In the early 2000s, the State of California aggressively rebuked and threatened to fine retailers that forced game console buyers into bundles – denying them the option of buying Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as a standalone product at the full retail price.
Now, history seems to be repeating itself, with iPhone 6.
Despite stating a full retail price, reports are flooding in this morning that customers who camped out were being denied the opportunity to buy iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus at the full retail price-point, sans contract in stores this morning.
“I camped out for hours – Verizon posted the full retail price and said it would be available to buy in-store on Friday. There was no mention anywhere that I couldn’t buy…” one customer noted, who declined to have their name shared. “I was told to order it online, where it’s backordered for months… or forefit my unlimited data plan. This is not how you treat customers!” the Verizon subscriber concluded.
Similar reports are coming in from AT&T and Sprint – with one clear message the carriers have: Blame Apple. Multiple reports from customers had an eerily similar statement – that the retail corporate stores across multiple carriers were directly blaming Apple policy, and not their own, for denying full retail device sales.
Except Apple has to follow state law. The California Department of Weights & Measures, as it said back during the console bundling scandals of the mid 2000s, said clearly that if a full retail price point is set, it must be honored without any forced bundling of services. One state of many in the United States, that has made clear forced bundling of devices with services is illegal. If a full retail price is set, it must be honored to the first incoming customer.
The carriers may also be in hot water with the FCC. Both AT&T and Verizon have testified to the FCC that customers can keep their unlimited data by buying devices at the full retail price in-store. That is clearly not being honored at this hour.
PhoneNews.com is considering filing formal complaints on behalf of the public – but we ask you what we should do next? How do you want us to tackle this problem? Sound off in the comments.
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Stop buying Crapple Iphones…. Problem solved!
The requirement that the phones have to be sold with a contract in-store probably does constitute a “bundling” – especially since all three carriers have said they will honor Apple’s stated full retail pricing.
Moreover, even if it isn’t a bundling, a retailer in California does not get to selectively chose when to honor – and not honor – a stated price point. The price advertised must be honored until it is changed.
Weights & Measures in California is per county, and that may be a problem. One county that is very business-friendly may snub the complaint, whereas another may dig deep.
Not too sure the FCC will do much. Yes, they are looking for Verizon to screw up, but Verizon will simply sure by saying that they will start offering the phone off-contract before the FCC can take up the case.
Bottom line, yes, the carriers (and Apple) should honor state law, and they pretty clearly violated it in California. But will anyone do anything about it? We’re in a generation that people shrug shoulders about violations of law, depending on who is running the ship. It’s just taken for granted, sadly.
“Apple has not responded to requests for comment from PhoneNews.com for several years.”
Glad that someone has the guts to explain how Apple PR works… or doesn’t work.
If you continually get treated like crap the onus is on you, the customer, to do something about it. Sadly speaking with your wallet isn’t always an option.
Must be a carrier problem, which is not surprising in the least bit. These are the same people (or their sales reps) who aggressively try to “bamboozle” customers into giving up their unlimited data plans, will outright lie if it comes down to customer service practices that make them little or no commission, and in the past have shown a clear Android bias at carrier stores (presumably based on the tone or directions from the higher ups regarding the perceived profitability of lower subsidies on Android).
Sometimes we’re stuck, like in the case of my AT&T line which being an NBO account, must be bought from AT&T. If you have the choice just go through Apple store. They usually have the best availability during iPhone launches and you’ll get likely more straightforward pricing policies being the carriers have minimal involvement.
At some point, this “we’re big business so we decide what can happen”, is going to stop. People are going to deal with people, on a human level. The first company who successfully does this is going to change the tide of modern consumerism.