Seems going to Best Buy and having them price match Sears's price is the best deal.
Total is $149+tax etc out the door w/ new 2 year contract.

 

letstalk.com can get u one for $149 AND a free Eris! But I can't vouch for letstalk.com credibility. Dell.com has it for $119 so does Wirefly.com though I've heard bad things about wirefly. Amazon has it as well possibly for $119 but def for $149. I picked mine up today from walmart for $188 and after taxes it was $199. Also, if you get it this weekend at 3rd party retailers (as well as VZW stores), activation fee is waived.

 

I got mine from Wirefly.com for $149.99 total with free shipping. You'll be required to keep the data plan with a voice plan of $59.99 for 181 days, but the contract is for two years.

An activation fee of $35 will be on your first bill, but you will receive credit (after paying that bill) on your second or third bill. I needed the 900 minutes anyway so that wasn't a big deal.

The phone came right away and a VZW rep told me I would not have to deal with Wirefly now that I have the phone. I called customer service again and another rep told me the same thing.

The $59.99 plan comes with Friends & Family which gives me at least 5 numbers I can call anytime without losing any minutes. I'm not sure what you'd have to pay for the phone if you're an existing customer.

Good luck.

 

So If you buy mail order, I'm thinking dell because I have an account there and I get a bad phone I can take it to the verizon store rather than send it back to dell?

 

Depends. If you want it serviced (and I think you may need the VZW service plan) then you can go to the VZ store. But if you want to return the phone, u have to go through Dell.

though I may be wrong, hopefully someone can correct to confirm this.

 

I used my upgrade today at Best Buy and my location would not price match Sears or Dell, said they had to be an actual retail store. I guess it is hit or miss whether your Best Buy will price match online retailers even though technically they are not supposed to.

 

I went through Dell Mobility store. got the Moto Droid for 119 and the Eris for free. You end up paying for the discount by having to deal with the customer service lines. Hint if you have to talk to them after the sale don't call use the chat option its much easier to understand.

 

Yea BB PMs are huuuuge YMMVs. It may be that there is no wireless dept at the sears store in your area. if you got it for 199 then you should PM with walmart at least (those are everywhere and they'd be stupid not to agree to PM) walmart has it for 188 so u'll get like $11 back? good for screen protectors.

 

Well, I spoke to two more VZW reps. If I want a different model (a Blackberry, for instance), I'll have to send my Droid back to Wirefly. If there's anything wrong with the Droid, I can take it to my local Verizon store for another Droid. I didn't know I wouldn't be getting a NEW Droid if this one's defective. I was told that customers always get a refurbished phone when they switch to another Droid (or whatever phone they had to begin with). I'm not too concerned because there's a one year warranty on the refurb phones. My Droid seems to be fine aside from the tiny error here and there (screen not scrolling for several seconds, etc.) and my activation fee was already subtracted from my first bill. That beats paying $35 and waiting a month or two to see the credit on another bill.