On Mon, 15 Oct 2012, "Trent W. Buck" <trentbuck(a)gmail.com> wrote: Of course it could be that Samsung just manufactured millions of them before shipping any with LTE support. In that case the 3G ones are on sale cheaply because they are no longer the latest and greatest and Samsung might be getting the same per-unit price. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

On Mon, 15 Oct 2012, Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan(a)affinityvision.com.au> wrote: As I previously mentioned the telco plans that involve "free" phones in Australia are unreasonably expensive. So the telcos try and force people to buy the bad plans instead of being competitive. Best to buy a phone from Kogan and then find a telco that will support it properly. The TIO is a good option if a telco doesn't do so. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

On Tue, 16 Oct 2012, Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan(a)affinityvision.com.au> wrote: Making money doesn't require giving users bad deals. One might argue that the confusing pricing models that they use are required because everyone does it (this is an argument in favor of regulated contracts), but offering so-called "free" phones that cost significantly more than buying them outright is pretty close to fraud. If you know of a cheaper way of buying phones then please let us know. I'll keep using Kogan as the base line for comparing prices until I find another company that's cheap and convenient. The vast majority of people here can't claim back GST. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

On 16/10/2012 11:53 AM, Russell Coker wrote: I agree, but I also don't understand why people pay extortionate prices for junk foods at the supermarket -- it's like "convenience store" pricing these days. It depends on too many factors, your own choices may or may not suit others.... if others are in your same boat, then your advice will be fine for them; but not everyone is like you. How in the hell would you know that? Not from a Wikipedia survey, your favourite tool for "proof" .... sheesh. Cheers A.

On 16/10/2012 1:14 PM, Russell Coker wrote: People pay high prices for food, because the supermarkets can get away with it and it seems that too many people these days either don't have the knowledge, skills or time to "manage" better and more efficiently, so they far over pay for convenience -- some people don't seem to care what something costs if they want it and it doesn't have to be much of a want for them either. A phone can be as good as free or at least low cost IF the phone plan OTHERWISE suits the requirements at a "fair" price. Just because a "total commitment" may be high, doesn't necessarily follow that the included phone cost is the main factor or even that the inclusion cannot be justified overall as part of the buying choice -- take around $500 off the total commitment and then see if the plan otherwise stacks up well enough or not. Again it depends on the individual case, each end user has their own requirements and those requirements can vary greatly. Those with or without GST considerations may have different choices and options available to them, whether or not GST helps or hinders that decision is another matter. Price is definitely one consideration and it is normally one of my greatest priorities when making a buying decision; price on principle ... however, price is just one buying consideration, other principles also need to be considered. And at times it is better to pay a "higher", perceived or otherwise, price than at other times for all sorts of possible reasons. Cheers A.

Russell Coker wrote: If you spend twenty minutes hitting alt+x (the hotkey for /Special:Random), you will see that the *average* Wikipedia article is a stub article about a road, a football player, or an election :-)