AT&T's Activation/Upgrade Fee Was Just Raised from $36 to $40 Effective Yesterday

[dgstorm]

Raising prices is pretty much expected nowadays, but some companies do it an alarming rate. The latest example of this is from AT&T. As of yesterday (June 8th, 2014), AT&T raised their activation/upgrade fee from $36 to $40. It's not a big bump, but when you factor that activation fee in to a large customer base, the extra profit generated will be in the tens of millions.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with a company wanting to earn more profit and offset inflation, but sometimes it might be worth wondering if the cost increases are outpacing inflation an simply making it worse. Obviously, most of our members here on DroidForums are on Verizon, but we know there are quite a few of you who have switched to other carriers too. Sound off with your perspective.

Thanks for the tip, jackiescivic!

 

[Jeffrey]

Considering the current US inflation rate is 2%, looks like AT&T is getting about 11%

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

Squeeze the onion!

 

[Narsil]

Huh...I guess you can squeeze blood from a turnip if you try hard enough.

 

[Jeffrey]

At&t knows very well that most peeps will think "it's only 4 bucks". Well 4 bucks here and there can quickly add up to a mortgage payment.

 

[dgstorm]

AT&T currently has approximately 100 million customers. If even 10% of those upgrade per year, that amounts to $40 Million USD. That's a hefty mortgage payment, or at least a tidy profit for basically doing nothing different than what they were already doing.

 

[bkdodger]

Thank you company discount ..waived my fees ..too much already for the rest though

M8 tap'd

 

[kodiak799]

This is really pretty ridiculous, especially now that activation amounts to the painstakingly difficult task of swapping a micro sim.

The upside of buying retail (to keep unlimited) is I don't have to wait there an hour, like an idiot, waiting for a rep to set-up my phone as if I've never owned a smartphone or even a computer.

 

[jackiescivic]

My thought is that they raised the fee because they want people to finance their device(s). No activation/upgrade fee when doing Next, but if you are a new line of service with them and bring your own phone you'll still have the initial activation fee.

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