Purchasing Iphone 3G S, AT&T store or Apple Store?

Larzo#IM

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My dad & I are finally taking the bait and making the switch from VZW over to AT&T for the 3G & 3G S. My question is, for first time users that need to get their accounts set up in-store, which store would be more profitable & have more bargaining room to set up? Does it even matter?
 
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traylorc

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My dad & I are finally taking the bait and making the switch from VZW over to AT&T for the 3G & 3G S. My question is, for first time users that need to get their accounts set up in-store, which store would be more profitable & have more bargaining room to set up? Does it even matter?

I have to be honest....I'm not sure I understand your question in regards to which store is more profitable & have more bargaining room? :confused:
 

OmariJames

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Apple basically provides the product though they have people who are familar with the prices.

It's best if you go to an AT&T store and set up the phone plan there.
 

itoine

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well when i first decided to make the switch to tmobile to att i went to the apple store and was about to get set up and everything hoping i can keep my number and everything and i also wasnt aware that att had iphones in their stores lol. silly me i know. but the guy at the apple store was saying something about i needed to purchases everything with a credit card card upfront and i didnt want to do that but he told me to go to att and maybe i wont have to so i immediately left and went to att. and i actually prefer just going there especially if you are starting a new account with them because they will talk to you more about the plans and how everything works or your bill and stuff and i was able to keep my tmobile number and i was very happy about that. so my choice would be att store not apple store lol. oh and as for bargains im not sure exactly both seemed to be the same prices. from the phone to the accessories. so in that matter theres no difference.
 

Scott R

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My advice: You should research the plans very carefully before entering the store and know exactly what you need/want. Also, check to see if you (or your dad in the OP's case) work for a company that is eligible for a company-discount on the monthly plan rates (and possible waiving the activation fee). I believe this can only be handled in an AT&T store.

If you have experience with another cell company, try to find out the details of your last several months of usage to see if you can get by with a cheaper plan than you might otherwise think you'll need, paying attention to the differences that AT&T's plans have as compared to other cell companies which may help/hurt you depending on your particular situation (e.g., rollover minutes on AT&T vs favorite five on T-Mobile).

My wife and I just switched from Sprint to AT&T. We were on the Sprint SERO plan which cannot be beat by any carrier. I was considering the pre, but would have had to give up that plan, so when comparing the standard Sprint plans, the cost savings were much smaller (and, in our case, amazingly enough, AT&T might actually turn out cheaper). For example, my wife and I had 500 "anytime" minutes each on our old Sprint plan, but only seemed to be using about 200 minutes each. We had unlimited mobile-to-mobile (which AT&T also has), and I'm sure that a lot of our talk time fell into that bucket. Sprint now bundled unlimited SMS into their plans, but we only texted eachother, and not that often, so we used less than 100 messages/month.

So when I bought us two new iPhone 3GS's, I opted for the cheapest family plan from AT&T. It's 550 minutes (shared) w/rollover, and unlimited mobile-to-mobile. I'm torn between the $5/month (per phone) 200 SMS message plan or opting out altogether and trying to get by with just using Beejive (an instant messaging app that uses data and Apple's new push feature, and doesn't use SMS at all). My wife also works for a company that gets a 12% discount on the monthly rates.

So, all told, if I'm doing my math correctly, I think we'll be paying about $106/month. That's about $40/month more than we pay with our old Sprint SERO plan, *BUT* if we bought two Palm pre's on Sprint, we would have had to switch plans, and the cheapest family plan would have been $130/month (we should be eligible for company discounts there, too, but the end result would have probably ended up about the same or higher. We would have gotten more minutes and unlimited SMS on Sprint, but we don't really need it, so it's a wash.
 

cjvitek

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MAke sure you wife is listed as the main line. She will get 14% off her line, but you won't get it. You both may get it off the data plans.

Chris
 

Scott R

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My impression of it was that they didn't really care much, but I'll definitely pay attention when the bills come in. The guy at the AT&T store wanted to see proof of her employee status, but then asked me who we wanted to be listed as the primary line. We opted for me simply because I pay the bills (and I'm the one more likely to call them to add/drop options, complain about things, etc.). He made no mention that this would conflict in any way with the company discount, so if there is a problem I'll complain and we'll get it sorted it out.

If you're simply saying that the $9.99 extra line isn't discounted, that may be so. One thing I noticed when I initially played around with AT&T's Premier site is that the plans and iPhone data plans were discounted (though it only seemed to be by 10%, not the 12% that she supposedly should be getting), but the SMS add-ons did not seem to be discounted at all. In our case, the activation fee was not waived either, though I was able to talk them into waiving it on the primary line (though it wasn't truly waived - rather, the store manager told me that I could call her after 30 days to get it refunded).
 

sbrianw

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I agree with the person who commented on checking into discounts provided to preferred businesses and their employees. I got my 3G in the ATT store and got a discount on my monthly rate and a waived activation fee because I work for a particular hospital in my area. I upgraded to the 3G-S in the Apple store and they transferred my applecare coverage to the new phone. For phone plans, do your homework and check with ATT to see if your employer has preferred pricing plans/agreements.
 

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