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refurbished cell online

July 12, 2011 08:47AM
hey all im looking to get a better phone but i want one cheap... radio shack used to sell used cells now they dont...

my carrier is sprint... and i have no clue how to determine if the phone i buy will be eligible to activate on my service...

im only interested in using amazon... ebay is to shady... the website for sprint has one that looks interesting for 50 but im not sure...

had an instinct and that was a crappy phone... but i would like to get an android phone..

any suggestions would be appreciated..

shopping north west PA and south west ny
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July 12, 2011 12:09PM
As far as eligibility with your carrier is concerned, the phone needs to be "unlocked". Smart phones require a data plan also, which can be about $30 more per month than text and talk plans.
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July 13, 2011 05:02AM
oh im not concerned about the plan... i have their everything plan... unlimeted everything 70+fees and tax with is about 80... its better to have a flat rate then have sticker shock if you suddenly go over... my old plan when i first signed up was 5 dollars for every 100 min over the plan... now i think it is .45 a min... sad...

and most unlocked phones will not work on the sprint network... not sure why...

shopping north west PA and south west ny
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July 13, 2011 06:02AM
I bought my phone used on eBay. It worked out pretty well.
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July 20, 2011 02:55AM
Sorry for the techno babble, but......

AT&T and TMobile use GSM technology, as well as most of the world.

Sprint & Verizon use CDMA technology, along with maybe 5 other countries.

The term "unlocked" is used in conjunction with GSM.

You can probably have a CDMA phone "reprogrammed" but that requires $ or technical ability and software. CDMA phones are preprogrammed with a list of towers they can connect to. GSM just connects to whatever it can find.

Simply stated, you need to find a phone that is SPRINT branded. Anything else and you may be wasting your money.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2011 02:58AM by data1025.
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July 20, 2011 05:31PM
oh i know... i was looking at one used and luckily found it had a bad esn before i bought it...

hopefully i will switch to verizon pretty soon... im sick of 3g speeds...

shopping north west PA and south west ny
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July 21, 2011 01:51AM
Ya, you were lucky. I am still living in an area where 1g speed is the highest available. It makes my Blackberry so unattractive..
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July 21, 2011 06:42AM
T-Mobile only has EDGE here, sometimes only GPRS, and in many areas near us there is no signal. I am weary of hearing their ads touting theit having the world's largest 4G network. Their customer service and prices have been great through the many years, but....aaaargh.

Dude, have you checked Craig's List? 'Course, you only want to meet sellers at well-lit, public places. LOL

The Samsung Galaxy S phones are great. Hubby and I each have a Vibrant. Sprint's version of it is the Epic. It's a snappy phone with a fast processor.
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July 21, 2011 06:06PM
yeah i just shot off a couple of emails on craigs list... ebay is to expensive...

epic is out of my price range...

looks like the best one for me is the lg optimus s... it has better ratings than the rest of the other phones for sprint that are not overly priced... i had an intercept and it was horrible... freezing, overheating, not loading pages right... the works... i should have looked at the reviews... its the only phone they have that is 2 stars out of 5... stupid that they keep selling them..

shopping north west PA and south west ny
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July 22, 2011 03:58AM
Have you considered getting a prepaid phone through Virgin Mobile? They have a $35/mo unlimited data/text deal. It's the Sprint network they use. I did a shop at Radio Shack and the salesman told me how the Optimus V supports tethering to a laptop or a netbook, connecting the device to the network.
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July 23, 2011 03:53AM
yeah but it is 179, plus the service... and i would have to pay out 150 to cancel my contract... to much money...

shopping north west PA and south west ny
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July 30, 2011 04:31AM
Hey, I meant to mention this earlier.

There are sites where you can find someone willing to finish out your contract. If you're ready to switch, might that be an option? Here are a couple such facilitators of such services. I heard about them on Clark Howard's radio show: [celltradeusa.com] and [cellswapper.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2011 06:36PM by TechSavvy.
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