Cingular cell phone service - EBay phone offers...

Author

EBay phone offers...

Jeremy.Deats@gmail.com

2006-08-20, 10:33 pm

Coworker of mine followed a link on ebay... One of Cinguilar's phones
was offered for $1.00 with service activation for the auction item....

Cell phones are offered at reduced cost with new contract all the time,
but this phone was one hasn't been in the area (at least recently). Two
weeks earlier I paid $280 out-of-the door fot the same phone with
contract renewal at a local Cingular store, the phone ( Cingular 2125 )
currently retails for $399, but instant rebates brought the phone down
to $280 walk-out with $130 of that coming back over the next "four to
eight weeks" in mail-in rebates (total cost of $150 after all rebates
applied). This is the offer all the Cingular retail stores in my area
have, at least the six of them I called before buying, but I digress.

So, doing a BUY-IT-NOW on the $1.00 link offering this model phone for
free, got my friend a link to an offer at www.cellphonehookup.com
(hosted by InPhonic... not sure what the relationship with InPhonic is,
but cellphonehookup had different offers). The same offer he got is
available to anyone who browsers to their site, so the $1.00 BUY-IT-NOW
on EBay appears to be an advertising technique and a means to build
positive feedback (clever, works.. I see quite a few other on-line
retailers doing the same thing)

So the deal he got had some mail-in rebates attached, but it was still
a much better deal than I ended up with.. The phone truned out to be
$109 out of pocket with with three main-in rebates bringing the cost
down to $0. One of the rebates was from Cingular for $50, the othe two
were from this retailer and they had some extra string attached (you
have to wait untill certant points in future billing cycles before you
can claim each one.... so there's a window of time making it so you
won't be able to redeem all the rebates for about six months).

Phone arrived for him as advertised (I was there), product was factory
sealed, all his rebate information was carefully included with detailed
instructions for him with a very clear itemized receipt. He also told
me customer service was very good as he had to call and make a change
to his address after the order was placed. Phone arrived exactly when
they said it would and everything went smooth for him. In you consider
time as money, he also was saved the hassel of driving to the Cingular
store and waiting for service, all of which took me about an hour and a
half.

Don't know why I'm posting this here, it may come across like SPAM,
it's not... It's just when there are good deals to be had I hate for
people to miss out.

Amistad

2006-08-21, 4:33 am

<Jeremy.Deats@gmail.com> dropped by to say, in part:

> Don't know why I'm posting this here, it may come across like SPAM,
> it's not... It's just when there are good deals to be had I hate for
> people to miss out.

I've looked at lots of those cellular ads on eBay, and have been skeptical.
Thanks for posting your friend's experience in that regard.

Amistad

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