[ashma]

Originally Posted by jbearamus

there is a tiered pricing structure behind every single wireless transaction. the reason business such as radioshack or any other third party dealer sell phones is because for each transaction processed results in Tmobile/ATT/Verizon/Sprint paying $XXX to the company depending on what the transaction was
for example,
RSH gets paid more for a new activation than we do for an upgrade, and we can get paid more for adding features, messaging/web/navigation/tv etc because the more money the carrier makes, the more they pay the dealer
Now I don't know any exact figures but this results in our tiered pricing structure, radioshack is willing to let more money go on a phone if it drives new activation business because we'll make more money on the back end anyway versus an upgrade we won't get paid as much so in some cases (such as the HD2) the upgrade price on the hardware is higher
now the problem with Tmobile is they have so many ifs ands or buts that the structure gets kind of muddled, no i don't know for sure if this is the case but here's what i'm going to assume:
flexpay is basically prepaid service agreement with postpaid service rates, pay at the beginning of the month but get a decent rate plan and even a discount on the phone if you sign a contract now, flexpay is generally (very generally i'm not trying to make a statement about your specific friend) used to get people with poor credit onto a rate plan worth having, its also useful for those that dont want to run the risk of overages, since its prepaid you can't have an overage charge
now between it being prepaid, and typically with those with poor credit scores tmobile is probably expecting payments on these to stop at any moment they're probably paying out less to the dealers because Tmobile is banking on not making as much money, this in turn affects radioshack's pricing structure, they're not making as much money so they're not going to let as much go on the hardware
I know its an unpleasant situation but that's likely what is happening
I know that was a lot but I hope its helpful

Thank you for the info! I copied and emailed this to her even though she just told me that the RadioShack computers wouldn't allow the sale yet because it wouldn't allow flexpay customers to get the discounted price. She says she's on her way to a T-Mo Corp store.

I just got mine a few hours ago and it's great but the skin case it comes with is really cheap and doesn't fit tight at all. Otherwise though, I do LOVE this device.......Hours tonight. I'm talking about hours tonight on this new greatness.