trying to cancel new service problems

TwinTurbo350z

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Oct 27, 2004
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im trying to cancel service with att that i jus started and there telling me i have to return the phone to apple. is this true i want to give the phone to a friend of mine and he already is a att customer i dont want to return the phone. what should i tell them?
 

oalvarez

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that doesn't sound right. you want to cancel service with AT&T (the actual phone contract) but keep the device, correct? if so, you should be able to cancel the service in your name. period. if you want to give/sell the iphone to your friend, he/she should then be able to initiate service in his/her name on that said device. maybe i'm way off base but one should not have to do with another.
 

BCA2812

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I went the same route. I bought the iPhone and signed up for new service. Unfortunately, the iPhone did not meet my needs and I wanted to cancel my service and keep the phone to sell on E bay. I cancelled my service within the 14 day trial period, but in order to terminate service, you have to return all equipment or pay the Early Termination Fee. Its stated in the Terms of Agreement. BCA
 

mikec#IM

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I went the same route. I bought the iPhone and signed up for new service. Unfortunately, the iPhone did not meet my needs and I wanted to cancel my service and keep the phone to sell on E bay. I cancelled my service within the 14 day trial period, but in order to terminate service, you have to return all equipment or pay the Early Termination Fee. Its stated in the Terms of Agreement. BCA

That is such BS...it's not a subsidized phone! Why do you have to give it back to Apple - you bought the device - the service is separate.

Man, why not just call it a "rental"...
 

cmaier

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I agree it's annoying, but it's not like you are out anything. You buy an unsubsidized phone and a service contract. You cancel the service contract and pay nothing, and are forced to return the phone (I assume for a full refund). So you're back where you started. If you really want an iphone and no service contract, you can just buy another one and not activate it.

(Yes, I admit this is stupid, but the only cost to you is your time, energy, and dignity.)

Though some people on other forums posted that they activated and cancelled and were still able to use the ipod features; did they just fork over an early-termination fee? that's a super-expensive ipod. Maybe that's what the return policy is about - at&t or apple trying to prevent use of the iphone as an ipod (since they probably aren't too worried about people using the phone on other networks, yet). Or is that a generic AT&T policy on all their phones?
 

mikec#IM

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I agree it's annoying, but it's not like you are out anything. You buy an unsubsidized phone and a service contract. You cancel the service contract and pay nothing, and are forced to return the phone (I assume for a full refund). So you're back where you started. If you really want an iphone and no service contract, you can just buy another one and not activate it.

(Yes, I admit this is stupid, but the only cost to you is your time, energy, and dignity.)

Though some people on other forums posted that they activated and cancelled and were still able to use the ipod features; did they just fork over an early-termination fee? that's a super-expensive ipod. Maybe that's what the return policy is about - at&t or apple trying to prevent use of the iphone as an ipod (since they probably aren't too worried about people using the phone on other networks, yet). Or is that a generic AT&T policy on all their phones?

I thought the iPhone was useless without activations (ignoring the DVD Jon hack).

I highly doubt Apple cares what you do with the iPhone, once you give them the money.

Maybe this is a policy on AT&T...I don't know. I know t-mobile does not do this, but again, the iPhone is a locked, non-standard AT&T phone, so anything goes.
 

cmaier

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Well, you had to know going in that as soon as you started dealing with AT&T you were going to have to surrender those things.

----

As for the jon hack: that prevents ever having to activate in the first place, whereas the other technique is activate-then-cancel. I think jon's hack keeps wi-fi working whereas activate-then-cancel does not, but I am not sure.
 

glenada

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I agree it's annoying, but it's not like you are out anything. You buy an unsubsidized phone and a service contract. You cancel the service contract and pay nothing, and are forced to return the phone (I assume for a full refund). So you're back where you started. If you really want an iphone and no service contract, you can just buy another one and not activate it.

(Yes, I admit this is stupid, but the only cost to you is your time, energy, and dignity.)

Though some people on other forums posted that they activated and cancelled and were still able to use the ipod features; did they just fork over an early-termination fee? that's a super-expensive ipod. Maybe that's what the return policy is about - at&t or apple trying to prevent use of the iphone as an ipod (since they probably aren't too worried about people using the phone on other networks, yet). Or is that a generic AT&T policy on all their phones?
You can only get a full refund if you return the iPhone unopened.
 

mikec#IM

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Well, you had to know going in that as soon as you started dealing with AT&T you were going to have to surrender those things.

Really? I don't know if that what people thought. If I bought one at an Apple Store, and then activated it, then cancelled, and was told by AT&T to return the phone, I would be surprised.

But that assumes you want a $600 paperweight, which I find hard to believe...
 

oalvarez

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in regards to the original poster: if he/she is in the early termination period (30days with at&T) why can't he/she cancel the phone contract without a penalty fee? what does this have to do with the phone? at that point can't the owner of the iPhone do what he/she pleases with it? in other words, why couldn't this person give it to "anyone else" who wanted to establish service with AT&T, without some additional cost?

the original poster does not want to return the phone, only cancel his/her iPhone portion of the AT&T contract. correct?
 

cmaier

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I thought that was the case as well, but maybe people are having varied experiences?

Well, in another thread glenada is asking about ETF, so maybe he's just guessing or going by what the official policy is. I believe the restocking fee does exist, but apple has been waiving it for everyone.
 

mikec#IM

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mike: i was referring to "time, energy, and dignity." Not surrendering the phone.

LOL! Thanks for the clarification (sorry about my misunderstanding). That is actually pretty funny. And here I thought that was what Sprint expected customer to give up... :)
 

mikec#IM

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Well, in another thread glenada is asking about ETF, so maybe he's just guessing or going by what the official policy is. I believe the restocking fee does exist, but apple has been waiving it for everyone.

I think you are right; I think Apple is in goodwill mode and not charging restocking (but I do not have direct experience on this).
 

braj

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Maybe they just have enough of a demand right now that they are happy to get devices back that they can turn around. Maybe they hand over the 'used' phones to employees or something.
 

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