JGordon

My cell phone fell out of my pocket in a cab in D.C. last week during a business trip, and I've about exhausted all possible options of getting it back. This was a new phone that I bought at the end of May with a 2/year contract extension (cingular), so I think I'm pretty much out of luck as far as getting any sort of "activation" deals.

I just want to get another of the same phone (Motorola V551) or possibly a Motorola RAZR if the price isn't too much more. But how do I do this without getting screwed? If I still had my sim card I could just buy a phone on e-bay and plug it in, but obviously the sim card was in the phone so I no longer have it. How do I go about getting a new sim card? Do I have to go through a store like Car Toys or something? Any ideas? I'd like to do this reasonably quickly as I don't even have a house phone, so I'm trying to conduct my life through the work phone at the moment. That would be fine if my life only existed from 9-5 M-F, but alas, I sometimes like to do things on the weekend or the evenings.

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm a total newb when it comes to this crap. Any help is appreciated!

Cliffs - lost cell phone (including sim card), need new one

IluvJae

Did u have insurance cus if so it should be like $50 for a replacement.

Brad

ive been selling phones for about 4 years. so i'll see what i can do to help here.

you're screwed.


haha seriously though, you're gonna have a tough time getting a phone at a decent price. in all honesty the least expensive way to go would be to buy a used phone from someone you know and then go to a cingular store and buy a sim card for 30 bucks.

retail prices of cell phones are rediculous, and since you just recently signed a new contract, no one is gonna be willing to give you an exception upgrade.

i take it you do not have the equipment insurance for $4/month?

the other option you have is to cancel your line completely ($150 early termination fee) and get a new line. if you do this, make sure you get the new line before you cancel the old one, cuz once you cancel a line, the number is cancelled and you no longer own it.

i dont want to get anyone in trouble, so i'll keep names out of this.. but if you happen to know anyone that works at a best buy.... and they happen to be a bit crooked as well.. you can have them ring the phone up as a new activation on the register, which gives you the phone at a heavy discount AND a free SIM... and then you just walk out of the store with new phone and sim, call cingular and say you just bought a new sim from a store and a phone off ebay and need to activate it in your name.

this is a bit risky for the best buy employee, but it works...

if you were still in this area i could put you in touch with the right people, but its not gonna do you any good if you're in CO.

IluvJae

Me and you need to talk business.

JGordon

Heh... that's kinda what I figured. And I don't know anyone at Best Buy nor am I planning on going back to the East Coast anytime soon, so I'm out of luck there. But what you're saying is if I obtain an unlocked phone, I can just purchase a sim card from Best Buy for $30, call up cingular & activate it?

I might just take the monetary hit and do that. You don't happen to know anywhere else I can get phones for reasonable prices aside from ebay, or have any favorite e-bay phone sellers, eh?

If you come up with any other ideas, please let me know. Thanks for your help!

Anthony

errr did u put ur account on hold for a lost phone? because if you don't someone may be spending ur minutes

Misa

1. call cingular to put the number on hold
2. nicely ask if they can give you a replacement sim card
3. search ebay for a replacement phone

JGordon

I did for a while, but that meant that when people called my cell all they would get is a busy signal. Since this is my only contact number for a lot of people, I can't have that. I took the hold off so that people could get to my voicemail and leave me messages and whatnot. I can view the calls made from my phone online, and that is supposedly up to date within a few hours, so I'm checking that a couple times a day. No calls since I lost the phone yet, and it's been six days. I talked to the cingular rep, and he said that if someone did start making calls I could suspend it again and it wouldn't be a hassle to get the charges taken off.

Brad

yes. you can buy a sim card for 30 dollars from any cingular retailer. stick it in an unlocked GSM phone, call cingular and give them the number and they'll activate it onto your name and number.

i have not done anything with cell phones on ebay at all. sorry i can't help ya there

good luck bro!

randomtask77

I guess you could try www.buyusedphone.com