SERO contract is about to expire, what "best" thing to do next?

[Svnla]

Ok, so I have a SERO account and Motorola Q9C with Sprint, good stuffs and all for $30/month.

This month (December 09) will be the last month of my contract. I am wondering about my next move/contract. Here are 3 choices:

1. Stay with SERO/Sprint and get month to month contract and continue to use the same Q9C phone. The phone is ok but the battery is getting weaker. Does anyone knows any places that sell good OEM batteries for cheap such as Monoprice for cables?

2. Stay with Sprint and sign up for another 2 years SERO contract and get a new Smartphone. The phones that I believe would work with SERO are: Curve 8330 ($50), Snap ($100), Intrepid ($150), Tour 9630 ($150), Touch Pro2 ($350). Which one does AT recommend? I like to surf the Net and answer phone, nothing fancy at all.

3. Go with another carrier such as ATT or Verizon and new Smartphone. Least desireable because of higher monthly cost and hassle of switching.

So what do ya'll think? Comments, advises, suggestions? TIA.

 

[her209]

If you don't plan on switching carriers, I would get a new phone and renew your contract and just sell it (assuming you're going to be paying the same amount as previously).

 

[boomhower]

I would renew while you can. SERO is going to he going the way of the dodo sooner rather than later. I would go ahead and renew it. I would bite the bullet and go with the TP2.

 

[pm]

I would do what boomhower recommends - stick with SERO, nothing else comes close in terms of value for money, and buy a TP2 it's the nicest of the ones that you listed. If you can't bring yourself to drop $350 on a phone, the any of the others are nice but I'd get the Curve for value/money.

 

[zerocool84]

I'd go for the Tour. It's a good phone and is very sturdy. The TP2 is a really awsome phone hardware wise but Winmo holds it back. The keyboard on it is awesome.

 

[Rottie]

go with blackberry tour i think it suits you fine.

 

[secretanchitman]

speaking as a former sero owner for years...

im pretty sure that getting any blackberry on sprint requires you to have the blackberry service...so you would pay a bit more ($15-$30 i think) each month. i know some people have pleaded/begged to get it added on for free to their sero, but its extremely hard and rare to do that. if it does turn out that you have to pay extra, you might as well get the new sero plan at $60, which includes the blackberry service, as well as the ability to use the palm pre, instinct(s), and android phones.

however, if you dont want to pay extra, the TP2 will work on the $30 sero, and if you love winmo (i got sick of it with my sprint TP1 and i now despise it), then by all means go for it. the cdma/gsm combo in it is really awesome (though i dont think 3G on USA gsm bands work - someone correct me if im wrong) as well. same applies for the intrepid - i used it and it reminded me of the htc snap, but with samsung on it. sure it has wifi, but i just didnt like the performance and keyboard. of course, to each his own i say! as you probably have guessed by now, the only smartphones that always seem to work on the $30/$50 sero are winmo phones...

the tour is interesting...but the lack of wifi is really annoying for me. however, since you have sero, you have unlimited data so i dont think it would bother you. the 8830 is such an old phone, but very reliable, i wouldnt even bother getting it.

att and verizon are really expensive. the iphone seems like too much phone for you (although i could be wrong - i love mine to death) and is really expensive to own monthly (gay-t&t as i call them, and im lucky to get 24% off each month too), and verizon pretty much has the same selection of phones as sprint as you mentioned (minus the droid, and the droid eris is basically a rebranded htc hero) and of course will cost more to use per month.

whatever choice you make, just be sure you will be using a phone that you will want to keep using 1-2 years from now.

 

[corkyg]

Doing nothing is a valid option. Your SERO arrangement and rate should continue on a month-to-month basis. No hurry to renew or sign a new contract. It feels good to be really independent.

Be patient and wait for them to make you an offer you can't refuse.

 

[boomhower]

SERO users can get BIS for $10 a month. Still a lot less than upgrading plans.

 

[foghorn67]

Doing nothing is a valid option. Your SERO arrangement and rate should continue on a month-to-month basis. No hurry to renew or sign a new contract. It feels good to be really independent.

Be patient and wait for them to make you an offer you can't refuse.

This. Go month to month until your phone dies a horrible death.

 

[Strk]

What about the Samsung Moment or HTC Hero? The Pre is also pretty nice.

 

[zerocool84]

What about the Samsung Moment or HTC Hero? The Pre is also pretty nice.

Because he's on the SERO plan. You can't get any of those phones at all. The OP stated which phones he can get.

 

[Strk]

Because he's on the SERO plan. You can't get any of those phones at all. The OP stated which phones he can get.

I wasn't aware of the limitations (and he also said "thinks," not exactly a definitive word)

 

[Svnla]

Thanks to everyone with your comments/advices.

Strk- I logged in my SERO account and lined up all PDA/Smartphones from Sprint, then picked each one as my potential new phone and only the ones mentioned in my op were ok with SERO. Moment and Hero and other Smartphones would required me to upgrade to a more expensive plan.

Foghorn and Corkyg - I am leaning toward one to month too. Cheapest and easiest. Sprint emailed me and stated that I could get 1 month free if I sign up for another SERO 2 years contract.

Boomhover - what is BIS? Why did you say SERO would go away? Source/link? I am leaning to keep it month to month right now but subject to change.

Secretan - why did you leave SERO? Who is your carrier now and how much you are paying per month?

Rottie and Zero - The Tour is nice but not sure it is 3x as nice as the Curve (3x more expensive).

Pm - I like the TP2 too but it is $350 (after all the discounts). Yike, that is expensive. I do like
the Curve for its $50 price.

Her - you mean sell my Motorola Q9C? Sprint say they could give me $25 credit for that phone.
Not sure I can get anything more than that in open market.

BTW, so far I still don't see any good places that sell OEM batteries, so eBay is the "best" place to get them batteries?

 

[Strk]

BIS is the blackberry messaging thing.

 

[boomhower]

BIS is the blackberry messaging thing.

No its not. BIS is the data link for BB's. They do not work on the same way as other smartphones. Your BB's email goes through RIM's servers. Without BIS you get pretty much no data. You can install opera mini through your PC and get the internet but any other data functions will not work. That includes built in email, messaging, GPS, google maps, etc. Blackberry Messenger just goes through BIS as well.

Boomhover - what is BIS? Why did you say SERO would go away? Source/link? I am leaning to keep it month to month right now but subject to change.

Obviously there has been no official announcement that SERO is going away but the writing is on the wall. As you know the TP2 is the only new smartphone you can get without upgrading plans or adding BIS. There are numorous reports that reps are starting to say that the TP2 requires a plan change but they do still activate fine. It is still up in the air whether that is a new Sprint policy or just a few rogue reps trying to pad their commission check. Once WM 7 comes out you can go ahead and put them in the same category as the WebOS and Android phones. My guess is once that happens and the majority of users either upgrade or change carriers they are going to wind down SERO. Granted this will likely be beyond a two year contract anyways. By at least being in a contract it will allow you know you will have that rate for at least two years. Even if you did want out it's not like it would be difficult to get someone to take the line over.

 

[secretanchitman]

Secretan - why did you leave SERO? Who is your carrier now and how much you are paying per month?

i left sero because sprint charged us $1700 mistakenly because of roaming fees, even though unlimited roaming was included, they took it off without us knowing. needless to say, we were extremely pissed off and they wouldnt even budge, even after writing to corporate, bbb, etc. not only that, but after going through 6 (yes six) touch pros within a span of a few months, i decided that i had enough, even after 10+ years. it was my mom, dad, and i on sero, with them paying $50 each for the 1250 minute plan and me paying $30 for 500 minutes. they were fine leaving, but just made me make sure that i was making the right decision.

i knew that the $30 and $50 sero plans were basically some of the best plans offered, so why would i give them up? well, since the pre came out in june, i thought i would get that and give up the horrendous touch pro (i seriously cant believe i went through 6 of them, i still have the full retail boxes too which are so annoying - i wish they would have just given me a damn refurbished phone instead of the entire thing). little did i know that webos and android wouldnt be eligible on the old sero and only on the new $60 sero. so i thought that if im going to pay double, i might as well go to another carrier that has a better selection of phone(s). i didnt want verizon because they have, to be honest, similar offerings as sprint but charge a lot more. so tmobile and att were my only options. my brother and his wife were on tmobile with unlocked iphones and were really dreading not having 3G work, and not to mention they were getting terrible reception as of late, so i decided to go with att and get an iphone 3GS. i know its horribly expensive, but basically the ONLY reasons i went with them is because of the iphone and how i get 24% off each month through my work. if it werent for those, i would have sucked it up and either stayed with sprint or left to tmobile and got whatever phone i wanted.

each month, after the 24% discount, we pay $120. this is for 700 shared minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, rollover (this helps so much, i couldnt believe it), unlimited data and texting for me, and $9.99 each for my mom and dad to share the minutes. they both dont have data or texting. i use an iphone 3GS 32GB and my mom uses an att/samsung solstice A887 and my dad uses an original iphone 8GB.

 

[her209]

Thanks to everyone with your comments/advices.

Her - you mean sell my Motorola Q9C? Sprint say they could give me $25 credit for that phone.
Not sure I can get anything more than that in open market.

No, if you're planning on keeping your phone and plan for the next 2 years (under no contract) anyway, renew your contract for the 2 years to get a NEW phone and sell the NEW phone. This is assuming the monthly cost for your phone plan doesn't not change after renewal. The profit that you make on the sale of the NEW phone would help to offset your monthly costs.

 

[uli2000]

If you're gonna get a Blackberry, get the Tour. Though they have been kinda buggy. I had to have one replaced. If the Curve they have is the newer 8530 rather than the old 8330, Id get that over the Tour, but the 8330 is almost a doorstop at this point in its life.