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Cell Phones / VoIP July 25, 2007 10:00 PM

Before You Buy a Cell Phone

Today's wireless phones? Cool. Shopping for them? Complicated. Here's what you need to know about carriers, plans, data networks, contracts, and more. Grace Aquino, PC World

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Illustration: Marc Rosenthal
Shopping for a new phone can be fun--but it can also be exhausting and frustrating. That's because picking a phone is just the start of the buying decision. You also have to settle on which carrier or cell phone service to go with, where to shop, and which voice and data services to choose. Do you get better deals online, in a store, or over the phone? Is it always a good idea to sign a contract to get the best price on a new handset? Who should consider getting an unlocked phone, and where can you find such phones? For the facts, read on.

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Empty Promises

Susan Lewis had to call Verizon repeatedly to get such promised deal sweeteners as rebates and waived activation fees.

Photograph: Blake Discher
Even savvy shoppers can get caught in a tangle of conflicting wireless carrier offers. Susan Lewis, a quality assurance engineer from Monroe, Michigan, says that when she tried to get a local Verizon Wireless store to match a handset deal she saw on the carrier's Web site, the sales rep offered instead to give her a special price--50 percent off--on some accessories she didn't want.

Lewis ended up buying from a phone sales representative who promised to match the Web site's offer. But when the bill arrived, she saw that the company had not applied the incentives that she had been promised--namely, free activation and overnight shipping, along with instant rebates.

"When I went through telesales, I thought things would go smoothly," Lewis says. "The sales rep sounded very nice and reassuring. But when all was said and done, he caused even more problems. He was negligent either by omission or commission."

After Lewis complained, Verizon reversed the unexpected charges, but she remains disappointed. "I felt like I got a lot of hollow promises," she says.

As Lewis discovered, the deal you get often depends on where you shop--and the wealth of options can be overwhelming. But with research and planning, you should be able to beat the system and find the best deal.

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