Buying thru Apple or Carrier

[fivechickens]

When you buy an Apple product do you purchase thru Apple or your cell phone carrier? If thru Apple, why?

[charlatti]

We do Apple so we can go with whatever carrier. Right now our service is through Ting, which uses a bunch of companies’ towers, so for us it goes through Verizon.

[dexteroni]

For our last few phones, we’ve bought through AT&T rather than Apple because they had better promos. It’s been a few years since I bought a phone so I don’t know if that’s still the case. The only thing I don’t like about buying through the carrier is that the last time we did that, we had no choice but to pay it off in installments added to our monthly bill. I’d rather buy up front and be done with it. But the promo we had specified that it had to be paid in installments. Other than that I don’t think there’s an advantage either way. I’d look at both and go with whoever has a better promo and/or trade in offer.

[felicity]

Aug 20, 2024 11:42:10 GMT -5 charlatti said:

We do Apple so we can go with whatever carrier. Right now our service is through Ting, which uses a bunch of companies’ towers, so for us it goes through Verizon.

This is why we buy our phones separately from the carrier too. We've used Ting in the past. Right now we're using ATT Prepaid. 

I think I bought my last phone from Apple directly, but I've also bought unlocked phones from Best Buy. 

[dutchgirl678]

We are with Verizon and they recently had a deal where we could upgrade our iPhones for free. Except when we went to the store they told us we would lose the discount for bringing our own phones which was $30 a month per phone, so I think it is better to just buy them outright at Apple.

[mommyatty]

Apple because the trade in value we get for our phones is generally better than whatever promo they’re pedaling. And the one time I almost bought through Verizon they wanted me to agree to pay back the full value of the phone with the unwritten promise they would issue a big credit when they got my current phone. The lawyer in me Noped the ever-loving nope out of that.

[cuadrado]

We only go through Verizon now after having a horrible experience with ordering through Apple.

The phone that I ordered was defective and Apple kept trying to blame Verizon. I spent over 7 hours on the phone with customer service between Apple vs Verizon, and ultimately they had me send the old phone back and I had to wait for a new one. I couldn't get a same-day appointment in the Apple Store. The whole thing was awful.

[UMaineTeach]

We have gotten all the phones from the carrier.

Laptops from Apple directly.

iPads, AirTags, and AirPods from other retailers. Sometimes Apple has higher prices directly because they don’t have many incentives.