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I recently had to contact support and through chat support the person said they were adding notes to my account. Of course when I call support another day they have no record of this. They then proceed to forward my call to 2 other departments each of which has no idea why I'm calling. I talked to each of these people for several minutes.
How can a company possibly function like this?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The contract sucks shit that's why
> The contract sucks shit that's why All those people were free to buy unsubsidized phones elsewhere. They knew exactly what they were getting into when they signed up.
1.) How is unlocking a phone "malware"? Isn't the lock malware, and the unlocking serves the owner of the device? Calling it malware reeks of regurgitating AT&T propaganda. 2.) How did this "deprive AT&T of the stream of payments it was owned under the customers’ service contracts and installment plans."? A phone getting unlocked doesn't void a contract, so those customers are still on the hook.
1. It's malware from the perspective of the entity whose computers it was installed on. To respond to your meta-point, phone locks are merely a technical control to help ensure consumers abide by their contractual obligations. At least, this is the case since companies have been obligated to offer unlocks for phones whose contracts are paid off. 2. Presumably, it's a combination of a number of mechanisms, like judgme…
ATT support is awful. I recently had to contact support and through chat support the person said they were adding notes to my account. Of course when I call support another day they have no record of this. They then proceed to forward my call to 2 other departments each of which has no idea why I'm calling. I talked to each of these people for several minutes. How can a company possibly function like this?
If AT&T was your neighbourhood grocery store, they’d be crushed like a bug.
1.) How is unlocking a phone "malware"? Isn't the lock malware, and the unlocking serves the owner of the device? Calling it malware reeks of regurgitating AT&T propaganda. 2.) How did this "deprive AT&T of the stream of payments it was owned under the customers’ service contracts and installment plans."? A phone getting unlocked doesn't void a contract, so those customers are still on the hook.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The contract sucks shit that's why
> The contract sucks shit that's why All those people were free to buy unsubsidized phones elsewhere. They knew exactly what they were getting into when they signed up.
There's also the issue of legitimately buying/acquiring a phone, finding it to be locked and having no idea which carrier it is locked to nor how to go about getting it unlocked. It isn't an easy process even if everything is legitimate and the phone was acquired legally and not stolen nor its IMEI/ESN being banned anywhere.
The truth is, phone unlocking is designed to be a shit-show on purpose and practices like these are just a natural consequence of that. Make unlocking straightforward and user-friendly (or just don't lock phones to begin with) and the market for these illegal things will dry up significantly.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The contract sucks shit that's why All those people were free to buy unsubsidized phones elsewhere. They knew exactly what they were getting into when they signed up.
You give them too much credit. People don't read phone contracts and few people even know what an unlocked phone is.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bought an ATT locked iPhone SE from Ebay just 2 months ago. The unlocking process was essentially just going to ATT website and typing in the IMEI and they unlock it within 15 minutes for free. I assume all the "pay $10 to unlock your phone" services are just counting on the average person being too lazy to discover your can just do the legwork yourself.
The mobile operator provided unlock only works on devices of a certain age. You can't typically, for example, purchase a new flagship device and unlock it on day one. The illegitimate methods bypass this restriction.
So if you left AT&T, you can only unlock two devices.
1.) How is unlocking a phone "malware"? Isn't the lock malware, and the unlocking serves the owner of the device? Calling it malware reeks of regurgitating AT&T propaganda. 2.) How did this "deprive AT&T of the stream of payments it was owned under the customers’ service contracts and installment plans."? A phone getting unlocked doesn't void a contract, so those customers are still on the hook.
Many of these devices are unlocked in bulk and sold overseas. This deprives them of the payments that they expected for fronting the cost of the device.
If fraudsters are doing this in bulk (and using false/stolen identities to sign up for the contracts in the first place) then the main problem here is inadequate identity checks & fraud protections during the initial purchase and not phone unlocking.