samsung impression

[wafflehammer]

Wal-mart will always out-cheap any of the AT&T resellers. Them and Costco.

I had a little bit of credit from making payments for my student loans on time, that's how I got in.

I wont need loans...scholarships/grants will pay for everything :\ so there goes that idea. I think I'll just suck it up and pay the deposit.


are there any other little things like that about cell phones? I know there are activation fees..and this deposit thing...anything else? Every day I'm finding more n more fine print about these things

 

[hikaricloud]

Activation fees for AT&T are 36 bucks for the first line, 26 for every line after that. There are upgrade fees unless you have enough stuff on your plan to waive them, otherwise it's 18 bucks.

The only other things are the state and us taxes that get tacked on.

 

[wafflehammer]

okay i'm aware of all of that...yay, hopefully no more surprises :\

 

[hikaricloud]

Nope, that should be it. Unless you count the insurance claim cost if you exercise your insurance.

 

[wafflehammer]

are you serious? isn't that what paying monthly insurance is for?

nickle n dime...that's all they do now :| just like airlines. Ticket is cheap..but they charge you for what seat you want, charge you to pick your seat, charge to check luggage, charge for use of anything(phone, toilet, food, drink), charge for buying online.........


why don't people just name a price upfront instead of saying "low monthly payment of XXX" " but pshhh excuse the fact you need perfect credit to get that" lol .....oh well, real world sucks :\

 

[hikaricloud]

Mate, it's the same with ANY insurance. The normal fee for an insurance claim is 50 bucks. The only time it's more is if you get a high end phone like a PDA. The fee is the deductible...just like with health insurance or car insurance.

If you do the math, it's still cheaper than buying a new phone full retail when you aren't eligible to upgrade. Look, 18 months is the average time until someone is eligible for an upgrade. So 18 months times 5 bucks a month is 90 bucks. Plus the 50 dollar deductible, that's 140 bucks total. The cheapest phone we had at our store full retail was 170 bucks, and that was the cheap Nokia 2600.

You still get made in the shade. And like I said, ALL insurance companies are like that.

And as I said before, you don't need perfect credit to get into AT&T. Just a small amount of good credit. If they let in anyone with no deposit, it's be T-Mobile or Sprint.

 

[wafflehammer]

oh okay a deductible..i thought you meant they charge you just for the claim.


how reliable are the mail-in rebates for phones? When it comes to computer parts i ignore it..but obviously I've never messed with phone ones

 

[hikaricloud]

Well, they do technically charge you for the claim, which is the deductible. There's no extra charge besides the 50 bucks when you do the claim.

 

[wafflehammer]

what about the mail in rebates?? ^^^^^^^^

 

[hikaricloud]

Oh, sorry. They work just fine as long as you follow the rules to the LETTER. They are really picky, just to weed out as many as possible.

Just make sure there are no conflicts with the info on the form, follow the instructions, and you'll be good. I've always gotten mine back.