Anyone convince ATT S3->S4 upgrade cause no 4.1.2? (or other excuse)?

[pcguys]

I was reading over on the ATT forums that some people complained about not getting firmware upgrades and got ATT to upgrade their phones for $100 with a 1 year contract extension.

Anyone hear of this?

What talking points should be used?

Did ATT get the S3 back or do you get to keep it.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[anon(631531)]

I was reading over on the ATT forums that some people complained about not getting firmware upgrades and got ATT to upgrade their phones for $100 with a 1 year contract extension.

Anyone hear of this?

What talking points should be used?

Did ATT get the S3 back or do you get to keep it.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Mike

What "AT&T Forums" did you read this on? Never heard of such a thing.

 

[pcguys]

Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean Update For AT&T Galaxy S3... - Page 18 - AT&T Community Support

 

[datastar]

AT&T just released a new plan called NEXT (maybe to counter T-Mobile's new plan JUMP) where you can update your phone in 12 months instead of 24 (T-Mobile plan is every 6 months). It sounds good but you have to turn in your old phone so you are just renting a phone.

Here is the dirt so read carefully: T-Mobile and AT&T: JUMP to your Next phone purchase

 

[betsuni]

Well that was an interesting (and exhausting) read. 20 pages and in the end it is basically seems to be random luck if you do get someone to pull some strings to get an offer to upgrade to a SGS4 with 1 year extension onto your contract? Plus it sounds like AT&T developed a legal response now to any "talking point" that got the two customers to get the SGS4 upgrade deal. I seriously doubt that anybody will be able to get the same deal now without getting an AT&T representative that is willing to work with you AND the ability for them to get the system to recognize it.

 

[pcguys]

Thanks for the link.

WOW! What a crappy deal for AT&T customers: The key point in the article is that unlike t-mobile, ATT isn't lowering the monthly cost by $20 (the amount of the subsidy). You are paying more (as if you got a $400 subsidy) when you didn't.

And worse yet, you give them the phone after 12 months. It's kinda like a car-lease where at the end of the lease, they inspect the car. It wouldn't surprise me if they charged for "excess wear & tear".

BTW, I have 3 S3's. In 11 months when I upgrade, I'll keep my old S3 as a "spare" in case one of the other phones gets trashed. Since I got 3 phones, I'm essentially self-insuring, and thus saving the insurance cost on 3 phones.

Thx
Mike

 

[pcguys]

Indeed an exhausting read.

Though I would love to upgrade to an S4, I can't imagining being able to convince any AT&T rep that I deserve one just because the OS upgrade has been delayed, especially since I haven't logged any chronic problems with my phone to them.

 

[rong21]

unless the S4 gives me a back rub and a few other things I can wait.

There just isn't enough difference between the S3 and S4 for me to go through that goat rope.

 

[pcguys]

1. what's a goat rope.
2. isn't the S4 like quad core and my ATT S3 single core? ??

 

[anon(631531)]

Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean Update For AT&T Galaxy S3... - Page 18 - AT&T Community Support

Why don't you just ROOT the phone. You'll have 4.2.2, and all that goes with it. I just don't understand why people are scratching and clawing to get 4.1.2?

 

[betsuni]

Indeed an exhausting read.

Though I would love to upgrade to an S4, I can't imagining being able to convince any AT&T rep that I deserve one just because the OS upgrade has been delayed, especially since I haven't logged any chronic problems with my phone to them.

Since my first AT&T smartphone experience was with the Captivate, this pretty much broke me of being impatient for AT&T updates (and honestly don't want another Gingerbread update fiasco). So when I bought the SGS3 the first thing I looked at was the dev community (which is still going strong for the Captivate). I figured that since the Captivate is still going strong 3+ years after it launched, the SGS3 will at least last me just as long if I wanted to stay with it.

You could probably try and be persistent about talking with AT&T if you really feel like you want a SGS4 before your upgrade date comes up though. Think it also helps if you are on a business plan rather than the regular plans.

I looked up what goat rope is on the internet, basically means "a mess" from what I can gather. Also the SGS3 is a dual core.

 

[pcguys]

thanks. if the S4 is dual core, does that mean it's twice as good?

I don't have a business plan but I pay AT&T $233 / month for 3 S3's and an ipad mini. I hope I rate as an important customer ?

I guessed that goat rope didn't sound good

Mike

 

[pcguys]

I don't have the time right now to get up to speed on rooting.

Assuming that S4 hardware is much better than S3, I'd be more inclined to whine and complain and try to get the S4.

I posted a separate question on the S4 forum asking if those folks think it's much better than S3.

Mike

 

[pcguys]

I'm having what appears to be a hardware problem (intermittent garbled audio, "pixel-ated" audio, and sometime a skreeching un-intelligible audio) so I called ATT.

They offered a refurbed S3 under warranty.

I inquired about perhaps an early upgrade.

They offered me $200 to get a re-furbed S4 with a new 2 year contract, or $450 for a new S4 with a 2 year contract. Needless to say, I opted for the refurbed S3.

It turns out I was 9 days out of warranty on the S3 so I didn't want to make a fuss about slow OS ugprades and took them up on their kind offer to refurb me a S3.

Mike

PS: they did mention their "NEXT" plan which is a total rip-off (as the link in a previous post in this thread pointed out)

 

[rong21]

1. what's a goat rope.
2. isn't the S4 like quad core and my ATT S3 single core? ??

1. Goat Rope - Cluster Fu@$

2. not enough for me to go through all of that.

 

[rong21]

Why don't you just ROOT the phone. You'll have 4.2.2, and all that goes with it. I just don't understand why people are scratching and clawing to get 4.1.2?

I don't either. I rooted and after trying multiple ROMS with 4.1.2 and 4.2.2 no idea what the screaming is about

 

[tmp3150]

Just curious what rom for 4.2.2 is everyone using?

 

[FredSmith1991]

AT&T gave us the 4.1.1 release fairly quick for the S3 but all of the other carriers have 4.1.2 and still waiting on AT&T. So I took the plunge, rooted my phone and put 4.2.2 on it. Very nice. S4 isn't really an upgrade. My dual core S3 is plenty fast and without all of AT&Ts bloatware and extra processes running, my battery life is great.

 

[thomasv23]

can you show me what you did? i want better battery life and a very smooth snappy rooted experience on my AT&T GS3 with 4.2.2.

AT&T gave us the 4.1.1 release fairly quick for the S3 but all of the other carriers have 4.1.2 and still waiting on AT&T. So I took the plunge, rooted my phone and put 4.2.2 on it. Very nice. S4 isn't really an upgrade. My dual core S3 is plenty fast and without all of AT&Ts bloatware and extra processes running, my battery life is great.

 

[rong21]

AT&T gave us the 4.1.1 release fairly quick for the S3 but all of the other carriers have 4.1.2 and still waiting on AT&T. So I took the plunge, rooted my phone and put 4.2.2 on it. Very nice. S4 isn't really an upgrade. My dual core S3 is plenty fast and without all of AT&Ts bloatware and extra processes running, my battery life is great.

EXACTLY! This is why I won't upgrade either. Just isn't that big of a deal. Have no use for quad core as my dual is good enough.

Can anyone really tell the difference anyway?