Yeah, uh, mods... linking to AT&T's site won't do much. There's a how-to guide you have to read.

Here's the Slashdot article, see the update: Slashdot Article

I read through the method and it's fundamentally flawed. AT&T has a remorse period, which allows you one exchange of phone within a 30 day period. You must return the original phone to the store when you make the exchange, for the iphone3g in this case. You are responsible for any difference in pricing, which in this case is the $199 iphone3g price. They will not give you any exchange until you bring the original phone you received with your plan. Additionally, you still have a 2 year contract.

Quite simply, there are no arbitrage options on the iphone 3g. They have thought it all out and all avenues of approach come out the relatively same price.

It took a while to figure out what the article is saying, but I think I understand it now.

-Setup a new AT&T 2 year contract with the HTC Tilt Refurb for $100.
-Get (borrow) an iphone, activate it on your new AT&T account.
-Go buy an iphone 3g. Since you have an iphone, you are automatically eligible for the $199 upgrade price (even though you already have a 2 year contract).
-Wait 30 days then cancel the contract and pay $175. If you cancel before 30 days, you "may" have to return the iphone 3g and/or tilt.
-Sell the tilt on eBay, return the iphone to whereever you got it, keep the iphone 3g w/ no contract.

The only iffy part of this is the selling price of the HTC Tilt. Who knows what will happen to prices on eBay, especially if it gets flooded. Author is counting on $380, which is doable for a "new" unlocked HTC Tilt... but this is a refurb, so selling as "new" would be fraudulent. At any rate, it's probably the cheapest way to get an iphone 3g w/o contract, even if it ends up being more than $199.

However, this is incredibly shady:
you need to order online using this link (which takes you to AT&T’s online store) and get a phone without any mail-in rebates. We stress that you should use the above link and not order from a third-party store, for reasons that will complicate this guide (but trust us, order direct using the above link).
What's the complicated but very important reason for requiring that link?? The referral code! I'm all fine with a site adding a referral code in their link and being upfront about it, but they're implying that if you don't use their link for this deal it wont work. They actually berate someone in the comments who bought a phone from another link:
He screwed up being “eager” and didn’t follow these instructions. Again, you need to order the first phone using the link in the article.
To be fair, he did screw things up; he bought the wrong phone. But not because "you need to order... using the link in the article".

Lots of people have called the site owner on this obvious lie, and he keeps justifying it by saying that many sites use affiliate links, that they would have posted the article anyway, that the site admins are all doing this deal. He doesn't address the fact that the "required link" is not required at all. And now he states he'll delete any other comments about it. I like the loophole, I like the deal even if it is very YMMV, but after seeing how the site owner operates I really don't want to give him any business, and will not be using his link for any reason. Chris P, if you're going to use an affiliate link just say so, or even remain silent. Just don't lie and say it's "required" and then try to justify it with other non-related reasons. Lame.

jumpfroggy said:It took a while to figure out what the article is saying, but I think I understand it now.

-Setup a new AT&T 2 year contract with the HTC Tilt Refurb for $100.
-Get (borrow) an iphone, activate it on your new AT&T account.
-Go buy an iphone 3g. Since you have an iphone, you are automatically eligible for the $199 upgrade price (even though you already have a 2 year contract).
-Wait 30 days then cancel the contract and pay $175. If you cancel before 30 days, you "may" have to return the iphone 3g and/or tilt.

I doubt it will work or work any different that just buying a new iphone 3g. Att/apple upgrade policy for current iPhone owners says you need to sign a new 2 year contract with att. So in effect you sign a new contract in store and your contract while buying the tilt is void. Additionally we don't know at this point is how much is the ETF fee for iPhone 3G beyond 30 day no fee returns and there was some speculation of increasing the ETF fees for iPhone 3G.

Please point out if this is not correct.

Soopafly said:

Problem is you have to have the old IPhone already activated, if you activate the old IPhone on an account after July 10th you do not automatically qualify for the $199 price.

^ THAT is the real problem with this process.

dealcather said:jumpfroggy said:It took a while to figure out what the article is saying, but I think I understand it now.

-Setup a new AT&T 2 year contract with the HTC Tilt Refurb for $100.
-Get (borrow) an iphone, activate it on your new AT&T account.
-Go buy an iphone 3g. Since you have an iphone, you are automatically eligible for the $199 upgrade price (even though you already have a 2 year contract).
-Wait 30 days then cancel the contract and pay $175. If you cancel before 30 days, you "may" have to return the iphone 3g and/or tilt.


I doubt it will work or work any different that just buying a new iphone 3g. Att/apple upgrade policy for current iPhone owners says you need to sign a new 2 year contract with att. So in effect you sign a new contract in store and your contract while buying the tilt is void. Additionally we don't know at this point is how much is the ETF fee for iPhone 3G beyond 30 day no fee returns and there was some speculation of increasing the ETF fees for iPhone 3G.

Please point out if this is not correct.

It may be a moot point now as others pointed out, because of the timeline. But it seems different from just buying a 3g iphone outright.

Buying an iPhone 3G Outright:
-buy iphone 3g for $199 price (new customer) w/ 2 year contract
-wait 30 days, pay 1 month bill (~$70), activation ($36)
-cancel contract, pay ETF ($175 - $5 for one month of service, or more if AT&T changes it for the iphone)
-so the total is $199 + $70 + $36 + $170 = $475

Buying a tilt, then use iphone to get the 3G:
-buy tilt for $99 (new customer, refurb) w/ 2 year contract, pay activation ($36)
-borrow an iphone (free), activate it
-buy 3g iphone for $199 (eligible since you have an iphone), renew 2 year contract
-wait 30 days, pay 1 month bill (~$70)
-cancel contract, pay ETF ($175 - $5 for one month of service, or more if AT&T changes it for the iphone)
-sell tilt on eBay for $X (~$350?)
-total is $99 + $36 + $199 + $70 + $170 = $574, *minus* how much the tilt gets on eBay.
If you get $350 on eBay for the tilt, then total is really $574 - $350 = $224

So the difference is that you get the iphone 3G and the tilt to sell in scenario B, whereas with A you only have the 3G iphone. So it looks to be very different, however it's risky, YMMV, depends on policies which are not completely clear, and will most likely not be honored by uptight AT&T CSR's. Dead for me, maybe good for the risk takers.

But hey, make sure to use my link or YOUR IPHONE WILL DIE!!! Too complicated to explain why here.

JustLJ said:
Can somebody call BS on this?

I think the poster above you just did the opposite. But, regardless... I wouldn't risk it at this point. You could wind up with the Tilt stuck in the mail... have an active line of service... and be unable to sign up for iPhone 3G.

gokartsrus said:asuka said:indeed my tilt was stuck in the mail - but they emailed my phoen number, and I activated the old iphone on thursday, and get 3g iphone on friday.
Post up! Did you get it? Did it work? Now I'm curious about if this actually worked.

Worked great for me... I got my iPhone 3G 16 GB for $299, and saved myself $200!