Upgrade

I have had my phone since last may and i hate it. Can I just go into a
store and buy a new phone at full price and have everything transeferred to
that phone? If I wanted a blackberry and I wanted to upgrade my plan, would
they let me do that or would I be better off adding a line just for the bb?
The cheapest BB online was 299.99 with a 2 year plan, does anyone know what
it would be w/o it?

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› See More: Upgrade

Could you take your current plan and set it to the minimum plan for the rest
of the contract, then get your new phone under a new contract? Set the old
phone to call forward to the new number. Get rid of the old phone/contract
when it expires.

My biggest gripe with Cingular (and the others) is they have no plan for
those who want to stay with the provider; but upgrade phones regularly. I'd
be happy to trade in some of my Cingular roll over minutes towards a phone
upgrade.

Don
"Dead Weight" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I have had my phone since last may and i hate it. Can I just go into a
>store and buy a new phone at full price and have everything transeferred to
>that phone? If I wanted a blackberry and I wanted to upgrade my plan,
>would they let me do that or would I be better off adding a line just for
>the bb? The cheapest BB online was 299.99 with a 2 year plan, does anyone
>know what it would be w/o it?
>

Don Udel (ETC) wrote:
> My biggest gripe with Cingular (and the others) is they have no plan
for
> those who want to stay with the provider; but upgrade phones
regularly. I'd
> be happy to trade in some of my Cingular roll over minutes towards a
phone
> upgrade.

One of the great joys of Cingular is that they're all GSM. Go buy
yourself whatever phone you like, whenever you like, and pop your SIM
in. Of course there's no guarantee that every function will operate
properly, and Cingular isn't going to provide tech support for phones
they don't sell, but you're not locked in to a single phone. You'll
also pay full price, but that long contract term is there so Cingular
can recoup the subsidy that made your phone "free" in the first place.

You can upgrade your phone at the "new customer" rate every year or
two. Go to the Cingular website, log into your account, and look for
the "upgrade phone" option. That will tell you when you're eligible for
the subsidized rate (and getting locked into another year or two of
contract).

Buying a second account and letting the first whither away won't help
since they track _you_, not your account number. Try to open a second
account and they'll see you're a current customer. You need to close
your account for 90(?) days before they'll give you the new customer
discounts.

tg.

> Buying a second account and letting the first whither away won't help
> since they track _you_, not your account number. Try to open a second
> account and they'll see you're a current customer. You need to close
> your account for 90(?) days before they'll give you the new customer
> discounts.

Can't you actually have two separate plans on the same account? I used
to do that with Preferred Nation and GAIT Nation. Two separate plans,
full price of the plans, but I was not in a contract because I provided
my own phones. It might have made the difference of having 2 separate
and incompatible plans.

TH

Thanks for the info. When I checked on my upgrade status (2 yr contract), I
had to be 18-24 months into the contract. Now if Cingular wants you to
upgrade the phone (like when I had a 6340 and they wanted to move me to a
6340i) then no problem.

My thought on the rollover minutes is that they are like frequent flier
miles. Cingular keeps them on the books as a liability (as do airlines with
FF miles, or companies with accrued vacation time). They could recoup their
subsidised rate by reclaiming some rollover minutes from your account.

Don
<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Don Udel (ETC) wrote:
>> My biggest gripe with Cingular (and the others) is they have no plan
> for
>> those who want to stay with the provider; but upgrade phones
> regularly. I'd
>> be happy to trade in some of my Cingular roll over minutes towards a
> phone
>> upgrade.
>
> One of the great joys of Cingular is that they're all GSM. Go buy
> yourself whatever phone you like, whenever you like, and pop your SIM
> in. Of course there's no guarantee that every function will operate
> properly, and Cingular isn't going to provide tech support for phones
> they don't sell, but you're not locked in to a single phone. You'll
> also pay full price, but that long contract term is there so Cingular
> can recoup the subsidy that made your phone "free" in the first place.
>
> You can upgrade your phone at the "new customer" rate every year or
> two. Go to the Cingular website, log into your account, and look for
> the "upgrade phone" option. That will tell you when you're eligible for
> the subsidized rate (and getting locked into another year or two of
> contract).
>
> Buying a second account and letting the first whither away won't help
> since they track _you_, not your account number. Try to open a second
> account and they'll see you're a current customer. You need to close
> your account for 90(?) days before they'll give you the new customer
> discounts.
>
> tg.
>

Tropical Haven wrote:
> Can't you actually have two separate plans on the same account?

Yes, that might work. Add a line as a $10 family plan, get the phone
you want, and ignore the line. It might bump you to a higher rate plan,
so work the numbers for your specific case.

tg.

ETC - News wrote:
> My thought on the rollover minutes is that they are like frequent
flier
> miles. Cingular keeps them on the books as a liability (as do
airlines with
> FF miles, or companies with accrued vacation time). They could
recoup their
> subsidised rate by reclaiming some rollover minutes from your
account.

The companies are also counting on your not cashing in the
miles/minutes/vacation so the liability expires. By allowing you to use
the minutes to buy a phone the liability is real, and costs the company
money. Don't expect it to happen.

Rollover is a (very effective) gimmick to keep you happy with the
service. Since carriers are losing money with family plans they need to
make it up by selling you more minutes than you need (or keep the pain
tolerable when you go over). That's another reason they're not going to
divert those rollover minutes to cash.

tg.

>>Can't you actually have two separate plans on the same account?
>
>
> Yes, that might work. Add a line as a $10 family plan, get the phone
> you want, and ignore the line. It might bump you to a higher rate plan,
> so work the numbers for your specific case.


Oh...I was referring to the example where one might nave a North
American Plan and a Cingular Nation plan, but they would be listed on
the same account. Of course, both plans would be full price.

TH