Sorry, I've done some searching and haven't found an exact answer to this...

I'm a current T-Mobile customer, not under contract, and the microphone on my 7100t broke (not under warranty). I'm thinking of switching to the 8700.

Problem is I can't find anywhere to get the 8700g for less than $400 (with 2yr contract) or $500 (no contract). If it were new service, it would be free (after rebate).

I could switch to Cingular, where the phone would also be free (after rebate), but the cheapest plan I see is $40 for 450 minutes + $45/mo for the BIS service. That's $85/mo, and I'm paying $60/mo to TMO for the same service now.

So it seems my choices are: A) Stay with T-Mobile and pay $500 more ($400 more with contract) than a new customer for the phone or B) Switch to Cingular and pay $25/mo more for roughly the same service.

I don't mind paying a little more since I'm already with TMO, but $500 seems ridiculous. Likewise, I don't mind paying a little more to Cingular for arguably slightly better service, but $300/year more seems ridiculous.

Is there anything more reasonable that I'm missing?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

How about a used BB.

There are plenty of post here where people have threatened to go to Cingular for the free phone and gotten the unit for in some cases as little as $139. So I would say think of TMO as a big flea market and go haggle.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry 8700g: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0) BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

A flea market? LOL

Ya call T-Mo and ask them to transfer you to a retention specialist. Tell em you are going to leave for a better deal with Cingular and see what they offer. If you are not happy with the offer ask to speak with a supervisor.

Best of luck!

and no offense to TMO, but the 7100t has a KNOWN and WIDESPREAD issue with the microphone and should be replaced, whether or not the warranty is present or not (default is 1 year). i'm not sure if this was fixed later on in the manufacturering run, but we had 3 of our 7100s die from microphone issues - all were first-run units and all were out of warranty when the mics broke. i cussed MANY TMO reps out about this issue, to no relief for my unit.

Yes, when I went in the store, I pulled out the phone and the guy said "let me guess, the microphone's not working." And then he proceeded to explain that it was extremely widespread. Despite that, once he saw the phone was 13 months old, he said there was no way it would be covered.

I'll try calling phone support though - maybe they can fix it and it not, I'll talk to the retention people. Thanks for the advice everyone!

unlocked 8700's are going for about 300 on ebay

You might be able to get a deal with T-Mobile because of customer loyalty. Otherwise, you can do as someone mentioned above and purchase on eBay. It is always good to insure the BB just in case there are any issues after the 12 month warranty period. At least one can get insurance on the BB at T-Mobile. I paid for insurance on my BB at Cingular for 18 months to find out that my BB was not covered under the insurance planand Cingular only refunded me for 2 months of insurance payments. The other monies Cingular kept. Yet, that's another story.

The retention folks came down to $199 with a two year contract, a much better deal. I have to wait 10 days for the backorder, but that's much more reasonable than $400.

Thanks again for the advice.

was it like pulling teath to get them to come down?

I did this too...$199+shipping and tax with 2 year contract. Just bring up the free phone at Amazon from Cingular deal, and don't let them talk to you about how it's "less reliable." They offered $250, I said not more than $200, he came back with $199.

-Matt

I'm glad that they were able to give you a better deal at the retention department. I've heard some say that they haven't had to haggle a lot. Carriers want to retain customers, especially long term customers.

It wasn't like pulling teeth at all - the retention person actually just gave me that price before I even went into my whole spiel.

The phone showed up today a full week ahead of schedule and I'm loving it so far!

The main downside is that my BrickBreaker high score of 14325 didn't transfer with the SIM card. Gonna take me a long time to get a score that high again!

Wirelessly posted (TMobile 7100t: BlackBerry7100/4.0.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

I too took advantage of an upgrade out of contract (by 3 months) for 199 plus tax & shipping. Ordered on Wednesday night and was told there would be no delay due to backorder

My 7100t had no microphone problems and I got it about 3 weeks after it was released last year. That's odd.

I have one of the first 7100t's as well, and am still using it. Never had a problem. I help support 20 other users that have the same unit and I've not heard of a microphone not working. I've heard complaints of microphones that are not very clear... i.e. the Charlie Brown's teacher complaint but usually I've tracked it to people almost yelling into their phones.

btw any company will haggle with you if you pull the old "im going with your competitor" i used to work for cingular.. its usually ok to give someone a phone or take charges off of their account to "save" them.. usually.. and it also depends on who you get.

I've never seen that side of Cingular when I had their service. They have the worst customer service that I've ever had. I always took them to have a no haggling policy. Cingular would rather have the regular price they want rather than give you a deal. They're known to let people leave. Or maybe it depends on the rep in retention. I had Cingular pre-merger and they got worst after the merger. I'm glad to be away from Cingular. Maybe they'll change once they become AT&T Wireless again. Who knows? I've found that T-Mobile always retains its customers when they ask for a better price through retention.

That is true. I got a BRAND NEW (POS) Samsung e635 for $79 (maybe that's why it only lasted a month) when the original price was $100-$200.

Need to edit a previous post in this thread. I forgot to mention that I had to send back my original 7100t due to a power button issue and dropped signal problem. Second one worked fine til the RIM vs NTP patent dispute scared me into getting a Sidekick 2.