As iPhone X preorders started last week, news quickly spread about Best Buy charging an extra $100 for those looking to purchase the device outright. Now, after a lot of negative feedback, Best Buy has decided to only offer Apple’s latest iPhones on installment plans.
Bloomberg obtained the original statement from the retailer last Friday that revealed that the $100 surcharge was an intentional decision.
While Best Buy tried to spin the ridiculous business decision as ‘the cost of choice,’ many customers shared negative feedback via Twitter and elsewhere. Today, Bloomberg received a statement from Best Buy sharing that the retailer will be stopping sales of full price iPhone X and 8 devices.
“Although there was clearly demand for the un-activated iPhone X, selling it that way cost more money, causing some confusion with our customers and noise in the media,” Best Buy spokeswoman Danielle Schumann said. “That’s why we decided a few days ago to only sell the phone the traditional way, through installment billing plans.”
Bloomberg notes that Best Buy’s choice to only offer installment plans has to do with the payments the company earns for selling activated smartphones.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of other outlets to buy an iPhone X (or any other model) outright. Apple is currently selling the unlocked GSM (with T-Mobile SIM) iPhone X full price, while you can pick up the iPhone 8 directly from Apple SIM free. You can also pick up any of the variants full price if you don’t mind activating with your current carrier.
As for carriers, you can buy the iPhone X at the standard full price with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, although you’ll need to sign up for service if you don’t already have a line with that carrier. At this point, most orders are shipping around December. However, Sprint is still shipping in about three weeks. If you can’t wait that long, there lots of iPhone X’s available on eBay…at eye watering prices.
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