Help! My husband lost his cell phone....

[TallyLassie]

We recently signed a contract with alltel and now my husband has lost his cell phone. According to Alltel because we just signed the contract he is not eligble to receive and discounts, rebates, etc. The price of the phone would be the non-sale price, $100+.

Any suggestions? Has anyone ever bought an unlocked cell phone on ebay?

 

[pigget74]

by any chance do you have an at&t credit card. If you do it covers a phone even if you did not purchase the phone with it.

 

[MommaluvsDis]

My Dh has bought four unlocked phones on ebay and has been very happy!

If you want the info on who he bought them from, just PM me.

 

[WDWorBUST]

by any chance do you have an at&t credit card. If you do it covers a phone even if you did not purchase the phone with it.

Wow...how does that work? I have a Universal AT&T card and just had my phone croak. I was fortunate enough that the IT department at my work had a spare laying around I could use....but I was thinking about adding insurance...but if my AT&T card covers it then I'm not going to pay for insurance for no reason.

 

[pilgrimage]

Try craigslist or ebay. I've gotten phones to replace other
Alltel worn out or lost for about $20.

 

[donaldseeyore]

I Pm'd you

 

[pigget74]

Wow...how does that work? I have a Universal AT&T card and just had my phone croak. I was fortunate enough that the IT department at my work had a spare laying around I could use....but I was thinking about adding insurance...but if my AT&T card covers it then I'm not going to pay for insurance for no reason.

Just re read it--it pays a portion--it is insurance that comes with the card. Go to the card mainpage and on the left it has FAQS--go there and scroll down--it tells about it there. HTH

 

[momof3girls6712]

I have alltel and pay for the phone insurance. It is like 4.95 a month, but it is worth it. We have replaced my DD's phone atleast 6 times since last May. DH and my phone a few times as well. The insurance claim cost a 50 dollar deductible but is better than having to buy a new one and takes less time than ebay or other places. We just pop into altell and leave with a new phone.

 

[momrek06]

I have alltel and pay for the phone insurance. It is like 4.95 a month, but it is worth it. We have replaced my DD's phone atleast 6 times since last May. DH and my phone a few times as well. The insurance claim cost a 50 dollar deductible but is better than having to buy a new one and takes less time than ebay or other places. We just pop into altell and leave with a new phone.

I have Verizon and also pay the $4.95 monthly for insurance. Would never buy a cell w/o the insurance. One DS had his phone replaced 3x in one year. Two he lost and one he dropped and broke. Verizon sends a brand new phone Fedex every time. After the 3rd phone in late 2007, if he lost or broke another one, he would have to wait until 2008.

 

[vsimeone]

Do you have an old phone from Alltel? We always keep our old phones because they will re-activate them for $10. That's what we threaten the kids with (16 and 19). If they lose or break their phone that we provide them, they either buy a new one themselves or they can take an old one out of the drawer and have it re-activated.

Best of luck to you!

 

[PatsMom]

When DD dropped her phone one time too many and it stopped working, we bought an unlocked phone on E-bay and it is working fine. We just popped in her sim card. Not sure how it would work with a lost phone since you wouldn't have the sim card.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Just ask family and friends if anyone has an old cell phone they aren't using (regardless of what carrier it is) and then google "how to unlock (insert phone brand/model # here) cell phone". Several websites will come up with free step-by-step instructions on how to unlock the phone. I did this because my dad's phone was broken and we weren't eligible for any new phones or discounts yet. You will still need to get a replacement sim card from alltel but those are usually much less than the cost of a new phone. Good luck!

BTW -- did you try calling the cell phone number to see if someone found it and doesn't know who it belongs to?

 

[momof3girls6712]

Altell phone do not have a sim card in them. Or atleast I know here they do not which is why it makes it a little bit more difficult to just swap them out. Just be careful, because my coworker bought a phone off of ebay and altell would not let her use it cause their records showed the phone's serial number belonged to someone that still owed money. So she was out the money for the phone and ended up buying one from altell anyway.

 

[pilgrimage]

You can actually buy a prepaid one for $25 at wal-mart,
and alltel will activate it to continue your contract. We've
done it twice.

 

[TallyLassie]

Thanks to everyone that responded -

A REALLY nice DISER read about my plight and gave us her old cell phone.

 

[Piecey]

Do you have an old phone from Alltel? We always keep our old phones because they will re-activate them for $10. That's what we threaten the kids with (16 and 19). If they lose or break their phone that we provide them, they either buy a new one themselves or they can take an old one out of the drawer and have it re-activated.

Best of luck to you!

Alltel didn't charge me to re-activate an old phone...

I dropped mine and cracked the display (you couldn't see ANYTHING on the screen) right before I was leaving town for a month. I figured I would need to see who was calling and stuff so I re-activated an old phone and ordered a phone off of Ebay for when I got back.

They didn't charge me to activate either phone and I'd be pretty upset if they did!