Cingular to charge $5 dollars for users of old phones

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b0mbrman

Lifer
Jun 1, 2001
29,470
1
81
They should charge everyone $5....then give a $5 new system discount.

So people don't cry as much
 

b0mbrman

Lifer
Jun 1, 2001
29,470
1
81
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: jstack
Originally posted by: jagec
But will they give you a free phone to replace your old one? Yeah right.

Of course they will, with a new two year commitment.

I very strongly believe this Contract Commitment crap should be banned.

It is anti-free market.

Because people don't freely choose whether or not to sign the contract?
 

b0mbrman

Lifer
Jun 1, 2001
29,470
1
81
Originally posted by: Mike
Originally posted by: b0mbrman
They should charge everyone $5....then give a $5 new system discount.

So people don't cry as much

lol, a sly marketing spin...I love it.

Should be more successful at prodding analog users to switch to digital.

People will work to get discounts because it makes them feel like they are beating the system... i.e. the people who "save money" by buying thousands of dollars worth of stuff they found in a hot deals forum
 

dmcowen674

No Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
54,889
47
91
www.alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: b0mbrman
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: jstack
Originally posted by: jagec
But will they give you a free phone to replace your old one? Yeah right.

Of course they will, with a new two year commitment.

I very strongly believe this Contract Commitment crap should be banned.

It is anti-free market.

Because people don't freely choose whether or not to sign the contract?

Well, when service sucks and would like to get out of the two year "contract", don't have the option to get out of it.

It's just plain wrong and anti-free market.

Show me where it says United States of Corporations Constitution.
 

KK

Lifer
Jan 2, 2001
15,903
4
81
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: b0mbrman
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: jstack
Originally posted by: jagec
But will they give you a free phone to replace your old one? Yeah right.

Of course they will, with a new two year commitment.

I very strongly believe this Contract Commitment crap should be banned.

It is anti-free market.

Because people don't freely choose whether or not to sign the contract?

Well, when service sucks and would like to get out of the two year "contract", don't have the option to get out of it.

It's just plain wrong and anti-free market.

Show me where it says United States of Corporations Constitution.

Shut up pea brain. :roll:
 

Xyclone

Lifer
Aug 24, 2004
10,312
0
76
Also, to Cingular haters, do some more research into the whole "least dropped calls" story, and hear from the people from an area from NY that had their Cingular services shut down for a couple days so the independent researchers can research. The research = only done in that area. No calls being able to be made = no dropped calls.
 

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,738
126
hm.. i have a nokia 3360 and doing prepaid on cingular (AT&T).

am i on tdma?

Will prepaid be affected by this fee?
 

dug777

Lifer
Oct 13, 2004
24,778
4
0
Originally posted by: KK
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: b0mbrman
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: jstack
Originally posted by: jagec
But will they give you a free phone to replace your old one? Yeah right.

Of course they will, with a new two year commitment.

I very strongly believe this Contract Commitment crap should be banned.

It is anti-free market.

Because people don't freely choose whether or not to sign the contract?

Well, when service sucks and would like to get out of the two year "contract", don't have the option to get out of it.

It's just plain wrong and anti-free market.

Show me where it says United States of Corporations Constitution.

Shut up pea brain. :roll:

:laugh:
 

secretanchitman

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2001
9,353
23
91
im quite happy with my sweet cdma samsung a900.

though i understand why cingular would do this...its quite stupid that they have to tack on an additional $5. maybe some people dont feel like they need an upgrade to their phone, or they might not be able to afford one. thats so...stupid of cingular. they should be ashamed for even doing this to customers to get more money out of them.

idiots.
 

dopcombo

Golden Member
Nov 14, 2000
1,394
0
0
USA still uses TDMA???

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

sorry... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

Triumph

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,031
14
81
So 8% of the customers are keeping them from going completely GSM and making them maintain old analog towers? Sounds like a good decision to me. Cut the fat.
 

dabuddha

Lifer
Apr 10, 2000
19,579
17
81
I agree with the degradation of service comment. I noticed that my reception went downhill soon after AT&T merged with Cingular.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
20
81
Originally posted by: jagec
But will they give you a free phone to replace your old one? Yeah right.

No, you must buy a video phone, which will place more demand on their existing network, requiring them to upgrade their towers to handle the demand. With the increased capacity, they'll introduce new features too, for which you'll need a new phone, and the cycle continues.


I'm using Virgin Mobile's Day2Day plan. It hasn't given me trouble yet. But then, I only use the phone when I'm at college, and even then it only gets used maybe 1-2 times per week.
 

SagaLore

Elite Member
Dec 18, 2001
24,036
21
81
It would make more sense if they started shutting off the old service one state at a time, while giving existing analog customers a huge discount coupon for a new phone.
 

sswingle

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
7,183
45
91
Originally posted by: SagaLore
It would make more sense if they started shutting off the old service one state at a time, while giving existing analog customers a huge discount coupon for a new phone.

But they can't, according to FCC.

I think Verizon has the right idea with their new every two. They basically give everyone a new free phone every couple years and probably dont have as big of a problem with people hanging onto older phones.
 

DivideBYZero

Lifer
May 18, 2001
24,117
2
0
Originally posted by: dug777
Originally posted by: KK
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: b0mbrman
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: jstack
Originally posted by: jagec
But will they give you a free phone to replace your old one? Yeah right.

Of course they will, with a new two year commitment.

I very strongly believe this Contract Commitment crap should be banned.

It is anti-free market.

Because people don't freely choose whether or not to sign the contract?

Well, when service sucks and would like to get out of the two year "contract", don't have the option to get out of it.

It's just plain wrong and anti-free market.

Show me where it says United States of Corporations Constitution.

Shut up pea brain. :roll:

:laugh:

:laugh:++
 

GeekDrew

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2000
9,099
19
81
Originally posted by: ScottSwingleComputers
Originally posted by: SagaLore
It would make more sense if they started shutting off the old service one state at a time, while giving existing analog customers a huge discount coupon for a new phone.

But they can't, according to FCC.

I think Verizon has the right idea with their new every two. They basically give everyone a new free phone every couple years and probably dont have as big of a problem with people hanging onto older phones.

Well, they can if they convince every one of their customers that GSM is the thing to use.

There are a lot of people in my area that use Cingular -- it and Verizon are the only carriers in my area that are semi-reliable, and Verizon has better coverage. If I'm not mistaken, though, the Cingular coverage in this area is TDMA, not GSM.
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
46
91
Originally posted by: DivideBYZero
Originally posted by: dug777
Originally posted by: KK
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: b0mbrman
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: jstack
Originally posted by: jagec
But will they give you a free phone to replace your old one? Yeah right.

Of course they will, with a new two year commitment.

I very strongly believe this Contract Commitment crap should be banned.

It is anti-free market.

Because people don't freely choose whether or not to sign the contract?

Well, when service sucks and would like to get out of the two year "contract", don't have the option to get out of it.

It's just plain wrong and anti-free market.

Show me where it says United States of Corporations Constitution.

Shut up pea brain. :roll:

:laugh:

:laugh:++

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 

crystal

Platinum Member
Nov 5, 1999
2,424
0
76
They should give their customers an opt out option of their contract before they start charging.