GOOD GRIEF!! Cell Phone Conspiracy

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » December 24th, 2005, 4:52 pm

Now I know why I've never been a cell phone owner. It's shear madness and a complete conspiracy. I open an early Christmas present this moring containing a Fido (Motorola V190) cell phone. Woohooo, I says to myself, and diligently go through educating myself with some of the rudimentary proceedures of getting this thing up and running. So I put this thing called a SIM card in along with the battery and charge it up and continue reading the brochures. Now that I'm ready, I call the number for Fido to register the phone where the operator (in Montreal) asks wher I live, postal code and general geographic location. What she failed to mention was that there is no local provider from Fido where I live and continues to register me using my home phone number's area code as reference. What she gives me is an Ottawa number (3 hours away). My first call I go to make locally and I'm prompted to use 1 first because it's a long distance call - "this can't be right?". I try to call my cell from my house phone and again "please use 1 and dial again" - "oh, this is really getting good. I call Fido and they shoot me a lot of bunk and try to sell me an unlimited package where the long distance calls will be a non issue. But it will still be long distance for anyone locally to call me - "Isn't this just great!" After calling Fido a third time and another provider (Rogers), I find that I need to get the cell phone unlocked before I can go to Rogers which does provide local services. Fido charges $250.00cdn to unlock their phones - do you see the conspiracy thing happening here. Now a friend that works at Rogers says there may be "places" that will unlock cell phones. Once unlocked, I'm supposedly able to turn around and get a new SIM card from a local provider and be back in business again. Have I got this right? Does this at all make any sense? Is there such a thing? Is this expensive? Will it be worthwhile? Am I wasting my time. Is this a conspiracy? And, does anyone need a shiny new fancy looking new doorstop? Since I'm just about ready to heave this thing through the window, sheesh.

Rant over, recommendations please. And don't try to sell me another plan, please.

*John*

Vanished · Post by **Vanished** » December 24th, 2005, 6:08 pm

OK...well I've heard nothing but greaf with Fido. Heres what you should do. Any kind of plan you've made wtih fido, cancel it now. Take the phone and sell it on ebay to some unlucky foool. Seeing as the phone is brand new and "never used" than you shuodl be able to get at LEAST 150 if not 200 or more.

Then, go to the Rogers store (I'm asuming that you have Rogers service in your area..if you don't, figure out were you DO have service and go there) and ask for the phone that they have for free (this is acculy not true...its 0 dollars for the phone but you need to activate it for 25-30 i'm not exactly sure.) Anyway, you'll get a decent phone, and you'll pay a monthly fee of around 30 dollars, maybe more if you get interent, call display, and so on. Anyway, good luck.

Be carefull, because they will always try to get you to do deals, so when you go to Rogers, first find the phone that you want in a flyer. Figure out what kind of plan you want and STICK TO IT. They'll talk your ear off about a million different ways to waste your money, but dont' listen to them.

Good luck man, cell phone company's are ridiculouse.

NOTE: This is only a suggestion. If anybody else has anyways for you to KEEP the phoen you have now with a local provider withtout spending a million dollars, do tell.

johnnyb · Post by **johnnyb** » December 24th, 2005, 10:51 pm

as he was told go get it unlocked. Its not that difficult. There are places that will charge you to do it. Its not too expensive, however you could always try this since its not illegal to do you have nothing to worry about.

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » December 25th, 2005, 11:23 am

johnnyb wrote:as he was told go get it unlocked. Its not that difficult. There are places that will charge you to do it. Its not too expensive, however you could always try this since its not illegal to do you have nothing to worry about.

Thanks jb, I'm not sure how to go about unlocking it myself since I couldn't find a "step by step" procedure to do it. I'm not 100% on how or where to insert those codes. Does the phone have to be plugged into the computer via usb to do this, or is it all done on the phone itself?
I have to make a trip to Burlington tomorrow morning and wonder if there's a "shop" that can do this in around Burlington, Hamilton, Oakville area. I'm sure there's someplace there but wouldn't know where to start looking. Is this like a $20 to $30 dollar sort of fix?

johnnyb · Post by **johnnyb** » December 25th, 2005, 10:32 pm

yeah in my experience its pretty cheap. I know for sure theres a place in the Eaton centre on the lower level. Maybe on your way back from burlington you can make a quick stop. Its a booth in the middle of the mall. Big sign on it says "we unlock GSM phones"

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » December 26th, 2005, 9:14 am

Vanished wrote:Be carefull, because they will always try to get you to do deals, so when you go to Rogers, first find the phone that you want in a flyer. Figure out what kind of plan you want and STICK TO IT. They'll talk your ear off about a million different ways to waste your money, but dont' listen to them.

No kidding...my mom, dad and sister went to get a new phone for my mom and they tried forcing her to sell her a camera phone, fortuantly my sister was there, but they were like "she doesn't need a camera phone", and the sales lady said "well you don't need to use it" (and apparently very ignorantly, in which my sister responded back rudely as well)...if I was there, i would have told her off and walked out, that's the most ignorant thing I've heard any salesperson say.

Flashpoint2 · Post by **Flashpoint2** » December 26th, 2005, 12:40 pm

J-Beef, if you're in you're little "buyer's remorse" window you could probably just take it back and go get Roger's service. That's probably your best bet. Unlocking phones can sometime screw up your service, as the manufacturer's equip them with different software depending on what provider they are being sold by.

Drewation · Post by **Drewation** » December 26th, 2005, 1:49 pm

wow im so glad i do pay as you go you own the phone and just have to buy mins whenever no contracts and no other hassels anyways i use rogers and so far they have great service i havent had any problems with them at all both my my and sister are on a family plan and they havent had any problems either. ive never heard anything bad about fido i almost did switch to it once, but if i was you i would get off that plan as soon as possible and switch to a different server.

johnnyb · Post by **johnnyb** » December 26th, 2005, 2:09 pm

Flashpoint2 wrote:J-Beef, if you're in you're little "buyer's remorse" window you could probably just take it back and go get Roger's service. That's probably your best bet. Unlocking phones can sometime screw up your service, as the manufacturer's equip them with different software depending on what provider they are being sold by.

thats actually false. They all come preloaded with the same software. the only differences in the provders is the visuals that they load onto them. Everything else comes off of the SIM card that is easily switched once the phone is unlocked.

cdngrl420 · Post by **cdngrl420** » December 29th, 2005, 4:04 am

sorry for the late post but john if your phone has less then 30 mins talktime on it you can return it bcuz its still classified as a new phone, fido is a good company only if u live in the GTA area, but not in down town toronto go geta phone with bell my dad goes hunting as far north as ontario goes and he gets reception with bell whereas his buddies with rogers/telus dont.

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » December 29th, 2005, 6:00 pm

Just to add my .02 cents.. I recently got my Motorola V400 unlocked.. I found a guy on my local craigslist that came to my place of work and unlocked it. He even put in a sim from T-mobile into my phone and called my work # here to show me it was unlocked. (I have cingular as my carrier.. but not for much longer LOL) Anyway.. his service was $20 US. I did pay him an extra $10 US to come to me (Gas & time of course).

Check your local advertisements.. you may find someone cheap in your area that has the hardware to unlock motorola phones.

Cheers and I hope this helps

Tunes67