I lost my cellphone late last week. Thinking it would be fairly easy to replace it, I learned this weekend that if you don't have insurance, you need to pay FULL retail value on a new phone. After being a loyal customer for years, Verizon won't even provide a discount to replace the phone. Btw, when did cellphones get so damn expensive?! Luckily, I kept my old phone and had that activated.

So, here's my question -- does anyone know where I can buy a cellphone that's less than retail value?

And in case you're wondering, I just renewed my two-year calling plan in September 2005. Cancelling it, involves a $175 fee.

how long have you been a customer with verizon?

TMobile gives me a free one everytime I re-up my contract for another year. You sure Verizon doesn't have the same deal?

I am a verizon customer too and although they are helpful in many ways, they are horribly stingy when it comes to purchasing new equipment. I got my new phone for free but that was only because after two years as the primary customer I received a 100 dollar dicsount plus a 50 dollar rebate on the phone itself. This covered the cost of the new phone without a penny to spare.

However, if I did not have insurance and lost my phone or dropped it in the toilet or something, I would have to pay 150 bucks to replace it. This just happened to my father who has the same phone as me. Even with insurance you have to pay a 50 dollar deductible. However, the service is good enough for me to take my chances on something like this.

You could search on Ebay for one. My brother has done that before.

Tania, you could look on craigslist for an unlocked phone. Might be cheaper than paying full retail.

The answer is that phones have ALWAYS been very expensive. They still are. But providers back in the heyday (early 90's) decided that to grow the market more quickly, they'd have to subsidize the price of the phone to get people onboard, and then make up the $ slowly as you pay your bill every month.

When you first walk into the door at verizon, pick out your first phone and sign up for service, VZ is in the hole an average of about $300. It takes them (again on average) about 9 months of you paying your bill on time to get themselves out of the hole, and that's very fast in that industry - most are closer to a year.

The problem is that it takes them about $18-$22 a month to run your account. That's your portion of the $4 Billion a year they spend on that network that lets you drunk dial from the basement bar at 4am. So if you're on a $40 plan, they're making around $20 a month on you, if you don't go over your minutes. $300 hole, $20 a month headway, means they don't see profit until the 15th month in theory, but most people aren't on that plan and go over their minutes, which helps. (overage is pure profit)

And that handset that they sell you for "nothing" when you sign up or re-up costs them a LEAST $130, usually more like $200 for the color flip dealies. Really. So when they discount one for you, and you lose it right away, there's a LOT of pressure on them not to discount another one right away... that just doubles the amount they have to clear on you till you make them money again.

It's their own damn fault for conditioning people to think that handsets aren't worth much in the first place, I know. People treat it like what they paid for it.

And that doesn't mean they never break down and discount one, but it's pretty damn rare, and usually for the $200 a month plan people... because they know they'll make the money back quickly. If you're on anything less than $100 a month, you're certainly a customer, but you're not as profitable as you think you are... the relationship is more equal than "mighty customer/humble provider." They're on a tight margin.

Yes, you can find a phone on ebay. It HAS to be a verizon phone, and it cannot ever have been reported stolen, so make sure there's a grace period where you can bring it into a store and have it activated. I'd just send you one of my old ones, but they're OLD.

Also, Tania, sometimes Verizon will sell refurbished phones at a lower price... talk to someone there about that.

Thanks, guys, for all the input.

Timis, I've been a member of Verizon Wireless for about 4-5 years.

And I'm gonna look into the refurbished phones...or, just suck it up and continue using my 3 year old phone.

Is it GSM? (have a SIM card?)

I unlocked a few of my older Nokia phones so you could just pop in a sim card and voila, workign phone. I placed a link to unlock Nokia phones on the board about 3 weeks ago. I am not sure how to unlock other types of phones.

Try some of those cell phone shops that look kind of shady. They should be able to sell you a used one on the cheap. I paid $50 in a pinch for a new phone when my other one broke, now I keep it as a backup. (Garage sales are good too. you can buy something there and just unlock it.)

Ebay is good too.

What exactly is involved in "unlocking" a phone?

Ugh... I still would cancel tania, and go with Tmo...Their minute plans are insanely cheap compared to verizon and on amazon you can get a free phone...consider that your 175 payment. eff verizon.

Tmo? I've never heard of 'em.

Oops, nevermind. I figured it out -- T-Mobile! Duh!

1500 nationwide minutes for 39.99, plus unlimited nights/weekends. it doesn't get better than that.

verizon is not on gsm, so it doesn't use sim cards.

verizon and sprint are cdma.

tmo and cingular are gsm, and use sim cards.

man, sim cards is the way to go.

If you don't have a sim card, there is no point in unlocking it because you still need to activate it.
To unlock my phones, I simply put in another carrier's sim card, ie a cingular one in my AT+T phone, it gave me a prompt to input a code which I did and it was then unlocked. Information on where to get the code here:

http://www.obner.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t ... kia+unlock

I'm gonna spend some quality time on T-Mobile's and Sprint's sites tonight. Merci!

If you don't travel outside the city, somebody's gonna be cheaper than vz. Their bag is national coverage. But make real damn sure they cover everywhere you care about during the trial period.

I have sprint. I lost a phone and I was able to use my $150 instant rebate to purchase a new phone to replace the one I lost. I have no complaints about sprint after using them for 4+ years. They been helpful to me anytime I called them.

Been using T Mobile for 2 years now, and love it. I just signed up for another year, and they gave me the Motorola Pebl at half off...

that phone is wicked cool looking.
Is the case durable?

I'd like a phone that is less glossy because of fingerprints and less scratch prone.