buy a cellphone off ebay

[Soxguy]

anyone ever do this? My provider is cingular and long story short, my phones dead and isnt under warranty and isnt insured. i i have 11 months left off my contract so i need a phone. what do i need to look for? How do i know if it will work with cingular? I hear talk of locked and unlocked phones and it just confused me. anyone got any advice?

[Soxy]

anyone ever do this?  My provider is cingular and long story short, my phones dead and isnt under warranty and isnt insured.  i i have 11 months left off my contract so i need a phone.  what do i need to look for?  How do i know if it will work with cingular?  I hear talk of locked and unlocked phones and it just confused me. anyone got any advice?

I don't know how long you've been with Cingular, but if you signed a two year contract you're eligible for a free phone after (I think 19 months).

 

Sorry, never tried the e-bay thing.

[WilliamTell]

There are many things I'd never buy off of ebay and a cell phone is one of them. But I've only bought like 2 things off ebay so I rarely ever use ebay.

[Soxguy]

its only been about 12 and 1/2 months since my last phone so no upgrade

[SoxFanForever]

its only been about 12 and 1/2 months since my last phone so no upgrade

If you have your PIN Card i'm pretty sure you can transfer it from one phone to another without too much hassle unless it is a phone like the T-Mobile Sidekick style stuff. I think it varys on a phone to phone basis. Best bet would to go into one of their stores and ask a worker or call someone at Cingular. That or try to contact the seller of the phone on ebay.

[southsider2k5]

Signing up with Cingular was you first mistake. Call them daily and b**** about every single thing that goes wrong and try to get out of your contract. They are basically a criminal organization as far as I am concerned. Their customer service personel use fake names, so that when they tell you they are going to do something, you can find them to prove it.

 

Don't EVER sign up with Cingular wireless.

[mreye]

Signing up with Cingular was you first mistake.  Call them daily and b**** about every single thing that goes wrong and try to get out of your contract.  They are basically a criminal organization as far as I am concerned.  Their customer service personel use fake names, so that when they tell you they are going to do something, you can find them to prove it.

 

Don't EVER sign up with Cingular wireless.

I've never had a problem with them.

[southsider2k5]

I've never had a problem with them.

 

We had problems from day one, and they lied to us every step of the way. Even up to the end they were trying to scam us.

[mreye]

We had problems from day one, and they lied to us every step of the way.  Even up to the end they were trying to scam us.

That's how I felt about Verizon. To each his own, I guess, but it's probably just you.

[Steff]

That's how I felt about Verizon. To each his own, I guess, but it's probably just you.

 

 

 

It is.. we have them also and have no problems. Also.. I got 2 new phones within 3 months so if you do a little complaining they will likely hook you up with just a $20 activation fee.

[southsider2k5]

It is.. we have them also and have no problems. Also.. I got 2 new phones within 3 months so if you do a little complaining they will likely hook you up with just a $20 activation fee.

 

We STARTED complaining the second day we had the phones. At first they told us that we had to complain to the store we bought the phones at. Then after the first month the store told us that we had to call the company and complain. Then after we started calling the company they told us because it was after the first month they couldn't do anything for us. They could sell us new phones for full price, or we could buy out of our contract for the full price of $150 a phone. We called them every couple of weeks to every month for almost a year, before they FINALLY offered to send us different phones a month before our contract was up, only if we would renew our contract for not one, but two years. Finally after a particularly long argueing session making it up three layers of management they offered to let us out of our contract for no charge. We took down the name of the person who told us that. At first she refused to give us anything more than her first name. She wouldn't give us her email address or a direct line to get ahold of her. Finally she gave us a last name after much more arguing. Of course when we got our finally bill, there were $300 in charges plus taxes in addition to our last months bill. So we called them back and the name that she gave us didn't exsist, and she hadn't noted our account for anything at all, except for the disconnection. And she didn't even note that she had ordered it. After a bunch of research and arguing the guy finally found her email address noted to something in our account. The guy even accidentally admitted that they don't always give their real names. After that the guy who was helping us had the gall to ask if we wanted to pay the final bill over the phone. We told him we wouldn't pay a dime until their was a new bill in our hands that had the correct totals for everything. It took them three days of phone calls to "find" the mystery woman, and it took another two weeks to get a corrected bill.

 

I can't tell you how many hours we wasted trying to get ANYTHING done with them, and I will make sure I tell everyone I can my stories just to make sure no one ever makes the mistake of getting them for service.

[sox4lifeinPA]

I blame George W Bush... he started Cingular

[kapkomet]

We STARTED complaining the second day we had the phones.  At first they told us that we had to complain to the store we bought the phones at.  Then after the first month the store told us that we had to call the company and complain.  Then after we started calling the company they told us because it was after the first month they couldn't do anything for us.  They could sell us new phones for full price, or we could buy out of our contract for the full price of $150 a phone.  We called them every couple of weeks to every month for almost a year, before they FINALLY offered to send us different phones a month before our contract was up, only if we would renew our contract for not one, but two years.  Finally after a particularly long argueing session making it up three layers of management they offered to let us out of our contract for no charge.  We took down the name of the person who told us that. At first she refused to give us anything more than her first name.  She wouldn't give us her email address or a direct line to get ahold of her.  Finally she gave us a last name after much more arguing.   Of course when we got our finally bill, there were $300 in charges plus taxes in addition to our last months bill.  So we called them back and the name that she gave us didn't exsist, and she hadn't noted our account for anything at all, except for the disconnection.  And she didn't even note that she had ordered it.  After a bunch of research and arguing the guy finally found her email address noted to something in our account.  The guy even accidentally admitted that they don't always give their real names.  After that the guy who was helping us had the gall to ask if we wanted to pay the final bill over the phone.  We told him we wouldn't pay a dime until their was a new bill in our hands that had the correct totals for everything.  It took them three days of phone calls to "find" the mystery woman, and it took another two weeks to get a corrected bill.

 

I can't tell you how many hours we wasted trying to get ANYTHING done with them, and I will make sure I tell everyone I can my stories just to make sure no one ever makes the mistake of getting them for service.

 

We had some of the same things happen with Cingular.

 

Not quite that drastic, but similiar things.

 

And their service is HORRIBLE - dropped calls ALL of the time. I dropped at least two calls per day.

[southsideirish71]

We had some of the same things happen with Cingular.

 

Not quite that drastic, but similiar things.

 

And their service is HORRIBLE - dropped calls ALL of the time.  I dropped at least two calls per day.

 

 

I have Sprint PCS which works great, the data service is fast and provides great content. Then of course my company forces all of their IT staff to use only Cingular phones. Now my useless Cingular phone gets only one bar of signal in my house. Most of the calls only go to voicemail, which also never notifies you when you get a message. I wind up calling people back on my home phone or my sprint phone which is useless because most of the calls I get when I am on call are out of country and last for hours on end. Cingular sucks. I am still trying to convince my company to let me use my Sprint phone and bill it back. It also would be a hell of a lot cheaper considering my Cingular service with data costs more than the combined service from Sprint my wife and I share. No logic here.

[sox4lifeinPA]

the worst thing about a dropped call is never being able to call the person back... no wait, you can do that.

[Texsox]

Signing up with Cingular was you first mistake.  Call them daily and b**** about every single thing that goes wrong and try to get out of your contract.  They are basically a criminal organization as far as I am concerned.  Their customer service personel use fake names, so that when they tell you they are going to do something, you can find them to prove it.

 

Don't EVER sign up with Cingular wireless.

 

Never had a problem with them. From time to time, I've put my "extra" phones on Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon and always came back to Cingular. It is probably the area you live. Verizon was by far the worst service I have had in 15 years.

[nitetrain8601]

Okay, back to the topic. There's a couple things.

 

1)It's safe to buy a cell phone off of ebay if you buy the right one.

2)You're going to need a phone that's unlocked, uses Sim cards(only T-Mobile and Cingular use Sim Cards in the U.S.) and use the same band as Cingular.

 

If you want more help, go to howardforums.com

[Heads22]

I have US Cellular, and no problems so far, although I've never had service problems outside of Iowa-Iowa State gameday.

[SoxFan1]

Hmmm, Cingular has been the best for me. 5 bars nearly all the damn time. I live on the SE side of Chicago and I still get 5 bars in Dixon, IL, LaCrosse, WI, and in the UP of Michigan. Service is fine and extras and such are spectacular. To each his own with phone companies though.