Cell phones: Purchasing a Phone without Service Contract??
Purchasing a Phone without Service Contract??
by eimeria - 10/20/05 6:27 PMI currently have service from Cingular. My current phone has stopped working reliably (only a couple of keys on the keypad work). My phone is over a year old, so it's not covered under warranty. I'm not "allowed" to upgrade my phone for over 8 months. They are willing to let me upgrade, at a significant cost of course. They quote a price of about $270 for one of their lower grade phones plus an additional two year contract commitment.
I'd like to buy a phone without a service contract that I can then hook up to my cingular account. What do I need to look for in a phone? Can anyone recommend someplace to buy a phone without a service contract attached?
Yea
by hh - 10/20/05 6:42 PM In reply to: Purchasing a Phone without Service Contract?? by eimeriaEither go to a store and buy an "unlocked" quad band GSM phone or a tri-band (850/1800/1900 MHz) phone. It has to have the 850 band to work properly on cingular's network.
You can also buy it on eBay. You can buy a used unlocked GSM phone for under $50.
Most independent cell phone stores carry unlocked phones.
Why would you pay $270 + a 2 year contract? Ridiculous!
Go to TigerDirect.com
by rayvatrap - 9/18/06 7:08 AM In reply to: Yea by hhThis is a website where I get almost all my computer or/and electronic gear. It is great and I am quiet sure you'll find a good unlocked cell phone:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=1807
Unlocked Phone May not save you money
by m3harri - 10/20/05 9:03 PM In reply to: Purchasing a Phone without Service Contract?? by eimeriaI have a simular issue.
I am considering moving to a GSM carrier and have some concerns. I recently acquired a Palm Tungsten W on Ebay and went to a Cingular store to activate it. The phone had been on AT&T (acquired by Cingular). The clerk told me that since I did not buy the phone from Cingular that the UNLOCKED phone would always be charged as roaming. This made no sense to me.
A Cingular owns AT&T now so what is the issue
B What difference does it make where the phone came from?
I can not fathom the legality of this. The policy is clearly consumer hostile as it appears that they are forcing you to buy equipment from them or pay for it one way or another. It appears to me to be the equivalent of be forced into paying more for gas because you did not buy your car from X company.
Please advise
It is BS
by hh - 10/21/05 7:10 AM In reply to: Unlocked Phone May not save you money by m3harriIf you already have a SIM card, like the original poster says that he has one, you just move it to an unlocked phone, thats it.
If a clerk at Cingular told you what you claim he did, he should be reported to his superior for lying.
You can get a plan from Cingular without having to buy your phone from them, you will have the same plan as anyone else.
They are using scare tactics so they sell you phones as well. They are simply LYING.
The would sell plan. They just would charge for roaming
by m3harri - 10/21/05 6:18 PM In reply to: It is BS by hhLike I said they would sell me a plan. They would just charge for roaming. I thought this was odd as Cingular seams to be proud of its NO ROAMING service. I took the sim from a couple of Cigular pals and when the phone log in it showed that the network status was roaming. Seriously. I had thought that the clerk was apply pressure my self, in fact he was very high pressure as he had the deal all but locked in on the system until I refused to play ball. The fact is the phone told me that it was roaming.
I agree it the whole situation is BS.
Fortunately all this monkey-ing around has shown me that this Tungsten W is not the phone for me.
PS I have found out that this store is not owned by Cigular it is a franchise.
No
by birdmantd - 3/6/07 6:20 PM In reply to: Follow up by m3harriIf they told you that using an unlocked phone would be considered roaming and billed for roaming than they are either ignorant or just making it up. I have been using an unlocked handset on Cingular for over a year without any problems or wacky extra fees.
I have an UN-locked Nokia with Cingular works fine
by jbc94523 - 10/23/05 12:06 AM In reply to: It is BS by hhMy Nokia 6200 was purchased with an AT&T plan back in 03. While still with AT&T after 1 year, I purchased on unlock code from ebay for $3. A few weeks later, I went to a Cingular dealer, got hooked up with a new Cingular sim and have been good ever since. I've never seen my phone in a roaming status. I've never heard of this roaming contingency placed on unlocked phones, it must be a new development. If this is something that they are now able to do then it should be illegal. That's like a cable company saying you can only watch TV with the TV that we sell...Rediculous!
I agree
by hh - 10/23/05 7:06 AM In reply to: I have an UN-locked Nokia with Cingular works fine by jbc94523That's why I was telling the other poster that they were being told alot of BS by the company. If you have an unlocked phone you can just transfer your SIM card to it, the company would not know nor care as long as you are paying your monthly bills.
They lie and use scare tactics to force people to buy their own phones. Sadly, sometimes they succeed.
I agree also
by Don347 - 11/4/05 5:34 AM In reply to: I agree by hhI purchased an unlocked Samsung SGH-715 phone from ebay which was orignally T mobil. When I received the phone I just put the Sim card from Cingular and it works fine and does not go into roaming. The only thing is that when you turn the phone off or on the T Mobil logo is displayed. This is really no big deal but I would like to change the logo to Cingular. first can this be done and if so does anyone know how.
Thanks
Samsung to Samsung Cellphone?
by jstobe99 - 5/7/07 6:21 PM In reply to: It is BS by hhCan anyone help me? My husbands phone has bit the dust and we have 6 months left to go on our T-mobile contract. We are not sure if we want to renew with them or not...so I have been checking out Ebay for The same exact phone as his (samsung e105). If I get one from Ebay and it is unlocked...I can take the SIM card from his old broken phone and just put it into the new phone?
And can you tell me if I by an upgraded phone (Samsung X495) can I also use the SIM Card from his E105 model in the better/newer model phone? Any help would be appreciated....Thanks...
jstobe99
More Cingular unlocked phone confusion
by m3harri - 10/27/05 10:20 PM In reply to: Unlocked Phone May not save you money by m3harriMy GF went to a corporate (Cingular) store today and put the same question to them. Per their rep an unlocked phone has a 50% chance of not working and probably will not be able to use voice mail or data services. How it is there is so much difference of opinion. Some say users say mine works fine yet Cingular is telling me, “watch out.”
I have hard time believing that it can all be profit motivated. I think it is method to avoid liability. Cingular does not want to foot the bill for navigating the untested waters of non-standard phones.
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