Spare parts for older cellphones?

C

CENNY

CAGiversary!
My dad is 81 years old, and a while ago we got him a pay-as-you-go phone for emergencies and occasional use. I guess it needs a new battery because it's not holding a charge anymore. It's a Samsung "Smooth" flip phone.

I know next to nothing about phones (barely use my own prepaid) so could anyone tell me what store I could get parts like batteries for a phone like this? Would a Radio Shack do it, or would I have to go online to ebay or something? Seems to me like most cellphone stores only sell stuff related to the newest hot models or whatever... Thanks for any help.
 
[quote name='CENNY']My dad is 81 years old, and a while ago we got him a pay-as-you-go phone for emergencies and occasional use. I guess it needs a new battery because it's not holding a charge anymore. It's a Samsung "Smooth" flip phone.

I know next to nothing about phones (barely use my own prepaid) so could anyone tell me what store I could get parts like batteries for a phone like this? Would a Radio Shack do it, or would I have to go online to ebay or something? Seems to me like most cellphone stores only sell stuff related to the newest hot models or whatever... Thanks for any help.[/QUOTE]

Your best bet is looking at your phone company (if it's virgin you can defiantly do it, I don't know about the others). See if you can transfer your minutes onto another phone because it might be cheaper to just buy a new phone. Batteries can run upwards of like $15 or so if you can even find one and a new phone would be like $5 more and with less unknowns because your battery will be official.

If you can't try Radio Shack. Your chances will be hit or miss but it's worth a shot.
 
If you have a Batteries Plus store on-hand, that might be another option for trying to find a battery for your phone.

Regardless, I can't see how your cellphone carrier wouldn't allow for swapping minutes from one phone to another. They're making money on the sale, since pre-paid cell phones are usually a bit higher than getting a similar phone on a post-paid contract.
 
Be wary of batteries plus. My Dad (who is also pretty old - 79) bought a battery for his phone and it was $40 and didn't work as well as the original battery did. It lost its charge sooner, etc. Pretty much every battery there is $40.
 
3rd party batteries in general rarely are as good as OEM batteries. I agree with the above post of just getting a new pre paid phone. I know I have bought spare phones for $20 in case anything happens to mine and batteries will cost you close to that.
 
The Samsung Smooth is a Verizon phone. I had the predecessor of it a few years ago. There are models of it that are on other carriers though (T-Mobile has a version of the phone).
If it's active on a Verizon plan (prepaid, postpaid, doesn't really matter), they CAN transfer the minutes to another phone. You can do it online from your account; all you need is the new phone's ESN. It can typically be found under the battery in the phone.

As for getting a new battery, RadioShack might carry a battery, but it might cost more than the phone originally did ($20 I believe). You might be better off just buying a new phone, to be honest.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. Considered my options, and I think the easiest way is just to buy a new phone, same model, and switch out the batteries. Since the old battery isn't really holding a charge but can be used for very short periods or when connected to the outlet, I'll use it with the new phone and whatever free starter minutes come with it (I think $10 worth).
 
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