Cellphone upgrade through Amazon

[Shotline]

Who has upgraded their cellphone through Amazon? How was activation handled? Did you have to change your plan?

I was going to do mine but then it had a "choose a data plan" section and I don't want my data plan to change at all (grandfathered in on the unlimited data).

Should I just go to a store to do it? The phone costs about $100 more at a store.

Thanks.


BTW, I am going for the Samsung Galaxy III 4g 16Gb phone.

 

[aszrael1266]

I am not sure if they will make you change your data plan in a store also if you are going from a non LTE phone to an LTE phone.

 

[mototireguy]

Should I just go to a store to do it? The phone costs about $100 more at a store.

BTW, I am going for the Samsung Galaxy III 4g 16Gb phone.

Nice phone :thumbup

Are you ready for a new 2 year golden handcuffs service contract with required $$$ data-pak extras plan? Check the fine print. This is how packagers like Amazon appear to make these new phones appear cheap(er).

If you already had a free Sprint network phone how much would the month-to-month (non contract) voice/msgs/data service cost be?

The math might show you paying an extra $800 over 2 years that you could have used to buy the S3 phone up front for $400.

 

[MtnRacer]

I did it twice. Once through sprint. Once through Verizon.

SPRINT WAS A GOD DAMN NIGHTMARE.

Verizon went pretty well.

Steve

 

[Shotline]

Nice phone :thumbup

Are you ready for a new 2 year golden handcuffs service contract with required $$$ data-pak extras plan? Check the fine print. This is how packagers like Amazon appear to make these new phones appear cheap(er).

If you already had a free Sprint network phone how much would the month-to-month (non contract) voice/msgs/data service cost be?

The math might show you paying an extra $800 over 2 years that you could have used to buy the S3 phone up front for $400.

Ya, I am trying to run the math now. I want to keep my data plan (unlimited) but if I "upgrade" then I lose the unlimited data and have to go on a tiered plan. While I don't use to much data I like to have the option. I was just on vacation and used over two gigs of data acting as a hotspot for my laptop, my brothers laptop and my son's ipod.

If I buy the phone outright for about $600 I can keep my data plan. Or I can add a line putting the SIII on it and then immediately move it to my line (device only action so doesn't trigger the new data plan) canceling the data service on the new line. I end up having to pay $10 a month for the new line (which gets a basic phone put on it) for two years.

So, either $600 outright

or

New line $10 x 24 months + $280 for the SIII = $520

 

[radvas]

I tried it, but it was about 6 or 7 years ago. It was a total disaster. Verizon scewed it up so bad that after a few days of trying to get it fixed, we had permanently lost the phone numbers we were trying to port to the new plan, and had been assigned 6 new ones - which they kindly billed us for for the next 4 months.

I think it was more Verizon than Amazon, but who knows. Amazon was no help trying to get the phones setup, but they did take the phones back without any problem after a week of trying and finally giving up on Verizon. In that week, the phones never did work at all. After that, I went down to best buy and had two new AT&T phones in less than an hour.

 

[gnahc79]

Bought my wife's phone and mine through Amazon and it went smoothly, about 1.5 yrs ago No change in voice or data plan. I did have to call AT&T to put phone insurance back on for the new phones. Amazon does not do this for you automatically like AT&T does.

 

[rodr]

BTW, I am going for the Samsung Galaxy III 4g 16Gb phone.

Costco has that phone, for Verizon and T-Mobile. You should check with them, typically much better deals than at the carrier's stores.

 

[jafo]

If you have verizon, the only way to keep your unlimited data is purchasing phone at full price/no contract.

 

[Beauregard]

Who has upgraded their cellphone through Amazon? How was activation handled? Did you have to change your plan?

I was going to do mine but then it had a "choose a data plan" section and I don't want my data plan to change at all (grandfathered in on the unlimited data).

Should I just go to a store to do it? The phone costs about $100 more at a store.

Thanks.


BTW, I am going for the Samsung Galaxy III 4g 16Gb phone.

Go to Costco. Same phone, costs 20-25% less.

This is my personal experience.

 

[cynner]

I just upgraded via Amazon - their prices for the phones I compared were all a LOT less than Costco or Verizon. I compared the cost of plans and Costco wasn't any cheaper for me.

I got a one-cent phone that's infinitely faster than my old one and doesn't crash. The transition from the old phone to the new one was seamless.

I no longer have unlimited data on my new contract, but I never really needed it. YMMV.

 

[wazzuFreddo]

I just bought Simple Mobile and H2O Wireless sim cards today. Going to try out this MVNO stuff and see how it goes.