I’ve decided (with some reluctance) that it is time for me to finally enter the late 20th century and get a cellphone. As I’ll be starting to look for a summer job, it’ll very likely come in handy; there’ve been plenty of other times when I’ve somewhat wished for one anyhow. So!
I’m starting to take a look at these things, and I’ve found a site (I’m sure there are more like it) that seems to be offering a better deal than the Cingular site itself. The site is here, here with reference to the particular deal I’m looking at.
At a glimpse, the plans seem to be standard cingular plans, but the deal on the phone is better. (Free vs. a discount.) I’m completely naive on the cellphone thing, so I thought it might be wise to check with the knowledgable folks here at the dope.
Your thoughts, as always, are appreciated. 
Apologies. The first ‘here’ is the original site; the second ‘here’ is the place it links to.
Bad lemur for not editing. :smack:
A plan is a plan, regardless of who’s selling it to you initially. Your contract will be with Cingular, and outside of some odd promotion it will be the same as the rest of their contracts. The various online cell phone retailers are basically middlemen to sell that contract, and cheap/free phones are their incentive for you. I think most of the time these retailers get some kind of long-term commission for selling to long-term, reliable customers; they sometimes pass part of this on as rebates to move more contracts.
I bought a phone from LetsTalk.com with a Verizon plan earlier this year. The phone came quickly enough, and it had a $100 rebate that was contingent on me paying my bill on time for a minimum of four months. They were pretty good about the rebate, with a site you can log into that lays out any conditions and gives your specific forms; the rebate came reasonably quickly once I was able to send it in. The only times I had to deal with letstalk were for the initial purchase and the rebate.
OTOH, my mom and sister had issues with that site when I recommended it for them. They had to deal with a lot of inventory incompetence and general bullshit for several weeks, where some phone that was listed as in stock turned out to be… not so in stock. After repeated rounds of “We’re getting more in just a few days” from customer service flunkies, someone finally told them that particular model was discontinued, and they chose another phone. At least it came promptly and with free overnight shipping once I bitched at them enough.
So… I can’t particularly recommend that site, but perhaps ours was a fluke experience. I’m sure there are plenty of other reliable sites; just check various seller ratings before deciding.
As an aside… I have a feeling that the plethora of different dealers are just different fronts for the same handful of companies. They all seem to have the same exact store interface…
Another word of warning… My first bill, for my $40/month broke-ass college student plan, was something like $130 :eek: . Turns out that Verizon starts off by billing you for the first two months in advance, and there’s always the activation fee and various surcharges. After that they only bill you for the previous month, which is a relief, but it was still something of a shock. I don’t know if Cingular does the same thing, but it’s something you might want to be prepared for.
I had a reasonably good experience with Wirefly.com, getting a phone.
The “reasonably” part is that I had to fill out three separate rebate forms, two at the time of the contract, and one after three months of paying my bill on time, and I didn’t get the last rebate check (for paying my bill) for almost five months after sending it in. I did get it eventually, though.
I also got an excellent plan that I haven’t been able to reproduce anywhere else. 1500 minutes a month for $40.
Thanks for the help, guys. There do seem to be a lot of interesting similarities in site design between the two or three I looked at, too–very interesting.