Having to buy a new phone to change contract?

Went to Best Buy today with my dad since he's making me purchase a phone now that I have my own car so I can use it in case of emergencies, and I've had my eyes set on the Motorola Razr. My dad already has a contract with Cingular for $39.99 a month, and we were trying to upgrade it to a family plan for $79.99 a month for both of us. When the person helping us out at Best Buy was on the phone with Cingular trying to set this up for us the representative on the other line told him that in order for us to change the contract to a family plan my dad would have to purchase a new phone because the one he currently (rarely) uses is "outdated". Fine. So he told the Best Buy guy to sell him the cheapest phone they had, which was ten bucks. Of course they didn't have any more in and the next highest phone was almost $100 so obviously my dad was pissed at that and left. I just don't understand why exactly he'd need to get a new phone when the current one works fine...

Oh well, going to Sprint tomorrow I guess.

what is the model on the phone?

It is either a tdma phone or a gait phone. Cingular is getting rid of that system... and even though the phone is still working, a tdma phone (old system) will not work on a gsm (new system) plan.

Now, another problem may have been that Best Buy can only do new activations (that's what your phone would have been), but cannot do upgrades (ie your dad's phone - he is already with cingular). What you would probably have to do is go to a cingular store to upgrade your dad's phone, then go to best buy & add your line (you will get the razr for about $100 cheaper @ best buy vs. a cingular store).

I guess I need to know what the phone model is... because if it is a nokia 6340 or a sony ericsson t62...there may be a way around it...

Good point JSWILSON, this is like what Verizon is doing with all of their old handsets that are not e911 capable, they are not allowing you to activate them anymore except in their case it's more of an FCC policy than network changes....

Hey Anagnos,
You got it right.
If your Cell phone company demands you buy a new PHONE or upgrade to a NEW contract..... Be sure to shop around... for competitive cell phone carriers.
Since the Cingular acquisition of ATT Wireless.... I have been forced out too..
I'm looking and T-Mobile and Virgin.
My cousin's have 2 old Virgin phones.... one just moved from Northern California to Arizona..... They talk all they want for $20 per quarter...

-Cingular Sucks ******

Hope all goes well for the Nextel and Sprint folks.....
I know many Nextel users that will flip if the level of Service drops on them.