Think back to early 2014...
T-Mobile came out with a much lower price plan than the other wireless companies as well as huge credits for leaving a current provider in favor of their services. In an effort to stem the tide of fleeing customers, AT&T decided to come out with a "new" price plan: the family share value plan - 4 lines, unlimited talk and text, and 10GB of shared data for $160. Well, now that the iPhone 6 and 6+ ordering fiasco has settled, many upgrade customers are learning that their "new" price plan wasn't really new afterall...it was the same old plan, with a $25 discount per line. And guess what?! If you want to upgrade your device...you LOSE YOUR DISCOUNT! In other words, AT&T is more than happy to let you keep your discount, but if you want the new fancy phones, because your 2-year old iphone 4/4s is starting to slow down, they're going to capitalize on your desires and yank that discount out from under you. You want to keep your discount? That's fine too...you have 2 choices: (1) buy the phone at full retail price and swap it out for your old one, or (2) get on their "next" plan. It's a GREAT plan right?! Wrong! You get the phone for free, sure, but you have to pay them $35+/- extra per month to have your new phone. That's $10 more than the $25 discount you get to keep. Let's think about this...in just 6 months, you will have surpassed the usual $200 fee you're used to paying in order to upgrade your phone. But you have to pay this $35 for 20 months...hm...but you're not under contract they say, you can leave whenever you want...BUT if you do, you have to pay off the rest of the retail price of the phone. And guess what else?! You know how, you usually get to keep your old phone after you upgrade...keep it as a backup, or sell it on ebay or craigslist for a couple hundred bucks...not any more - you have to give it back. Why would AT&T do this you ask? Well, if you can't sell your used phone, that means that shopper on ebay or craigslist, can't BUY that used phone from you. AT&T is lining their pockets with more of YOUR money, while restricting the used market, thus driving more business to them with OTHER PEOPLE'S money.
Let's be fair here - AT&T will indeed let you stick with the old way of upgrading - you can give them $200 and sign that 2-year contract. But like I said, you lose your $25 discount. That means, that over the course of the 2-year contract you're giving them an extra $600...add that to the $200 you give them up front and you have $800 for your new phone (or in my case, i paid $400 for my 64GB 6+, so I'm in $1000). You can go to the store on Friday, and for $650 you can buy the 16GB iPhone 6, and for $850 you can buy the 64GB iPhone 6+. Yet again, AT&T is lining their pockets with MORE of YOUR money. I thought their 2-year contract prices were designed to cover the costs of their devices...well, I'm pretty sure they pay less than retail for the phones, but even if they dont, they're not just recovering the costs, they're making money on the device as well as the coverage. This is horrible business practice and I can only imagine how many customers they will lose as a result...