Wirefly

[scipper77]

Time to step into the world of smart phones. The wifeand I are about to buy two thunderbolt phones through verizon. The verizon store is expensive... Best buy is a little cheaper but...

The Wirefly web site blows them both away on price. Verizon store and best buy are around $250 for each phone with contract. Wirefly is $175 each!!

So I'm thinking, what's the catch??

Has anyone here ever used wirefly? if so please tell me all about your experience.

 

[nikon]

Re: Wirefly

never used em, but supposedly the terms of service are terrible...just what I read...be careful with the thunderbolt, I live in a weak 4g area and if I leave it on automatic my batter is dead by lunch...you have to download an app to turn the 4g off...unless you need 4g, look for another phone.

 

[scipper77]

Re: Wirefly

never used em, but supposedly the terms of service are terrible...just what I read...be careful with the thunderbolt, I live in a weak 4g area and if I leave it on automatic my batter is dead by lunch...you have to download an app to turn the 4g off...unless you need 4g, look for another phone.

Thank you so much for the reply.

The whole battery life thing scares me a little but the way I see it micro usb cables to charge with are cheap enough that I can have one for home, 1 for work, and one for the car and keep the phone charged up all the time.

That said I'm seriously thinking about waiting for the droid bionic to come out in another couple months. The problem is I don't think my wife could bear to wait that much longer to upgrade now that we have gone around the stores and tested the phones.

Any more wirefly or thunderbolt opinions?

 

[BlkY2k]

Re: Wirefly

I~m in the market to upgrade my sprint phone and I`ve been doing some searching. It looks like they have the same prices as Tigerdirect.com I`ve never used wirefly but have heard good things about them. As far as prices go, the sprint store wanted $199 for the Epic4g and tiger directwants $99 go figure.

 

[ToothDocNick]

Re: Wirefly

I have been with Verizon since they took over and bought out Alltel in my area. I jut upgraded my wife's phone to the Samsung Fascinate from the LG Env Touch. I already upgraded mine about 8 months back when it first came out. Let me tell you two things.

1. I bought my phone from Verizon and it was expensive. I just purchased the same phone for my wife at half the cost through Wal-Mart. It was worth checking out and I also found the iPhone for cheaper there too. The will actually do everything through Verizon and the plans are the same. Just they give discounts on the phones like you would expect at Wal-mart. Might be worth checking out. We actually had to shuffle phones because of my daughter's phone being on the plan and they got on the phone with Verizon and it was all taken care of within 20 minutes start to finish. I was at the Verizon store over an hour with my phone.

2. Smart phones will run through a battery in no time. If you are just sitting there doing nothing and the phone is not running then the battery time is ok. Once you start accessing the net and other stuff the battery will drain out much faster than your old phone. I can go a day with mine as long as I don't spend a good deal of time on the internet. If I do then I can count on needing to plug it in at night when I get home. Just my 2 cents.

 

[partskenn]

Re: Wirefly

I second the comments on battery life. Had an old Nokia phone, charge would last for days. My new Droid is a wonderful machine, but if you use it much (gps, internet, games), the battery is done in 2 to 3 hours.

 

[scipper77]

Re: Wirefly

Ive done some research now and learned some things. This all comes from the web so don't take it as fact but....

Wirefly gets a significant kickback from Verizon for getting off contract customers to sign a new contract or bringing in new customers. If you go through them you have to follow some rules for 181 days or wirefly looses there commision and in turn you have to pay that commission making the phone very expensive. In short the rules are:
1) you can not miss a payment
2) You can not cancel or downgrade the service plan.
3) after initial setup you can not swap in another phone number. (I.E. start a new account for the free phone and then cancel an old acct and port in the old number)
4)Cancel the data package if it is required.
There are a few other rules but this is what I remember. Violating this costs you $200-300 per phone.

The "verizon store" is not run by "verizon wireless". They are a licensed vendor just like Wal-mart and best buy. They use the verizon logo (because they are licensed) and charge a significant markup. They get away with it because people think they are buying direct from verizon. If you go to the verizon wireless web site you will see that the prices are cheaper than with the verizon store.

My wife and I are going to buy from verizon wireless online. It's not as cheap as wirefly but there is less risk of getting dinged for a rule violation. If you violate wirefly's conditions you pay a lot more for the phones.

Now we are just being indecisive about what phones to get. Thunderbolt is the best phone in every way except battery life!! arghhh!