Ugh ... Best Buy®
Best Buy® has this phone (in my area) for $199 through 01.08.05 with a $50 gift card, but ONLY with NEW activation. Why!?! It is a $35 difference (activation fee). Why not up the price $35 and try to push the poor phone out to consumers that are willing to take a chance with it? When the lil' nerd told me it had to be a new activation as opposed to a contract renewal, I just shook my head and walked away. Of course, I know it is not the nerd's fault.
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Best buy is a national retailer of many lines of product.
At my best guess, BB does not make enough money to sell the phone as an upgrade. BB has to go through contract negotiations with their wireless carriers. They do this so the company can get PAID when they sell a wireless poduct.
Most carriers get paid less on an upgrade than a new activation. In logical sense, BB won't up the price of the phone to cover the difference in cost between an upgrade vs an activation.
At my best guess, BB does not make enough money to sell the phone as an upgrade. BB has to go through contract negotiations with their wireless carriers. They do this so the company can get PAID when they sell a wireless poduct.
Most carriers get paid less on an upgrade than a new activation. In logical sense, BB won't up the price of the phone to cover the difference in cost between an upgrade vs an activation.
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It's more than a $35 difference. First of all, if you're only looking at fees there's only an $18 difference. So if that was the case they'd only be bumping it up $18 for existing customers. The real difference is Best Buy is a Cingular Agent and they're paid different amounts for Activations than Upgrades. The was also a likely stipulation that you had to sign up on the $59.99 rate plan or higher. If this was the case the difference is actually around $80. Of course, since they are an Agent pricing would be set by Best Buy. Whatever price they chose to sell it to you for is up to them, not Cingular.
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