Comments on: Costco Selling Contract-Free Phones?

By: PhoneBoy

PhoneBoy — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:37:29 +0000

@spg I’d say the “throw away what you don’t need/use” attitude is prevalent throughout the retail industry. Of course they want you to buy more crap.

Retailers could as well, but often times, retailers don’t sell their own mobile phone inventories–someone else does. Where you’d make a killing on cheap GSM phones? Walmart.

By: spg

spg — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:23:40 +0000

your employer is not the only one who could take the initiative. the retail giants could bring phones in grey market(as circuit city and best buy do with high end models) from parts of the world where contract free cheap gsm phones are the norm such as most of asia. of course lots of these phone would be made by your employer; but it is the retail outlets that also play a major role in creating demand.

spg

p.s. of course i am not going to throw a perfectly good phone in the trash..but it shows the insanity of the retail attitude in the american cellular industry.

By: PhoneBoy

PhoneBoy — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:54:48 +0000

@spg I would not be surprised about foreigners buying the bulk of the contract-free phones right now, given that most Americans love their free-with-ball-and-chain phones and don’t realize that contract-free will save money in the long run.

I wonder what the ‘promotion’ was they were offering. That’s kind of the sticking point with their no-contract postpaid plans. They’re never really clear on what the promotion was.

If you were being told two year contract even without a phone, the sales rep was full of it. AT&T Spokespeople have come out (publicly) saying that as long as you didn’t take a free/cheap phone, you could sign up month-to-month, but you would not get any promotional deals.

The free phone could always be sold on eBay. Why trash it?

And yes, I would LOVE for my employer to start flooding the market with cheap, unlocked phones. Doubt it will happen, but I can dream, can’t I?

By: spg

spg — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:24:37 +0000

circuit city and best buy also sell unlocked(contract free) phones. sources tell me 95% are sold for export purposes to foreigners. americans love their ‘free’ phones. i have also noticed that the electronic stores tend to only sell high end phones contract free. what would really make a difference and get people off contracts is the proliferation of cheap entry level phones sold on a contract free basis. if instead of ‘free’ you could pay pay 50 - 75 dollars but that get a beneficial service agreement we could start to see a change.

actually there is a reality that you can buy locked cheap prepaid phone in the shrink rapped packs and than activate them with a contract. but the carriers are not giving a benefit in the contract when you ‘bring you own device.’ in fact when i inquired at an AT&T store they said i did not have to take the ‘free’ phone they were offering; but that if i did not i could neither get the the promotion they were offering that day and that i would have to pay an activation charge(usually waived) and still be locked in for 2 years. i came out concluding that it would be a lot cheaper to just take the ‘free’ and and than throw directly in the trash as i left the store.

needless to say i am much happier with my prepaid phones on oddball carriers.

spg