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Ye Olde Cellphone Threade
Ludious
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My problem/question:
I've been a T-Mobile customer for years. They won't give me a good deal on a new phone. They hate their old customers (and as far as I can tell, so do all cellphone companies.)
First question:
Why do cellphone companies offer better phone deals to new UNPROVEN customers,than they do to long standing customers who have, you know, paid their bills? This question just bugs the shit out of me. I don't NEED to know the answer. Just want to.
As it stands, I want to go with cingular. If you go to amazon.com and look at cingular plans, you will see that you can get pretty much any phone you want for pretty much FREE. If you go to cingular.com and look at the same plans, phones are much more expensive, but require you to sign the same 2 year contract.
Here's my dilemma: I am unwilling to just buy phones and a plan through amazon because all of the customer reviews say that if you try to port your old phone numbers to your new phones bought through Amazon, Cingular bills Amazon and Amazon in turn bills you something like $250.
Now, I thought porting a phone number was free and something companies were legally required to do these days.
If I talk to Cingular, will they pricematch Amazon (sure I could call them and get into an arguement about it, or I could ask here and save myself some frustration) and port my numbers for free?
If not, can I order the phones from Amazon and then refuse to pay them for the porting as it sounds shady to begin with?
For reference my wife and I both (need) new phones.
I want the sony ericcson W810i. It's $0.01 at Amazon with a $75 rebate and $174.99 through cingular with a $100 mail-in (not instant) rebate.
My wife wants the Blackberry Pearl (red). Again, it's $0.01 at amazon but $199.99 through cingular. No rebates.
Same Two Year Contract either place.
What gives and what can I do about it?
I've been a T-Mobile customer for years. They won't give me a good deal on a new phone. They hate their old customers (and as far as I can tell, so do all cellphone companies.)
First question:
Why do cellphone companies offer better phone deals to new UNPROVEN customers,than they do to long standing customers who have, you know, paid their bills? This question just bugs the shit out of me. I don't NEED to know the answer. Just want to.
As it stands, I want to go with cingular. If you go to amazon.com and look at cingular plans, you will see that you can get pretty much any phone you want for pretty much FREE. If you go to cingular.com and look at the same plans, phones are much more expensive, but require you to sign the same 2 year contract.
Here's my dilemma: I am unwilling to just buy phones and a plan through amazon because all of the customer reviews say that if you try to port your old phone numbers to your new phones bought through Amazon, Cingular bills Amazon and Amazon in turn bills you something like $250.
Now, I thought porting a phone number was free and something companies were legally required to do these days.
If I talk to Cingular, will they pricematch Amazon (sure I could call them and get into an arguement about it, or I could ask here and save myself some frustration) and port my numbers for free?
If not, can I order the phones from Amazon and then refuse to pay them for the porting as it sounds shady to begin with?
For reference my wife and I both (need) new phones.
I want the sony ericcson W810i. It's $0.01 at Amazon with a $75 rebate and $174.99 through cingular with a $100 mail-in (not instant) rebate.
My wife wants the Blackberry Pearl (red). Again, it's $0.01 at amazon but $199.99 through cingular. No rebates.
Same Two Year Contract either place.
What gives and what can I do about it?
Ludious on
Google Talk: ludious83 My Blog: The Caustic Geek
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I'm no expert but I'm gonna guess it's because providing cell phone service to one person doesn't actually cost them any real dollars. The network is already there and they add capacity in the 10's or 100's of thousands. So if they get one person hooked up and they flake on the bills the company doesn't actually lose any money. It's probably more cost effective to just let everyone in and entice them with incentives than to actually screen customers and find ones who will be good to them.
1. There's a good chance that Cingular will price match if you call them, but the only way to be sure is to try for yourself.
2. If you do order through amazon and they charge you for the number porting you cannot refuse payment, as you'd have probably already provided them with permission to make the charge in the fine print of the initial purchase.