dude you dont have to pay anyone. there are plenty of developers around willing to help. thats how we all got started. ill help ya when i get home in 2 hours. I have a rooted fascinate that has been running ICS for months. its a pretty simple process with the right help

 

if anyone would like my help just post. im no pro but im very good with the fascinate.

 

just got home give me 20 min and then ill be around for couple hrs to help

 

ok heres the deal...ive had this phone since oct. had it rooted it a matter of hrs . had (with the help of people more talented then myself) ICS on it two hrs later.
Now having said that...if anyone on here wants help rooting their fascinate and getting ICS on there phone i am willing to help. I will posting links to step by step instructions on how to complete each step. these are threads created by other people that deserve all the credit. i will simply be here to answer ?s and guide.
i have gotten pretty good with this phone. had an incredible that i was equally talented on. (my girlfriend id running ICS on hers)
Now as far as returning to stock that is very possible with this phone. Samsung created a program called ODIN that was designed just to flash things to ur phone...pretty sweet huh? Now u can get back to stock...with no superuser permissions(which what being rooted gives you) however I honestly have no way of knowing if they have other ways of finding out. NOTE>ROOTING YOUR PHONE VOIDS YOUR WARRANTY. DO EVERYTHING TO YOUR PHONE AT YOUR OWN RISK..sry I have to say that. however please have faith that I would not have wasted my time to type all this if I was full of #%@&. Ive had many peolpe help me along the way Im just trying to return the favors
So ill start putting together a guide if anyone is still interested? just post so i know:hello:

 

its not a hard process. let me ask u this...have u plugged in to ur comp to transfer music and stuff? If so u have already completed on of the steps. lol What did u want to do mail it to someone let them root it put ICS on it then mail it back? No joking..asking?

 

honestly i have never run gingerbread(2.X) on this phone. I mean for a couple secs when i flash back to stock when ive messed something up(u wont be able to do that..mess things up i mean...by mess up i mean trying to put things on phone that r still in development...I.E. new roms ,themes stuff like that...but that wont be a problem for u)but i got this phone just to run ICS.
Ok so now here is what u do....Follow this post. Just download the ODIN program, the clockwork recovery ,and the SU 2.3.6.1 zip. now if u have hooked ur phone up before u shouldnt need to install the drivers u may want to just in case but really shouldnt be nec. we will know in a matter of min if u need to.
I know it looks overwhelming but it isnt. im here to help.
post back when u have everything downloaded and we will go from there:hello:

 

duh you need a link...lol sry here ya go

http://www.galaxyforums.net/forum/fascinate-rs-guides/1967-how-root-froyo-gingerbread-your-fascinate.html

 

to show im not bs here is my "about phone" screen

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3fqtoxkq822go32/Screenshot_2012-04-24-21-36-19.png

 

BTW the blue droid eye background is something i did. anyone familiar with android sdk dev tool i can teach how to pull/push the right file.

 

the clockwork file(s) should be in zip format. Do u not have winzip or 7zip or something like that? Also yes this will just root you phone. there steps in addition to this to get to ICS 2 or 3 steps or so..however not hard. what that lin will do is root your phone and install a recovery system...what u need to flash roms to your phone...I>E> roms like ICS. A recovery system will let you backup ur whole system, let u install different roms..there are a couple different ICS roms out there for this phone all with there own little cool features.
BTW did u see my screen shot?

 

pk do u have a zip program on ur computer? i have the file i can post it

 

i dont use that app myself. however< if u were to look on other websites more geared toward development like XDA.com or RootzWiki.com and u search this phone u will see that not only have people been running ICS on it for awhile but they are starting to theme it. by theming i mean thing look different..battery symbol, signal symbol, the way screens pop in and out..all sorts of stuff. check it out. ill always be here to help. like i said before i know this phone in and out..lol:hello:

 

crap forgot my point...lol i see alot of people using that on this phone how they did it or whatever i have no idea. like i said i dont use it. i guess it comes down to how much u wanna root ur phone and put ICS on it. if ur happy w phone now y bother?

 

u can root ur phone and not loose anything. u will just have superuser permissions. everything will look and run the same until u put a new rom on it.

 

you can have ur fascinate blow that epic out of the water. my phone runs better than a stock Nexus ...trust me ive tested.