Buying a New Phone

[WinnieThePujols]

I always had this misconception that like... you had to buy a phone through the place you got your phone from, otherwise they were "locked" or something and you couldn't use them.

However, a friend of mine sold me an old phone for $5... it doesn't seem to work and it's kind of old anyway, so I was thinking of looking online.

Can you get get phones through eBay that are significantly cheaper than in stores, and then bring it in and have them activate the phone under your account? I know they charge like $30 to activate, but still... I'd imagine you could save a lot of money.

I go through Alltel Wireless...

So can someone explain the process?

Thanks in advance..

 

[ryanbph]

tfl, like to know the answer as well

 

[Graystone]

You can buy a phones off ebay and use them they need to be unlocked. it has to be a phone that the company you want to start a contract with has carried in the past. I wouldn't buy a phone thats over 2 years old. You can't buy a sprint phone then use it with cingular it won't work.

The problem with buying phones off ebay is if its a stolen phone then you'll never be able to get it activated. The only way to find out if it works it ask the seller for the Dec or Hex serial numbers on the back of the phone. Then call the cell phone provider and ask them to check those numbers. If they're not locked then you can buy the phone, call the phone provider, or take it to one of their stores. They'll activate it. What type of phone are you looking at?

 

[cthcky33]

i sell phones for a living so i will try to shed some light on this:

Alltel uses a CDMA network (no sim card)

therefore an "unlocked" phone will not work in your case

it has to be an Alltel branded phone, tho u can still get one on ebay

one thing to look out for is a CDMA phone can not be activated if the ESN(serial number for the phone) has been reported stolen or anything of that nature)

some people do sell phones with bad ESNs on ebay, and that would just be a waste of ur money



the concept of unlocked phones applies to carriers that use a GSM network (cingular or tmobile), and those phones have a little chip in the back that stores what your phone number is, therefore you can use just about any gsm phone and it work perfectly fine




that may have been confusing, any more questions?