[howiet222]

So, I was looking online and I seen this deal thru wirefly.com. We want to purchase a family plan for myslef, wife and father in law.

Basically, we might sign up for a 24 month contract with T-mobile. Plan is 69.99 a month plus the extra 9.99 charge for the third line. I also will pay 19.99 for the blackerry data plan. Here are the phones we are thinking about getting:

8700g for me (free- no rebates)

Motorola Razr V3t for my wife (free after 50.00 rebate)

Motorola V195 for my father in law (free- doesn't need a great phone)

Both Motorola's come with a free wireless bluetooth.


We are new customers and we will incur the 35.00 each activation fee.

But my question is, I get all three phones for free? Where is the catch?

Even if I don't get the 50.00 rebate, I still get 3 phones for 50.00????

Plus, my BB is free......

What am I missing here everyone??

I heard bad things about the rebates and CS....

Thanks,

Howie

[CustomerService]

You're really not missing anything. I've told everybody about Wirefly. The catch is that you have to sign the 2 year T-Mobile contract (which you already knew), and if you cancel within six months, you owe termination fees to both T-Mobile AND Wirefly (which is in the terms and conditions when you check out).

So you're not dreaming. Wirefly really does save you a lot of money. I've bought my last 2 phones from wirefly and I've been thrilled. They ship really fast and all the credit application and number porting nonsense is handled automatically.

Wirefly's business model is really pretty simple (they are a public company so you can look all this up, NASDAQ Symbol: INPC). The cell phone company (T-Mobile in this case) pays Wirefly several hundred dollars to acquire customers for them and lock them into 2 year contracts, and pays Wirefly a smaller amount on an ongoing basis if you stay more than six months. Wirefly takes that money and spends some of it on marketing, and some of it on heavily subsidizing the cost of the phone. I know when I bought my current 2 cell phones (I switched to Cingular) Wirefly was $100 cheaper than the Cingular store.

NOTE: Wirefly does require a signature when FedEx delivers the the package. I didn't know that the first time I bought from them but I remembered the 2nd time to make sure it was a day I was home!

Oh yeah, the rebates. The first time I bought from them years ago there was a wirefly rebate and it took more than six months, but I did get it. That was sort of a pain. The last time the cell phones were free without any rebates.