People think because we provide a service we have to provide the equipment too. Which of course is not true. We do this and do it at discount so the customer doesn't have to go to the manufacturer to get a phone.

I just wish people would realize we pay money to have stores up and running to provide retail priced phones that WE bought (at a discount as well because we buy in bulk but besides that point) and sell it at cheap low prices. I mean like look at the RAZR, $200.00 DAMN $300.00 off a $500.00 phone for 2 yr service agreement. To top it off this phone has a metal case so durability is super high and the fact that someone told me this phone was thrown by a dealer, had a call placed on it that worked and continued to work after that, j...
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You think that's bad? I had a customer COMPLETELY flip out on me and threaten to sue because I informed her that we couldn't cancel her order. Now let me go ahead and give you the background on this so both employee and customer reading this will understand. I work in telesales. Telesales is one of the department hardest hit by fraud, simply because we do sales over the phone. They don't have to walk into a store and provide ID, they just give us their information verbally, and we go ahead and process an order for them. Because of the high fraud rate, Cingular has instituted a no alreration policy on orders. Once an order is placed, it's placed. You cannot change the address, cancel it, or otherwise alter it. This is because alot of...
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Link said:
People think because we provide a service we have to provide the equipment too. Which of course is not true. We do this and do it at discount so the customer doesn't have to go to the manufacturer to get a phone.

But the service providers have instilled this thought because the only "official" way that most customers know where to get a phone is from the service provider. Its not like someone can go to Circuit City and pick up a Nokia or a SE just off the shelf like you would a home phone. No instead, customers ask about the phone and the come back is: "do you have service, are you under contract, are you eligible for a discounted upgrade..."

And the fact that my phone, which is a LG 4500...
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almost, but not quite.

With Cingy you can pick up an unlocked phone from the manufacturers website or on ebay.

Same with USCC, Altel, Verizion or any other CDMA carrier, you just have to know how to get the phone flashed for that particular network.

Have u ever tried to purchase a phone from the manufacturer? I have, they told me to go through a third party vendor. Thats why eBay is popular. (I tried with Samsung, Moto, and LG... their responses were all the same... they do not sell cell phones direct to the consumer. One lady added "on request by the wireless carrier" In this case it was Samsung for VZW phone.)

As for eBay... there is no guarantee that it is a new phone, or phone that wasn't stolen... so no I don't really buy the eBay thing.

Now I understand that there is mobileburn.com and wirefly.com and a couple of others where u can get ur "own" phone but they are more exceptions to the rule... especially considering that probably less than 2% of the wireless subscribers...
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While I've never bought a phone from a manufacturer (i get a better price working for the company), I've seen prices on handsets on manufacturers websites. That may only apply to models which aren't available through wireless carriers.

Also, a provider selling a handset is no different than any other store selling a product they did not make. The warranties are provided by the store you buy it from, but it's still not their product.