amazon phone deals

[thomsbrain]

Can you guys share your opinions on/experiences with buying phone and plan bundles from Amazon?

My fiancee and I are thinking about pulling the trigger on a family plan with a couple of Blackberry Curves on T-Mobile from Amazon.com, where we can get the first BB for $50 and the second for $100.

I talked to a CR from T-Mobile about this in the context of working out some number port questions, and she mentioned that she hears a lot of horror stories about people buying through 3rd party carriers. She said Amazon sells a lot of refurbished phones and phones that come without SIM cards. Any truth to this? I've also seen some "don't ever buy 3rd party" posts here, but without additional details or reasons.

I understand that when you buy from Amazon, you "sign" an additional contract in order to get that great phone price, which basically locks you into additional "don't fvck us and run" conditions to make sure you stick with your service for 6 months. If you change anything on your service, they will bill you $250 on top of whatever T-Mobile bills you. You also give up the 20-day risk-free trial that you'd get if you bought direct. I think I can live with that if I feel confident I'm getting a new phone and won't have problems with it.

Fire away, folks.

 

[pm]

It makes sense that the T-Mobile CSR would hear a lot of horror stories with 3rd parties - if things go well on the transaction, T-Mobile CSR probably doesn't get involved. So TMO CSR's would only ever hear the ones that don't work out.

To me this is a matter of saving money at higher risk. You get a better deal, but if the phone reception isn't good where you need it, or you unexpectedly have to move away, or the cell tower gets hit by lightning and you suddenly lose service where you need it and you get frustrated while they try to restore service and want to switch to a carrier who can give you a phone you can use... you will end up paying a lot.

If you are sure that you want what you are getting and you'll like it - barring dead phones or whatever, which are covered - then I'd say go for it. But if you have any questions over the phone, or the service, or how many bars you'll get in a spot where you must have service... then I'd say skip it.

I haven't had any horror stories with 3rd party resellers, nor do I know anyone else who does, but I have bought phones and decided later that the ringer wasn't loud enough, or the battery life was too short and returned them.

Good luck.

 

[Viper GTS]

I've bought phones from Amazon a few times (always T-Mobile), never had a problem.

The "refurb" rumors are almost certainly BS, & a missing SIM (while highly unlikely since they are part of the retail package) really isn't the end of the world. You can pick up a SIM at any T-Mobile store & it takes just a few minutes to associate it with your account.

As long as you can deal with the inability to drop your rate plan for 6 months you will do just fine with Amazon.

Viper GTS

 

[thomsbrain]

Yeah, I was kind of assuming the refurb/missing SIM stories might have more to do with Amazon's merchant service than actual Amazon items, but it definitely improves my confidence to hear your opinions.

 

[intogamer]

Howardforums has been reporting that on Black Friday, T-Mobile will offer two round trip domestic air tickets w/ New Activation.

Amazon is an indirect dealer, which means it is not a corporate run T-Mobile store. Many indirects sign a secondary contract, because they do not get their cut of signing the new customer, when you change some sh1t in 6 Months.

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: intogamer
Howardforums has been reporting that on Black Friday, T-Mobile will offer two round trip domestic air tickets w/ New Activation.

Amazon is an indirect dealer, which means it is not a corporate run T-Mobile store. Many indirects sign a secondary contract, because they do not get their cut of signing the new customer, when you change some sh1t in 6 Months.

doh! well, we just placed the order, but we'll "survive somehow." i'll let people know how it goes.

 

[morkman100]

Amazon has great deals for cellphones. Renewed my contract with Cingular last year. Got my Sony w810 for free AR (when Cingular was selling for $150-200) and Samsung d807 for $50 cash back (when Cing was selling for $75-100).

Phones arrived fine (although the w810 was backordered so that took an extra 2 weeks). Phones were new and arrived with new SIM's (but just used old ones).

The Sony came with a 128MB memory stick but the description on the site said it included a 512MB one (they basically copied the copy from the unlocked version). Amazon gave me a $40 credit to buy the Sony 512MB card... ended up buying a Sandisk 2GB card for the same price.