Since 3G iPhone can be purchased only with a 2 year AT&T contract, I plan to get one and cancel the contract after 30 days and pay the ETF fees($175).

The reason for this thread is to clear all us to how AT&T ETF works on subsidized phones.

To all AT&T customers who paid ETFs please post you experiences!

Q. When you get a subsidized AT&T phone (Subsidized HTC Tilt, Razor others) with 2 year contract, how much was the ETF and did anyone have to pay the Subsidized costs for the phone you purchased.

Is contract cancellation = EFT + difference of subsidized Cost?
A.............

What I want to know is what happens if someone steals your phone or you lose it or drop it in the sea and its gone? Will they let you get another one? Or will you be stuck with a contract with a phone that you don't have? I think there is a way to exploit this situation they are trying to put us in... Just go buy one, then, OOPS! Someone just mugged me! I need to buy another one!

They'll just block the previous phone's IMEI....

Originally Posted by vineetmanghani

They'll just block the previous phone's IMEI....

...and they won't sell you the new phone at the subsidized price. Like with any other phone, you pay the full price for a replacement.

Wrong, they will not block the IMEI as they can't do that, the only thing they can do is block the current sim card from being used.

If you lose your phone and someone finds it, they can just unlock it and happily use it for as long as they wish. Don't lose your phone people, and i you do, call customer service right away to block the simcard, you don't want anyone calling foreign countries and stuff from your account.

Originally Posted by Mad_Cat

Wrong, they will not block the IMEI as they can't do that, the only thing they can do is block the current sim card from being used.

If you lose your phone and someone finds it, they can just unlock it and happily use it for as long as they wish. Don't lose your phone people, and i you do, call customer service right away to block the simcard, you don't want anyone calling foreign countries and stuff from your account.

Heh heh heh..... you're saying AT&T can't block the IMEI of a phone which is stolen/lost?? I think you're mistaken....

You will buy your iphone for $299.99, and sign up for presumably the cheapest plan that they have, which should be around $70 a month + tax which comes out to be about $90. There is also the $36 activations fee but you can get it waived if you are persistent and call customer service telling them you're really not happy about it. After one month, you will cancell and pay the early termination fee, which is $175 per line.

So, $299.99 + $90 + $175 + $36 ( if you can't get it waived) = over $600. Pretty damn expansive.

I know all of this because i used to work for at&t.

Originally Posted by vineetmanghani

Heh heh heh..... you're saying AT&T can't block the IMEI of a phone which is stolen/lost?? I think you're mistaken....

No, I am not mistaken. I used to be a manager at an at&t store. Shitty company to work for btw. Think about it - how on earth can at&t do anything about the piece of equipment itself? Lets say i lost my iphone and i was with at&t. You will find it, and unlock it, and pop in your t-mobile sim card. Even though I will report my phone as lost/stolen, nothing will happen. The phone will not be blocked and you will use it for as long as you wish. Now with the Iphone 3G, they might devise some different sort of measures, but it's all nominal. It would cost too much time and money for at&t to track and block all phones that are reported as lost or stolen.

Think if you get an expansive laptop stolen from you. Whoever stole it can still use it. Even if there is a gps locator inside, will police do anything about it? Most likely not...

Yes they lock the IMEI, but internally at AT&T only, this means that you can't use the phone with ATT again since the system will not allow it to function, but there is not like a bureau of stolen cellphones that regulates all blocked IMEIs and transfer them to all carriers so they can block it too, and they can't do anything to the phone itself but ban it from their network

I'm in the military. All I have to do is show them a set of orders (real or fake, they don't know the difference) where AT&T doesn't provide coverage, and they let me cancel my contract for free.