buy online vs. in-store

[Leonard1818]

Hi everyone. This is my first post. I hope to get some good info from here in the coming months once I get my new phone (maybe I can even contribute!).

Anyway, question is pretty simple. I'm up for renewal on 10/22. Trying to decide if I should buy in-store or from a website like amazonwireless or wirefly etc. Here's the breakdown so far:

Verizon in-store:
-- $350 (my phone and wifes phone after MIRs)
-- Free car chargers and cases (would like a free screen cover dammit)
-- will transfer numbers free
-- will activate that day
-- Can upgrade 7 days early (10/15, this friday!)

Online:
-- $250 for both (instant rebate).
-- no accessories
-- not sure how number xfer works
-- may have activation hastle (have been reading around on here)
-- Probably have to wait until 10/22 to upgrade.

So what do you all think? Is it worth the extra hastle to order online? After what I've read about experiences buying online, I'm concerned that it'll be a headache and I should just pony up the extra $$ to do it in-store.

Given the benefits/tradeoffs, does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

EDIT: Also for what it's worth we're looking at getting the Samsung fascinate (one for me one for my wife). We'll be upgrading our existing contracts.

 

[Leonard1818]

well crap. 48 views and nobody has any opinion?

Where did YOU buy your phone?

 

[Cappuchica]

Just buy it in the store. If you go through best buy, the automatically rebate for you

 

[AlexSB]

If you buy it through amazonwireless or any other website that's not Verizon, your gonna have to find warranty coverage elsewhere because Verizon only covers phones bought through them (seems obvious I know, but at time of purchase I thought since I was gonna be under Verizon's network that I would be automatically covered as well, wish someone wouldved told me). And having dealt with Motorolas customer service and tech support and that of Verizon's, I have to say that Verizon was better. So I say jus buy it from Verizon.

 

[Lenagainster]

Have you checked the option of ordering online through your "My Verizon" account? You get overnight delivery of the phones, and the prices may be less than at the store. And since the purchase is still through Verizon, you are covered under their warranty. Activating the phones yourself is a no-brainer.

 

[hookbill]

How about "over the phone." You can get your upgrade date pushed up by customer service and have less hassle then dealing with a Verizon store. In addition to that you get your rebate instantly. For an early upgrade, I strongly recommend it I've done it twice in the last year. Yes, twice in the same year.

 

[Leonard1818]

Thanks guys!!!

Just buy it in the store. If you go through best buy, the automatically rebate for you

Thanks for the feedback! I despise Best Buy for more reasons than I care to list. lol. Also, rebate isn't really of too much concern for me as I can front the $200 at this time (I've been planning for this upgrade and saving my pennies). Other than rebate reasons, any other thoughts on buying in-store?

If you buy it through amazonwireless or any other website that's not Verizon, your gonna have to find warranty coverage elsewhere because Verizon only covers phones bought through them (seems obvious I know, but at time of purchase I thought since I was gonna be under Verizon's network that I would be automatically covered as well, wish someone wouldved told me). And having dealt with Motorolas customer service and tech support and that of Verizon's, I have to say that Verizon was better. So I say jus buy it from Verizon.

Thanks! You make a good point. With our current phones (Voyagers) I bought the $6/mo. warranty for 1 year then dropped it after that time as I figured the cost to replace a voyager at that time would be cheaper than paying the monthly warranty charge and deductible should something happen. I feel it was a good strategy. I was actually planning on doing the same type of thing with these phones except I may have to keep the warranty through the whole term. I don't have $400-$500 to drop on a new phone should something happen to mine or my wife's phone so this raises a good point.

I did see where you could do a $69.99 1-year warranty on wirefly. 1-time charge and you're covered for a year. I like the verizon option of $6/mo. added to your bill.

Thanks again for bringing this up. This was a big question-mark to me.

Have you checked the option of ordering online through your "My Verizon" account? You get overnight delivery of the phones, and the prices may be less than at the store. And since the purchase is still through Verizon, you are covered under their warranty. Activating the phones yourself is a no-brainer.

You also raise a good point/option, thanks! I tried to price these out online but the prices the website was giving me was not my "new every two". I am eligible to upgrade at "discounted pricing" but it's not the same as the "new every two" pricing. I tried an online chat with a rep who clearly didn't know much of what they were saying. They did manage to convey that the instant rebate for purchasing online does not apply to "android phones" so I'd still have to wait for rebate (which isn't a HUGE deal... kind of a PITA but not a huge deal). I tried to get pricing from the person too. They told me that the primary line usually gets $100 off of the "new every two" price and then the secondary line (my wife's) would just get the "new every two" pricing. This would total $300 ($199 + $199 - $100) and in-store they quoted me $350... I will have to wait until 10/22 to pursue this route however since it's not quoting me the same.

How about "over the phone." You can get your upgrade date pushed up by customer service and have less hassle then dealing with a Verizon store. In addition to that you get your rebate instantly. For an early upgrade, I strongly recommend it I've done it twice in the last year. Yes, twice in the same year.

This is VERY helpful! Thanks! I actually think I will call them today and see what they say. I'm not sure if they'll still do the instant rebate since they told me that the android-based phones don't get it when ordered online but that's OK. If they can do it for the $300 price mentioned by the chat rep, I'll be all in!

Thanks again everyone for your inputs. Everyone who contributed made a very good point and you have all helped me get closer to my decision. I will probably call them today and get the scoop with ordering over the phone. Hopefully they can provide better insight than the chat person!

I still welcome any more feedback. The earliest I can pull the trigger on these is Friday so I've still got some time. I want to find a good balance of savings, customer service, and capabilities (such as purchasing warranty)

 

[eddiemro]

Some stores offer extra discounts. Is that waiting for the upgrade period? Price seem a little high. I was able to upgrade for 199.00 minus 100 for waiting for upgrade date minus 50 store discount. So I got my droid X for 49.00 after mail in rebate. I would do a little more research on it.

 

[Leonard1818]

Some stores offer extra discounts. Is that waiting for the upgrade period? Price seem a little high. I was able to upgrade for 199.00 minus 100 for waiting for upgrade date minus 50 store discount. So I got my droid X for 49.00 after mail in rebate. I would do a little more research on it.

Thanks!

Just to clarify, I was looking @ the droid X but now I'm actually considering the Samsung fascinate. The $300 or $350 price is for me AND my wife. The "new every two" price on the fascinate is $199.99 ($200). I was told online that I would get $100 off of that being the primary, so my phone would be $99.99. My wife would still be at the $199.99 price so it would be $300 total.

I went in-store and talked to a guy (friend of a co-worker) who quoted $350 for both phones. He said he would then throw in car chargers and cases, and would transfer all of our contacts over for us which normally would cost like $10 per phone.

I wish the store would do an in-store discount. I feel bad hounding the guy since he's a friend of a co-worker but I want to get the best deal.

Side note... since when did buying a phone become like buying a car lol?

 

[eddiemro]

LOL tell me about it. I did about a month worth of research for my droid X. What phone are you upgrading from? I upgraded from a droid 1 and once I logged in to my droid X it pulled in all of my contacts and all of my purchased apps. Good luck.

 

[takeshi]

So what do you all think? Is it worth the extra hastle to order online?

Read the fine print for the resellers and see if you think it's worth it or not. Worth is always highly subjective. There are plenty of people that have used the online resellers. There are also plenty that would never use them. You'll find plenty of opinions either way but it's really your call to make.

 

[Leonard1818]

LOL tell me about it. I did about a month worth of research for my droid X. What phone are you upgrading from? I upgraded from a droid 1 and once I logged in to my droid X it pulled in all of my contacts and all of my purchased apps. Good luck.

Unfortunately, I'm coming from an LG voyager. I'm pretty sure it's the phone that is one model up from the phone Zack Morris used on saved by the bell.

I still don't understand how some people (like you) afford new phones every few months! I mean no offense by that at all... in fact, I'm envious! I've known several people who have moved from a phone that came out in month X to a phone that came out 6 months later... That's like a $400-$500 upgrade (without a new plan)! Holy crap!

I've been doing a lot of research and it came down to the droid X and the samsung fascinate. My wife and I want to have the same phone for ease of use and interchangeability of accessories. I took her to Verizon and showed her the two phones. She liked the fascinate better so that's the one we're likely going to go with.

So what do you all think? Is it worth the extra hastle to order online?

Read the fine print for the resellers and see if you think it's worth it or not. Worth is always highly subjective. There are plenty of people that have used the online resellers. There are also plenty that would never use them. You'll find plenty of opinions either way but it's really your call to make.

That's just it. I'm looking for anyone who has any opinions on the "gotchas" that the online resellers may pose. It's not that I'm too lazy to read the fine print (that's part of the research I've been doing for some time now) it's mroe that I'm afraid I will misunderstand something or will forget an aspect (like warranty) until it's too late!

Ordering by phone via Verizon seems to be a decent mix of the two benefits but I have yet to look into this route any further.

 

[Leonard1818]

Update:

Called customer service (verizon). Ordering via phone doesn't really save me any money and definately won't save me any time. If I order over the phone it'll still be $200 for my phone + $200 for my wife's phone - $50 for me being the primary so I'll still be forking over $350 total. They tried to tell me that I would get an instant rebate if ordered over the phone so I told them that was not what I was told by the online chat rep. They quickly recanted and said "oh yeah, android-based phones still do the mail-in-rebate". Oh well.

At least in the store he said he'd give me car chargers and cases and would transfer all of our contacts over and stuff.

To the store I go...

Thanks to everyone who helped. If you have any last-minute suggestions, I'm still open. If you save me more than $50, I'll kick you $5 via paypal lol. (not kidding though)

 

[eggsped]

Update:

Called customer service (verizon). Ordering via phone doesn't really save me any money and definately won't save me any time. If I order over the phone it'll still be $200 for my phone + $200 for my wife's phone - $50 for me being the primary so I'll still be forking over $350 total. They tried to tell me that I would get an instant rebate if ordered over the phone so I told them that was not what I was told by the online chat rep. They quickly recanted and said "oh yeah, android-based phones still do the mail-in-rebate". Oh well.

At least in the store he said he'd give me car chargers and cases and would transfer all of our contacts over and stuff.

To the store I go...

Thanks to everyone who helped. If you have any last-minute suggestions, I'm still open. If you save me more than $50, I'll kick you $5 via paypal lol. (not kidding though)

I'd go with whatever is cheaper as long as it's VZ and not a reseller. VZ always seems to be good on customer service issues and resellers like Best Buy tend to turn their back on you after the sale, my personal opinion and experience but I'll only purchase from VZ corp.

I came from a LG Env to a Droid last year and was able to transfer contacts from the env to my computer via bluetooth, I don't remember exactly what the format was but each contact was a unique file. I was then able to import the contacts into my Droid. All in all it took less than a half hour to do.

I looked at the Fascinate and won't touch it with a 10 foot pole. If your wife is like mine you may want to reconsider as well. Primary reason is that on the Fascinate navigation defaults to VZ Navigator (a paid VZ app) vs. Google Navigation (free). My wife just isn't savvy or patient enough to go through the trouble of finding the free app. With the other phones you can just voice search a location and it will go straight into Google Navigator. I've read this may change soon but I wouldn't bank on it.

Good Luck

 

[Leonard1818]

Update:

Called customer service (verizon). Ordering via phone doesn't really save me any money and definately won't save me any time. If I order over the phone it'll still be $200 for my phone + $200 for my wife's phone - $50 for me being the primary so I'll still be forking over $350 total. They tried to tell me that I would get an instant rebate if ordered over the phone so I told them that was not what I was told by the online chat rep. They quickly recanted and said "oh yeah, android-based phones still do the mail-in-rebate". Oh well.

At least in the store he said he'd give me car chargers and cases and would transfer all of our contacts over and stuff.

To the store I go...

Thanks to everyone who helped. If you have any last-minute suggestions, I'm still open. If you save me more than $50, I'll kick you $5 via paypal lol. (not kidding though)

I'd go with whatever is cheaper as long as it's VZ and not a reseller. VZ always seems to be good on customer service issues and resellers like Best Buy tend to turn their back on you after the sale, my personal opinion and experience but I'll only purchase from VZ corp.

I came from a LG Env to a Droid last year and was able to transfer contacts from the env to my computer via bluetooth, I don't remember exactly what the format was but each contact was a unique file. I was then able to import the contacts into my Droid. All in all it took less than a half hour to do.

I looked at the Fascinate and won't touch it with a 10 foot pole. If your wife is like mine you may want to reconsider as well. Primary reason is that on the Fascinate navigation defaults to VZ Navigator (a paid VZ app) vs. Google Navigation (free). My wife just isn't savvy or patient enough to go through the trouble of finding the free app. With the other phones you can just voice search a location and it will go straight into Google Navigator. I've read this may change soon but I wouldn't bank on it.

Good Luck

Thanks!

Yes, I think I will be going to a verizon outlet store. And funny you should mention the navi thing and considering a new phone. I'm becoming more torn on getting the DInc now because 1. They're BOGO right now and 2. the navi and other UI issues people are talking about... I may swing into verizon tomorrow and check them out before I buy on friday. DInc, Dx, or Fascinate.... decisions decisions...