Old iPhone source? reputable.

[samintx]

Is there a good source for the old iPhone? one that is trustworthy?

[Ken Sp.]

Yes I am.

[$tevie]

I suppose you could try haunting the refurbished iPhone section of the Apple Store and see if you can manage to land there when they have some in stock:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/We....7.1.2.1.1

I don't know if there will be any "new" old iPhones available anywhere that I would feel secure about. I'm not big on buying things like that on eBay.

[dotman]

I can't remember but, if I get either an old iphone or a new one, and 3g isn't available in my area, do I have to pay the inflated new rate? Is this true specifically for the old iphone?

dot.

[DavidS]

[quote dotman]I can't remember but, if I get either an old iphone or a new one, and 3g isn't available in my area, do I have to pay the inflated new rate? Is this true specifically for the old iphone?

dot.
I asked this last night at the Apple Store. The person I spoke with said that all new activations, either old or new iPhone, will have to pay the new rate, even if you are not getting 3G speeds (i.e. old iPhone). Note that the new rate also does not include any text messages - extra $5 for the 200 that were included with the old rate.

That being said, she also had to ask someone else the answer to every question I asked her, except that one, so I'm not sure how reliable the answer is.

[dotman]

thanks. that sounds like what i remember, but wasn't sure.

dot.

[Kramerica]

That's not what I read... Old iPhones get the old rates, unless something has changed.

[deckeda]

^^ yes, and contact AT&T for that info, not Apple. That Apple Store employee was wrong.

[davester]

The inflated new rate has nothing to do with 3G. It simply reflects that the cost accounting for the phone is different. For the old iPhone there was little or no subsidy. You paid the price of the phone, there was no contract to sign, and the service plan was billed pretty much independently of the phone cost. The new iPhone has a $200 lower upfront cost than the old iPhone, but it has to be locked to a 2 year contract that costs $240 more than the old one. It's pretty much a wash.

I think they've gone this direction (like all other contract phones because there was no way that AT&T could stop the unlockers from using the iPhone with T-Mobile. They had no contract they could enforce.

It seems to me that a newly activated old iPhone should still cost you only $20/month for data since it is a non-subsidized phone. I don't know for sure. It would be crazy to buy an old iPhone (at an inflated price) and then activate it on a $30/month data plan. Definitely would make more sense to go to T-Mobile if that was the case.