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Help S6 Edge ; Wireless carrier lock-in; need advise,opinion

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I think its ok for wireless providers to hold me hostage, and force me to buy THEIR device for servi

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#1
Hi Fellow Droids,

So I want a S6 EDGE.
I am NOT willing to buy it from tmo, verizon, sprint, ect.
I want to buy one off ebay, or online .. so i can get it cheaper .. than $1000. [more on that in a sec]

I found a phone that is at a decent price .

Here is my question -- Is there anyone presently, that has taken a direct buy/off contract s6 edge, and signed it up with whomever ?

From the calls i made to sprint, tmo ... TMO will sign me up for a plan, and then ship the sim card to me .
Sprint wont let me sign up, without buying a device from them [should be illegal].

I currently have a rooted evo3d on boost :)
But, its showing its age .. but im not playing into the wireless companies games .. and
WE NEED TO SEND THE WIRELESS COMPANIES A MESSAGE.

Anyone have any ideas on this ?
I figured if there is no resolution, i just wait until no one cares about the s6 edge , and get one then.

Nevermind some of the issues the edge has [battery/expandable storage] .. but i would be willing to take mine apart to replace the battery if needed, internally .

I'm sick of the cell/vendor lock in that these companies try to pull . I'm not sure if i'll ever sign another 'non-contract' contract again .they are all basically lies, and the contract fee was less bad, than the new 'cancelation fee' [cost of the phone itself]

from earlier in the post - *price of s6 edge*
over 2 years, you pay $32/month for the device itself. That equals $768, and you paid $100 upfront .. so guess what .. you are paying FULL retail price of teh device over 2 years.
They must think we are all really stupid to get this deal .
in addition to that, the plan is like $65/month or so, so figure $100ish +/- $15 for carrier with insurance, and depending , you may not even own your device at the end of it .


I've had my evo3d for 3 years .. i bought it as a refurb, and rooted it the second i got it .
I just upgraded the OS the other day, to Android 4 /ICS .. and its still cool .


I'm just looking for some advise, and to see what everyone elses opinion is .

Let me know, im really interested in everyone's opinion, and what they did.

Thanks,
-B
 
#2
It sounds like you're looking for a carrier unlocked phone. Amazon.com has them. I wouldn't buy a phone off of eBay.

Anyway, get an unlocked phone, take it to any matching carrier with a BYOD policy.

Worry more about getting enough storage within your budget - there's no sd card on the new Samsungs.
 
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#3
Be aware of too-good-to-be-true prices on seemingly new S6 and S6 Edge from Ebay and other on-line vendors. Counterfeit Samsungs can be very disappointing, or it's grey market and you just might end-up with a China Telecom version, good luck with that in the US, as well as no Samsung warranty and/or future OTA firmware updates.
 
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#4
Hi Earlymon/Mikedt,

thank you for the replies.

Earlymon: I was told by a sprint rep i had to buy their device. No wiggle room on that. The other hand was tmo, kinda alluded that I was able to BYOD. the storage thing is no issue . They make add on expansion, google drive, etc.
I really am not all that worried about the limits on storage, as there are ways to expand w/o paying more .

Mikedt: Fair enough. I have bought other phones off ebay w/o issue, but i get your point .. im sure these are a hot item to bootleg. The price isnt THAT great , its still $550ish .. unlocked, and off amazon ..


I think ill investigate more on the BYOD carriers .. so far TMO seems like the only one who will co-operate, as they just want to be the service provider, and dont care if they step on other carriers to do so .

Still seems like the game is rigged. . . after the last few years, and all the lawsuits .. im surprised the carriers still havent learned their lessons. Am i just insane ? Or does this bother anyone else ?
-B
 
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#6
Sprint is not a BYOD carrier. That's it. At one time Verizon was the same way - may still be for all I know. (Pretty sure that the Nexus is the exception, could be wrong.)

CDMA phones are not a "drop in a sim and go" deal.

This is a radio technology and phone supply issue - and it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Getting upset about not being able to BYOD to a CDMA carrier is like getting upset that you can't find the right tires for your boat.

If it's not for you, go GSM.

It's frustrating to not choose whatever you want, get low carriers pricing and low phone pricing - but no one in the free world gets that. You pay one way or the other.

T-Mobile, you can definitely bring your own devices.

Expandable storage, so it's not a problem? Yes - you can carry an OTG USB solution.

You seem to have your heart set on the S6 Edge no matter what. If that's what you want, that's what you want.
 
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#7
briand354 said:
Hi Earlymon/Mikedt,

thank you for the replies.

Earlymon: I was told by a sprint rep i had to buy their device. No wiggle room on that. The other hand was tmo, kinda alluded that I was able to BYOD. the storage thing is no issue . They make add on expansion, google drive, etc.
I really am not all that worried about the limits on storage, as there are ways to expand w/o paying more .

Mikedt: Fair enough. I have bought other phones off ebay w/o issue, but i get your point .. im sure these are a hot item to bootleg. The price isnt THAT great , its still $550ish .. unlocked, and off amazon ..


I think ill investigate more on the BYOD carriers .. so far TMO seems like the only one who will co-operate, as they just want to be the service provider, and dont care if they step on other carriers to do so .

Still seems like the game is rigged. . . after the last few years, and all the lawsuits .. im surprised the carriers still havent learned their lessons. Am i just insane ? Or does this bother anyone else ?
-B
Click to expand...

Even with buying from Amazon, you're likely buying from third-party affiliate vendors rather than Amazon itself. So still have to watch out for grey market devices, and make sure that it is a North American version you're getting, and not one for Hong Kong and Singapore or something. Samsung US won't provide warranty on grey market phones from other regions, and likely won't receive OTA updates either. Unopened cartons are securely labelled for what regions and countries particular phones are intended to be sold and used in, plus specific device numbers as well.
 
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