How can I convince AT&T to sell me an iphone?

October 22, 2008 1:12 PM

How can I convince AT&T to change my equipment upgrade date?

I've been planning on upgrading to an iphone in November for several months. However, last week, I noticed AT&T had changed my upgrade date from November to February. I'm definitely fed up with my current phone and will change providers if that's what I have to do, but my preference is to convince AT&T to let me purchase the discounted iphone in November. Is threatening to cancel my contract and take my business elsewhere likely to get me what I want? Or does anyone have any other suggestions?

posted by amandarose to Technology (6 answers total)

We need more information. Why did they change your upgrade date? Did you have a contract specifying that you get an upgrade in November?
posted by decathecting at 1:17 PM on October 22, 2008

FWIW AT&T customers are usually eligible for an "early upgrade" for $399 instead of the $199 subsidized price. If you can't wait til February and want an iPhone bad enough you could do that. The key to winning your argument is to understand what circumstances led to you believing the date was set for November. Do you have any documentation stating such or were you just thinking all along that it was? Convincing a cellphone provider to do anything in your favor is a bear of a task, you are going to need lots of datapoints to argue with and probably have to speak to multiple higher-level support reps and their managers. Good luck!
posted by genial at 1:22 PM on October 22, 2008

Response by poster: Oops - yeah, this piece of information would be helpful. AT&T's policy in the past has been to offer upgrades after 18 months of a 2 year contract, but as of September 1st, they've changed that policy to 21 months. My contract won't actually be up until next May, but I'm willing to pay the early termination fee to get out of it, if necessary.
posted by amandarose at 1:23 PM on October 22, 2008

Best answer: There's the old disgruntled customer approach. Call up to cancel, claim whatever dissatisfaction (but do not mention that you want to get a new phone). Often the customer service folks will (if you are a good customers) be authorized to offer incentives to stay. See if you can work things around to the upgrade price on the phone you want.

If things aren't going the way you want, hang up in the middle of a sentence so it sounds like you got cut off.
posted by trinity8-director at 1:30 PM on October 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

I recently called my cable company and asked them to look up the date that my contract was going to expire because I was thinking of switching to another company and just didn't want to pay a cancellation fee. I was put on hold for approximately four seconds, and the tech came back on the line and said "you don't have a contract so you can cancel without penalty at any time, and also we would like to give you six months of free premium channels." They also moved my repair-person appointment visit from the next week to the next day. Obviously cell-phone companies aren't the same as cable companies, but I say give it a try. Worse comes to worse you threaten to leave and they say okay and then you can decide if you really want to do that.
posted by junipero at 6:29 PM on October 22, 2008

Response by poster: FWIW, I realized that AT&T changed my upgrade date because I had cancelled my data plan, so I was able to add the data plan back to my account and the upgrade date reverted and I was able to upgrade to the iPhone in November as planned. Thanks for all the advice, though!
posted by amandarose at 12:31 PM on January 30, 2009