More on carrier upgrade fees
After my rant last week on T-Mobile's upgrade fee, I check with the other major carriers to see if they subjected their long-time customers to the same thing. Though T-Mobile isn't alone in charging $18, other carriers may apply it under different circumstances.
AT&T: AT&T also charges an upgrade fee for long-time customers. This is true even if the customer is out of contract and is singing a new one with a higher monthly cost.
Sprint: As some readers pointed out on my previous blog, Sprint also charges customers off contract to upgrade from a regular phone to a smartphone. According to a carrier spokesperson, however, Sprint waives the fee if the customer orders their new handset online. If the customer buys it in a retail store or over the phone, then they will have to fork over the $18. Though it's nice to hear that Sprint waives the fee for some customers, I'd much prefer that it waive according to how long you've been with the carrier rather than from where you buy your phone. Why does Sprint even operate retail stores?
Verizon Wireless: According to a Verizon spokesperson, if a customer is off a contract and is eligible for an upgrade that person won't be subject to an upgrade fee for buying a new phone and signing a new contract.
U.S. Cellular: Ditto with U.S. Cellular. A spokesperson says that it won't charge an upgrade fee either.
If you agree with me that upgrade fees are outrageously unfair to loyal customers, then I encourage you to contact your carrier. Below you can find links to the customer service pages of the carrier Web sites. I threw in Verizon and U.S. Cellular for good measure.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent. 
Why do they force us to pay an upgrade fee when we could just as easily switch over to another carrier? Because then it would cost $36 to start a new activation and they know that. That's where they get you. Is 18 dollars worth the few minutes it takes to activate a new phone? WE'RE paying THEM for us to sign a two year agreement. Yes, the phone is discounted, but we're still paying way too much for their service anyway. And it is a 99% necessity nowadays to have a cell phone, so saying "Don't buy a cell phone, then." is not a real option.
I'm still upset that they charge extra for texting even if you pay for internet. It's one thing when there really wasn't any internet for phones. To charge for texting back then was fine, but now ... they are just milking it and people keep paying for it. Why do we have to pay for texts/sms messages when we don't over normal computer internet? It just doesn't make sense. I refuse to text ... I wish teenagers stop too. If they did, maybe they wouldn't have kept charging so much.
I've read that they are waiving some upgrade/activation fees on Amazon now for a limited time only. This should be an unlimited time offer.
"There should be some regulation going on." Really? This is one of the most regulated industries in existence, and the result is less innovation and a laundry list of taxes and "fees" that add 20% or so to your bill (plus the higher price you're paying for all the taxes & fees the carrier is getting hit with).
What you really mean to say is you want your buddy big government to step in and force someone to offer you something for less than they're willing to. Funny thing about command-and-control though--you have no defense against it when you're the one getting robbed to benefit someone else. You really want to scrap the remains of voluntary interaction to get rid of a pesky fee you can point out and usually get waived by a manager?
This whining-victim-entitlement mentality is a cancer.
Nice spin, but the point is there definitely is little regulation in terms of pricing. The reason for the lack of development in the industry is due to sheer laziness, a resting on laurals because the populace is virtually held captive by these carriers. If these companies are truly competing on the purest sense of the word, then WHY is the U.S. mobile market a laughing stock compared to most of the civilized world? It is a laughing stock because it is a model for greed, lack of true competition and fleecing of consumers. These companies do not exist in a vaccuum. They have some responsibility toward the public.
I guess there is a word for it. It's called an Oligopoly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopoly
Are they really at that point? No, but they are close. If one company lower their prices on texting, then the other companies will soon follow and they really won't make any more gains in profit. That's how they work together. It's more of a trust that the other companies won't do it. Bottom line, they charge many fees (like banks) because they know they can get away with it because the other companies are doing it as well.
Joe
There's no such thing as a "business tax". It's still being taken from people, just indirectly. Saying the business is "passing on" the tax is like pretending you're only paying 7% social security and your employer the other 7%. At the end of the day, you cost more to employ. It's a 15% tax on you because the money disappears whether it gets paid to you or goes straight to the government.
For sales, you can tax away the difference between what something costs and its price, and you won't have to pay more directly but you'll just turn around and pay for it in the form of your retirement account that's now funding the unprofitable products you're buying. Or you can be up front about it, and recognize that every time you buy something an extra chunk is being taken away by the Anointed Ones.
Anyway, if you're curious about VZW, ask them about the device initiation fee. Maybe they've changed it, as there have been a few other changes that they've made in the last year (like getting rid of their tiered battery warranty).
Your cell phone, airline, cable/satellite, broadband, and power bills are all this way. Last month I used just under $10 of electricity, and my bill was for $23-24. One of those charges was the power company (like $2 base customer charge or something) and the other NINE were various government garbage.
Until you stop to read the details, you don't realize that we have a group of people who truly believe we peons should be scrimping and laboring to pay every charge they can come up with to be granted their permission to do anything. Anything productive must be chained down with a million layers of corrupt looting and regulatory authority.
I'd like to see them charge an "upgrade" fee for a phone that isn't theirs!
Also, the upgrade fee always goes on your monthly bill, so you don't have to pay for it at the time of purchase.
Buying a phone from eBay or something like that is a decent choice if you want to avoid an upgrade fee, but you'll be paying a bunch more for the phone. Let's say you want the Palm Centro: You'll pay a net of roughly $50 plus tax for a new one. On eBay, you'll pay about $100, and you have to wait for it to come in to get it activated as opposed to having it that day.
I have to say I use AT&T and T-Mobile, and GSM phones are much easier to switch over to without kissing the carrier's butt. With CDMA, you may indeed be stuck going to the carrier, unless you get an excellent deal on a mint condition used phone with a clean ESN.
at&t is running right now.. they also regularly run it for verizon and t-mobile
- by sportsfan206 August 20, 2009 6:16 PM PDT
- Although Sprint does have this "upgrade fee", I recently upgraded my phone under this circumstance in the store and it was waived. Because I am a bit friendly with the manager, I asked him why they even have it. He told me that the store has never applied it to anyone, and the reason he gave me is that the Regional Manager thinks it is a very small way to show loyalty to the store, since they are taking care of you. He said since they started doing this a few years ago, the have had a lot of recurring business. In a nutshell, they basically told me it's a "soft" cost put in, and taken out - just so they can show you they are taking it out.
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