Find Me A Phone!!!

I think this is one of the most confusing things we confront. Sprint was the best for me because of cost. Then we got that revealing letter from IsrAmeriprius about the PM-325. There are so many cell phone sources on line that offer phones for Cingular and others at very low cost and the plans come with it. Cingular warns me against accepting such plans because their conditions may differ (without explaining exactly how). I am glad I have until July to make a decision, but at this point, I am really confused about what to do. Verizon is rated tops across the board. But if you read the messages in this group alone, it would be foolish to choose Verizon. One message says you can't even use it in the Prius w/o a headset. When I talk with representatives from places like Cingular and Alltel, their arrogance is infuriating. You wonder where that comes from unless you have spent hours in their lobbies watching them sell phone after phone.
Your (Bandgeek) suggestion seems to me to be really on target. But, as you can see, I still am clueless.

 

Pinehurst?

How about having a prius owner's golf excursion? For owners of the prius, not the golf or the excursion.

I chose the Nextel Blackberry 7520. Simply the best fit for me.

Honestly, it is best to use a bluetooth headset. Integrated with the car is nice, but overrated. The audio shuts off, but the air conditioning stays on, creating an effect like you are talking through a tube. Parity is not great either as it seems to cut out whilst someone is talking to you.

The nextel rep I talked to last week said they just came out with another bluetooth enabled model that has the look and feel of a current generation cell phone.

Enjoy your car, and if you ever need a fourth...

 

No to Electric Barbella. Not if I need a fourth, but if you are coming to Pinehurst. I will check but I don't think Nextel is selling in this area either. What I am really wondering right now is how much experience members have had with ordering their phone and plan on-line as opposed to working through a local dealer.
If Prius owners wanted to come to Pinehurst I would see what I could do.

 

You can kill the A/C with your left thumb while answering the phone with your right.

I played with the secret menu for Bluetooth, and was told my tinny sounding voice had gotten louder but not a lot less tinny.

Go to a Cingular corporate store, not a 'satellite' store, to get answers. I've decided not to go to the store 1/2 mile from me unless I need something absolutely every store has: that apparently does not include people with the correct answers.

A 2-year commitment to get a phone cheap is usually worth it, at least when you save $200 or so off the list price of the phone. I have the luxury of a corporate discount via work making the Cingular deal a lot better, but if I had to worry about over-usage charges on some lame plan with no commitment, it'd hardly be a good deal...

 

mikepaul: How do you locate a "corporate" store?

Electric Barbarella: Sorry about misspelling your name.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fredatgolf\";p=\"91152)</div>

Ummm, 'company' store may be closer to the right word. Sorry.

Comparing these two entries from the find-a-store feature on the Cingular website:

1. cingular wireless
2000 clemson rd
suite 8
Columbia, SC 28229,
|Equipment Upgrade|Prepaid|Payments (Cingular Wireless Calling Plans Only)

5. Cingular Wireless
224 O'neil Ct, Stes 26
Columbia, SC 29223, USA
|Equipment Upgrade|Prepaid|Process Insurance Claims|Payments (Cingular Wireless Calling Plans Only)

I see the store that worked best for me (#5) handles Insurance Claims, while the satellite (#1) doesn't. Another store identified as a company store also included Insurance Claims, so maybe that works best to spot the better store...

 

So any Cingular location is a company store and I should make sure they handle insurance claims.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IsrAmeriPrius\";p=\"90905)</div>

Thanks. I'll give it a try.[/b][/quote]

Update. It still will not ring through the car's audio system.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fredatgolf\";p=\"91174)</div>

ANY Cingular store can do some things, but I'd suggest sticking to asking questions at the ones that aren't satellites...

 

Clark Howard, radio Guru on saving money, says never sign more than a one year contract. How can you accomplish that. Everything I see is 2 years.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fredatgolf\";p=\"91180)</div>

Perhaps with the radio gig, he doesn't need equipment discounts.

I'd suggest asking what the deal on a new phone would be on just a one year contract. If they refuse to offer one, walk away shaking your head and see if they call you back...

 

[font=Comic Sans MS:6e0f1d67dd]
As I said before, it's a package. Consider that you'll pay a whole lot more in service fees over the life of the contract than you will for a phone, even without a deal. I wanted the SE S710a phone, and got a very small deal for a 2-year contract since it is a popular phone. The monthly service I figure will be more than six times the price of the phone over two years.

While most carriers really try to push you into a 2-year contract (pretty normal) many also offer 1-year, month-to-month, and pre-paid plans. You'll pay more for the phone, and probably airtime, but you won't be locked into a contract.

But beware: most phones are "locked" to a specific carrier and will only work on that carrier's network. For true independence (is there such a thing?) you'll need to buy an "unlocked" phone at full price and then find a carrier who supports that phone, and they may still want a contract.

Look at the extensive mobile phone discussions on cnet.com. Also, LetsTalk.com has a deal with Toyota and has some interesting deals.

I have no financial interests in the above comments or recommendations.[/font:6e0f1d67dd]

 

For what it's worth, I dumped Alltel years ago when they first bought CellularOne and their customer service went into the dumper...to be followed immediately by their network.

Nobody's mentioned T-Mobile, but I really like them as a carrier and the Motorola V600 I got from them works perfectly with the Prius.

 

My one big regret about either of the two providers I've had so far (Verizon and Cingular) has to be upgrading my phone to one that doesn't include analog to fall back on.

Neither Verizon nor Cingular has 100% reliable digital coverage here. When I had a StarTac, at least it would go into analog mode when I was in the basement at work. Now, I'm just out of reach until I 'surface' to a point where I get a signal.

It's sad that the Nokia 6230 has so much neatness to it, but can't always be relied on to do its phone job...

 

T-Mobile is highly ranked but they have no service here and will not sell me a phone.
Bill Merchant's words are interesting. I didn't know you could buy a phone and search for a carrier. That would be risky for me because there are few carriers here. It sounds like it's a tradeoff of sorts because you pay either for the phone or the plan. It looks I have two options. Buy a phone and a plan from Cingular or buy from a company on line that sells the phone for much less but has a two year contract. The two year contract doesn't seem so bad after all this discussion especially after you consider $175 savings on the v551. I just don't feel comfortable with these internet Cingular sales operations until I hear from someone who has used them.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fredatgolf\";p=\"91270)</div>

Usually buying the phone from the carrier results in a discount on the phone. When you buy elsewhere, you usually end up paying full price.

Beyond that, you need to be sure the phone you get uses the same technology as your carrier. T-Mobile and Cingular are GSM, whereas Verison is TDMA. The nice thing about GSM is you can easily slide the SIM card out of one phone and put it in another. The phone number and personal info go with the SIM card.

 

http://g-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/00/...00010655993.pdf is the current rebate form for Cingular deals through Amazon.

$150 back (see form for details) on top of Amazon's price might be good enough to live with...

Got the Cingular 'welcome' statement today. $36 activation fee. Nearly $10 per month in taxes and fees and such. If it wasn't for my deal through work, which eliminated the activation fee after I called and provides a decent discount, I wouldn't be happy. This information is posted to allow other people to decide how happy they'd be...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fredatgolf\";p=\"91131)</div>

Well, in an imperfect world, we have to compromise. I am with Sprint due to cost and the best national plan around. So I will suffer the deficiencies of the LG PM-325 until the firmware is upgraded in the (hopefully) not too distant future to fix its shortcomings.

By the way, Amazon has a great deal on the Motorola RAZR: Motorola RAZR V3 Phone (Cingular) $50.

 

Whenever I talk to a honest cell vendor- they tell me- ask your neighbors and friends who they like/use that works. Ask your friends! It varies by area. I decided that coverage was a higher priority factor than the phone.

I asked my college students for about a year before I switched to Verizon (CDMA by the way - old ATT had TDMA and GSM). Now I can get signal everywhere where I did not before (I did have old TDMA via ATT,which Cingular has not been servicing, so quality was getting worse and worse).
Motorola V710 shows signal on the screen, and I can use the speakerphone in the car, but not transfer the phone book.

There are other phones in the works at Verzon also, so we will all wait and see.

 

Looks like a great tip on Amazon. Right now I plan to buy plan and phone on Amazon. Anyone have any experience with that?