Cingular Contract Expiring

New to these forums...hopefully this has not been asked a million times before. Did a search but did not find much. Thanks in advance for any help.

Situation...my 2 year contract with Cingular is going to expire in the next couple weeks. I am shopping for a new plan. I am happy with Cingular (as happy as one can be with a cellular company...personally I think they are all relatively bad...so it is kind of a pick your poison). I would like to stay with Cingular because they have a cell tower where I work and they are the only carrier that gets good service in our building.

anyway...me and the wife definitely need and want new phones when we renew our contract. Doing my shopping I have found I can't get the real good (free or very low prices) on the phones we want (Razr) because we are an existing Cingular customer. This does not make sense to me? Once my contract expires I figure I am a "free agent" why can't I take advantage of the free prices? What if I let my contract totally expire...I am no longer a Cingular customer...then can I get a phone for free? Do I need to change carriers to take advantage of deals? One problem is we definitely want to keep our existing phone numbers...if I let my contract expire will I lose my number?

I think it is kind of ridiculous that they are going to lose me as a customer and my next two year contract because they will not give me the promotional offers on their phones. Example Best Buy has the razr for like $79 right now but I think I would pay $199 if I sign a new two year contract with Cingular. Amazon has them for free but don't think I can take advantage of that either. If I switch providers (t-mobile, verizon, or us cellular) I know I can take my phone number with but then can I take advantage of their new customer promotions?

Can anyone explain any of the above. I work in the flippin industry (not at the consumer level though) and I still can't figure the entire mess out. Very typical with these cellular companies...you should see some of the crap I see in their networks...it is a wonder anyone is able to make a phone call.

if you go through a third party vendor, you are signing a contract with them. they can offer those phones at such cheap prices because of extra stipulations such as penaltys if there is a rate plan change, exhorbant Early termination fees, and tight restrictions/deadlines/paperwork procedures to get discounts. if anything is violated, the respective company will mostlikely charge the retail price of the phone.

you need to make sure you read the fine print. and you would be signing up with new # through a third party.

with the v3x coming out supposedly before christmas, hopefully it will drop the price of the v3...hopefully.

answers to your questions are posed in bold

Thanks for the replys. Makes sense. Did some research on the Amazon/Best Buy deals and yes it looks like everyone has a lot of problems with them. No number portability etc...

Looks like Cingular dropped their prices to 99 for the razr which I can live with...

I am going to a Cingular retail store today at lunch and see what I can get done.

glad to see you understand...the price may be more expensive at a store... marketing levels... online is the cheapest...

What I never knew is that you can let the contract expire & nothing will happen. This means you can take more time to shop around. It also means that since you arent under a contract anymore, I would assume you can sign up for a new Cingular plan & phone. I ended up going with another company but wished I had returned to Cingular.

The point is nothing happens after your contract expires...& that you dont have to pay the EFT to cance/switch!!

Renewed with Cingular...tried to do it online but would not let me because of multiple phones or something. Said had to be done over the phone or retail store.

Went to a retail outlet today at lunch...while waiting the first thing I notice is the V3 Razr are listed for 199 in the store...I figure I am screwed and can hopefully get the online price over the phone but wait my turn anyway. Get to my turn explain...contract expiring...tried to renew online...couldn't because multiple phones...saw the razr was 99 online...She explains they are now 149 in the store plus a 50 rebate...sweet! Sign me up.

Took about a half hour but left a happy camper with two new phones, a new two year contract...quick and painless. Think my bill is actually going to be a few bucks less a month...less minutes (550) but I think most months we do not use near that much so after a few months I should have enough rolled over minutes to cover any high usage months.

Now I have my fingers crossed that the V3 Razr gets a better signal and does not drop calls in my home. All the reviews I have read make the point that the razr gets excellect reception so I am hopeful.

Did notice a few others walk into the store while I was there and complain that the prices were higher than online...same story...online and retail are not connected...blah blah blah...I really think that is a poor policy to have different prices retail and online. I understand the increased cost of running a retail outlet but it is the same company and the money should end up in the same place.

Another thing I did not like is when she showed me the rate plan chart it did not include the 550 plan...the lowest in the chart was 700...I had to specifically ask for the 550 plan and then the sales person acknowledged it.

Thanks again for the help.

today was day 2 for the plan...

new plan for the holidays

GO WITH T-MOBILE SERVICE!!

Cingular Contract Expiring

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