t understand why I have to sign a new contract when I am still in a contract.

Does anyone have any advise for me?

I read a few comments saying the 3G rates are more for using the phone, is this correct?

Thanks for the help.

By: pimp luscious

pimp luscious — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 03:03:18 +0000

Liscence, Social Security Card. The phone is 199 8gb and 299 16gb both 2yr agreement

Unlocking can be done for 25.00 or free iphonehack.com(software)

By: rishi

rishi — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:07:33 +0000

hi…wanted to know what all documents are required to purchase an iphone in america? if i buy d phone and unlock after 30 days what would be my total cost? pls reply asap..wanna get dis phone soon!

By: veeraj

veeraj — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:53:52 +0000

hi i want a friend based in u.s to buy an iphone 3g 8gb and then terminate the contract after 30 days and send the phone to india he claims it will cost him 650 dollars excluding the shipping cost can someone confirm this please….. really desperate for an iphone…….

By: zahi

zahi — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:33:20 +0000

Wut happend after u cancel and have a “free phone” will it still wrk w/o the 3g? will the phone get bricked or not wrk after a period of time? just wondering

By: Raul

Raul — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 07:09:35 +0000

If you did the upgrade from original Iphone to 3G iphone, why would you even consider paying ETF and cancelling? Because all Apple and AT&T stores activate the 3G IPhones during purchase, all you have to do when you get home is slap the new sim that they activated into your old phone. Because the original Iphone is locked, you’ll have to re-activate which will show up as a CHANGE to your rate plan. You’ll get the option for the $20.00 Iphone plan w/ included 200 text. Pretty much you have just downgraded your plan to the old plan! After doing so, pop that sim card back into your 3G Iphone and you now have 3G Iphone w/ old plan. 3G networks are still accessible. It works.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:04:30 +0000

Apple is realy playing dum in this situation. I just cancel my plan and I’m going to Europe to the country where is Autorized Apple iphone Provider. I ask Apple if I can change the network. The answer is NO. They suggested me to by same 3G iPhone from the service provider in that country where I’m going. So this is really stupid suggestion. I was trying to do things legal and I end up having to unlock my phone because of the stupid rolls.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:03:38 +0000

How exactly do I go about cancelling my iphone contract…..do I have to call att cust. service or can I email?

Thanks.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:54:27 +0000

New question: Say you upgrade from old iPhone to iPhone 3G. Then (after a month) cancel your plan and pay the ETF. Can you then reactivate your old iPhone (with cheaper data & SMS plan) then switch the sim card to your iPhone 3G? The 3G plans are $15 more (because they slipped by charging an extra $5 for SMS plans) so the ETF will be recouped in a year of service. Then you have iphone 3G with old cheaper rates. And yes the old sim card works on iPhone 3G. Thanks.

By: b200377

b200377 — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:57:40 +0000

Wow how lame is this post. First of all, you just paid $199 for the 3g iphone plus a $36 activation fee or $18 upgrade fee plus $30 for a data plan and any min plans you have. SO just to start you just paid a minumum of $325. Then you have to add the ETF which is $175 plus a prorated ammount of your plan. Then your gonna switch to prepaid which is lot crappy then post paid. At&t regulates the ammount of reception that you get when your on prepaid. Also prepaid come out to be more expensive. If they ever do come out with a jailbreak you will be lucky if it doesn’t brick your phone and it become useless. So all in all to say yall are dumb and you don’t think at&t hasn’t thought about this before they came out with the phone.

By: prhor9

prhor9 — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:26:01 +0000

Xevor:

Did you cancel within the 30 days?

By: Shawn

Shawn — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:01:40 +0000

No you shouldnt have any problems

By: JP

JP — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:02:30 +0000

I just got an iPhone 3G and I am planning to cancel my service after 30 days. Should I have any problems with using another AT&T SIM after cancelled the service? I have another AT&T SIM (company paid) that I would like to use with my iPhone.

By: simon

simon — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:29:21 +0000

So you are saying that the fee after the 30th day will be just 170$, for customers that are owners of the first generation of the iPhone or it doesn’t matter. Because I red that if you don’t have the previous generation of the iPhone if you cancel the contract the fee will be 400$, so I’m wondering which is right?