| Author |
Message |
kittycarryall
Posts: 1 |
 
Fri Feb 16, 2007 2:54 am |
Hi,
I posted this in the Motorola forum too, and thought I would post here. Can someone honestly tell me why the phones are often free on here, and on similar cellular resellers? The phone I want (w/ cingular service is free on here with contract) but direct thru Cingular it costs over $100 with service. What is the catch? I've never bought through a company like this, only purchased through service providers before.
many thanks!
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Malibu21
Posts: 1002
Phone Model:
V3xx Lightly Modded, V6 Maxx Tweaked nicely.
Service Provider:
The New AT&T |
Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:13 am |
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Basically it boils down to extremely low overhead, where a store has to pay rent to the mall or landlord, then employees, so they need to charge higher for the phone, these guys often have very few employees, so they're "commision" from cingular is much higher so they can offer the phones much cheaper.
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Celtic Dragon
Posts: 252
Phone Model:
SE w610i/BJ II
Service Provider:
Cingular/AT&T |
Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:31 am |
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There is often also a fine print ETF. where you have to pay the 3rd party a ETF fee along with Cingular's ETF fee. Some resellers will charge you this fee if you change your plan in any way within a certain period of time.
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Malibu21
Posts: 1002
Phone Model:
V3xx Lightly Modded, V6 Maxx Tweaked nicely.
Service Provider:
The New AT&T |
Fri Feb 16, 2007 4:30 pm |
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When buying from an Authorized dealer or 3rd party, there's almost always an ETF of the discount on the phone.
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Jadall
Posts: 389
Phone Model:
Nokia 3300,Nokia n-gage, SEt290a
Service Provider:
Cingular |
Fri Feb 16, 2007 10:40 pm |
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as I've said before if you take phone into store and it's not working or you need help with it they are less equipped to be able to help you like replace your charger that came with the phone or assist you.
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Malibu21
Posts: 1002
Phone Model:
V3xx Lightly Modded, V6 Maxx Tweaked nicely.
Service Provider:
The New AT&T |
Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:24 am |
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Where'd that come from? We have chargers in stock all the time. Generally speaking, you can go to a dealer and be able to fix small problems w/o calling customer service.
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Shalalala
Posts: 661 |
Sat Feb 17, 2007 1:12 pm |
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Well, when I bought my phones on Amazon it said if you phone is turned off due to non payment, cancelled, or the number is changed within 181 days they would have charged me $250 per phone.so that is usually why auth dealers give you "free" phones.
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Malibu21
Posts: 1002
Phone Model:
V3xx Lightly Modded, V6 Maxx Tweaked nicely.
Service Provider:
The New AT&T |
Sat Feb 17, 2007 3:18 pm |
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not alll AR's like our 181 agreement is only for cancelling, if you change rateplans we get a chargeback.
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