For the sake of posterity and "giving something back" (god I feel like a big-time entertainer just using this phrase) I'm going to chronicle my Amazon experience.
My objectives (having read a number of posts on this forum, and having some serious gadgetlust for the 8700, but not wanting to wait for TMO to release the handset, and not wanting to pay the usurious rates Cingular is charging) are as follows:
1) Order the 8700c off of Amazon with a Cingular plan to get the $150 pricing (which is more than sufficient for my purposes as it beats the hell out of the unlocked price)
2) Kick Cingular to the curb within 3 days of activation to cancel my contract and avoid paying an activation fee
3) Avoid having to give the phone back to Amazon as the Cingular Ts & Cs suggest I might need to do if I get preferred pricing (the operative word being "MIGHT" -- I'm not going to be greedy about the $150 rebate that would make the phone free)
4) Find Adam at GSM Phone Source and get my shiznit unlocked
5) Swap my SIM, load up, and enjoy the dawn of a new day
The odyssey begins below...
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This is probably a question for Adam from GSMPS. I've tried searching in the other threads but I haven't found anything really that covers this. Apologies therefore if it's a duplicate post, but I thought some people would be interested in this...
Based on some digging and info from another thread I've found the 8700c on Amazon for $149 if you get it with a Cingular plan (which I don't want).
Near as I can figure
from the fine print , you have to activate the phone but then you can cancel, and according to one poster Amazon couldn't care less whether you keep the phone.
My next step would be to go to GSMPS and get the phone unlocked so I can pop my SIM card out of my 7100T and into my new 8700c.
I have a question:
I'm pretty sure I need to activate the phone as I think Cingular would just start billing me anyway and I'd want to get out of the contract.
Does activating the phone on the Cingular change anything in terms of the process GSMPhoneService would have to go through in order to unlock my device? I would have to believe that unlocking is still possible and that, by activating it, I haven't done anything irretrievably bad that would prohibit me from unlocking it.
thanks in advance.