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NFT: Wife broke her phone - should I buy an unlocked iPhone?

mattlawson : 7/31/2014 4:04 pm
The wife has a bad habbit of dropping her phone. well after the umpteenth drop, the monitor on her ipone 5c stopped working. it's not shattered, just blank.

so she went to the store and they said "nothing they can do" we're not due for an upgrade yet so the same phone is several hundred dollars. we bought it for $99 a year ago. dont really want to do that....

so has anyone bought another persons used iPhone that was 'unlocked' and did AT+T or Verizon give you shit about using that one instead?

Never been through the hassle before, wanted to see if any BBI phone geeks had advice.
Have not done that  
tbonfig : 7/31/2014 4:08 pm : link
but if it's that much of an issue, I would get your phone insured in the future.... couldn't hurt, right?
happens all the time  
spike : 7/31/2014 4:13 pm : link
I just sold my unlocked iphone 4 to a lady who lost it in the subway..

check craigslist or ebay.. make sure it works.. and get your lady an otterbox case to protect it!
then bring it  
spike : 7/31/2014 4:14 pm : link
to your local At&T store and they will set it up for you..
Terrible time  
Josh in the City : 7/31/2014 4:14 pm : link
to buy an iPhone unlocked. New one is being released in September.
RE: Terrible time  
spike : 7/31/2014 4:17 pm : link
In comment 11788826 Josh in the City said:
Quote:
to buy an iPhone unlocked. New one is being released in September.


yes but only if their contract allows for an upgrade.
ifixit.com  
NoPeanutz : 7/31/2014 4:23 pm : link
you can try doing it yourself for cheap.
Your best bet might be to buy a refurb old generation iphone from Apple, and wait it out till the next upgrade.
ifixit - ( New Window )
an unlocked ipihone 4  
spike : 7/31/2014 4:24 pm : link
will cost you around $150
Actually, the iPhone 6 is rumored to be released  
T in NJ : 7/31/2014 4:46 pm : link
on October 4th. And that will be the 4.7" iPhone 6.
CNET - ( New Window )
Matt  
River Mike : 7/31/2014 5:32 pm : link
Quote:
the same phone is several hundred dollars. we bought it for $99 a year ago. dont really want to do that....


Its unlikely that you really paid $99. The $99 is a downpayment and you pay the rest through your monthly plan. They go through some amazing semantic contortions to hide that fact, but the bottom line is that, on the family share plan for instance, if you buy a phone from them, you pay the $99 (or whatever) and then pay $40 per month for the line connection. If you bring in your own compatible phone, the line connection is $15. The net is that you're paying $25 per month for the phone for 2 years. Also, if you have yor own phone, there is no contract. After much probing, I finally got the ATT people to admit that the contract is just to pay for the phone ... no phone, no contract.
My take on this is slightly different Matt.  
BlueLou : 7/31/2014 6:38 pm : link
After finally breaking her phone via multiple drops, I don't think you should buy her anything.


Let her buy her own damned phone and maybe she'll stop dropping it.




Am I channeling my inner Randy?
Maybe get her  
mrvax : 7/31/2014 6:46 pm : link
a rock and paint it to look like an iPhone?
maybe  
pjcas18 : 7/31/2014 6:48 pm : link
with her next phone get one of the otterbox cases or life-something cases that are both drop proof and water proof.
I kept my old iPhone for a fishing phone  
mattlawson : 7/31/2014 7:02 pm : link
So she's currently using that but it's so slow -- and the home button sticks and everything it's really a pain to use.

If it unlocked four is 150 bucks... Then the prices for the unlocked fives are actually not that unreasonable that I've seen


Yikes!
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