i want to buy the lil' woman a new phone for her birthday, but i just know that the guys at the Verizon store are ripping me off. is it more efficient to buy a phone from somewhere else, and if you do that do you still have to go to the store to get it activated, and ... basically i'm confused.

I say forget the phone and buy her a couple of tin cans and some string. That way there are no hidden fees.

she would just use them to hang me with... and she'd be right.

I bought mine online through t-moblie...picked a cheap plan, and got the phone I wanted for free. Sometimes they've got better deals online...at least t-mobile.

I don't know how much you'd save, Chase, buying the phone somewhere else. They key thing is always the haggling about the plan you get. I'm fairly sure that if you DO buy the phone elsewhere you still need to go into the store to get it activated.

Steve

off the counter?

personally i'd want to play with my phone beforehand, i mean as with all good things you might want to think about getting right

Whatever you do, I don't recommend buying a used one. I did that once and it never worked right.

If it's a new plan, you should be able to get a free phone. If it's through a company that you're already with, there are usually rebates and the like to knock down the price.

Verizon lets you check out your phone for 15 days.

They are going to make you sign a 2 year contract which sucks, but I would say go with Verizon anyway (i've had AT&T and Nextel and they are both pretty meh). I just switched to them and got the LGVX3200 phone. It's one of their cheapest phones but its tri-mode (important if you travel in rural areas), and they will get you a new phone for nothing after a year.

I don't need features like a camera. I need a phone that fucking works and when this one dies, I'll buy another one. Cell phones are disposable.

yeah that's the thing, i'm not really looking for a new plan although i'm not opposed to signing an extension. verizon's always worked for us everywhere but the vermont mountains, and i don't plan on going back there.

you should be able to just add a phone to your existing plan and use one of those "family share plans"

go to verizon dot com or letstalk dot com and roam around a bit.

I think in most cases buying from a place like Best Buy is cheaper than going to a Verizon store. When I shopped for a phone last, they were all $50-$100 cheaper at the chain electronics stores.

I wouldn't pay more than $50 for any phone. Upon further reflection, I've decided that your best course of action is the following:

Bite the bullet and extend your contract, get yourself a new phone, but get ona plan where you and your fiance share minutes. If you play it right, you should be able to get your phone for next to nothing and hers for FREE. The great thing about Verizon is that talk b/w verizon customers is free so y'all can talk all day for nothing. (hopefully you have good standing and good credit---otherwise this plan is screwed)

Maybe that's not so good for you.

My mother was told by a rep at a Verizon store that he couldn't compete with the deals on Verizon's own website. She now shops the stores to find out what she likes then just orders online and gets better rebates/discounts.

If you buy a phone it has to be unlocked for it to work on any provider.

IE, you can't buy a phone at the Sprint store and have Verizon service. Every provider locks their phones to only work with their service.

Otherwise to get a free phone, you have to sign a 2 year deal with the provider.

Sorry I'm so late, fellas... I was a tech for them for 3 years until this summer, left because I was getting an ulcer. The deal:

- Yes, must be a VZ phone, not Sprint or anyone elses.
- Only buy used if you have to, as in "whoops dropped my phone in the shitter, no insurance, year left on contract, don't have $ for full retail."
- Bloor is correct, in that they're (VZ) about the best, though nobody's perfect. Coverage is the biggest thing, and they're the biggest network nationally, no contest. I wouldn't go with anyone else, price be damned (and it's within $5 across the board anyway).
- The phone prices in the stores only get cheap when you have something to trade, like a renewall or new contract. Renew yours (if you can), tack hers on, the price JUST dropped to $10 a month.
- Watch the minutes. Figure on the mobile to mobile helping a ton, but stilll, seriously, play it safe.... overage is vicious at 69 cents a minute. Don't be afraid to guess high for one month on the minutes, use it like you're gonna use it, and then see what happened. If you guessed high, boo hoo, you're out $10, and you change it. If you guessed low, you're out a lot more than $10.
- Use that 15 day grace period. Tell her to watch what the phone does at work, friends' places, etc. If it doesn't call out and recieve well, then chech it with your phone too, and if it's a deal breaker, then that's ok. But do it in those 15.
- That LG3200 is a good little phone. PM me if you have model questions, because there are some serious stinkers in the lineup.

Oh, and the indirects (non-corporate stores, like mall kiosks / stereo places) CAN play with phone prices, and regularly undercut the corp stores, much to their chagrin. But the indirects don't get to offer you the New Every 2, which is the $100 discount for resigning a 2 yr if you're at the end of your current 2 yr. They also mostly don't know anything about the industry / equipment, dispite what they'll tell you, and you'll be working with the squeaky-voiced teen from the Simpsons. Some are good, but they're rare.

uh, Cingular is the biggest now since they merged with AT+T back in Oct. And Sprint merged with Nextell, so they probably got more competitive with size, but Sprint sucked donkey dick so i paid to get out of the contract. Cingular is ok, I think I just have a crappy phone. I have that American Idol Nokia phone they kept showing. I like the phone, it's the reception I hate, and the camera sucks, and it rebooted or something and lost all my info, but i had it backed up, but now it does not tell me when I missed a call. And the buttons are up for 1 and down for 4, so each button is for 2 numbers. I hate that, so actually, I pretty much hate my Nokia.

My brother works for Motorolla, so he can get unlocked phones for cheaper than normal, and youwouldn't need a contract. I am thinking of taking him up on this soon.