Blackberries?

randomuser

I want to get a blackberry but I dont want to pay like the full 300-600 dollars, i have a contract with telus, do you think if I threaten to cancel my contract they will give me a deal?

I think itd be cheaper to pay some 50 dollar or so cancellation fee and just sign up again or somewhere else and get the deal with the contract

Im just curious how much discretion people at those booths have regarding prices etc

Broken Lizard

isn't it 20 dollars per month remaining on contract to cancel? up to a max of 400?
Least thats what my friend told me when I was thinking of doing the same thing. I'm with Rogers though, lol.

Which blackberry are you looking at?

imelting

you can call their customer relations and tell em you are considering switching carriers and see if they can offer u something

its a bit tougher since you r on telus, if u were on a gsm provider u would have more bargaining power and can usually negotiate a pretty sweet deal, not too sure if u can do the same w/ telus but worth a shot.. otherwise u just have to swallow the pill and cancel, then sign up elsewhere

vonnie

Everyone I know that has one, doesn't like it. *shrugs* Never saw what's so good about them. Care to enlighten me?

Magnificent_Bastard

There's no maximum cancellation fee with Telus. It's 20 per month remaining in your contract.

If you're thinking of a data phone, they usually offer you deals 6 months after you first sign your contract, so if you're past that point, you probably already have offers on your account. For example, the BB Pearl is $100 as long as you re-sign your contract for 3 years (that's 3 years from the day you get the Blackberry, not 3 years added to your original contract), and you have to switch your plan to a voice+data plan that amounts to $45/mth or more.

If you want to know what kind of offers you have, PM me your cell number or whatever, and I can check it for you. I'm actually at work right now.

As for why people get Blackberries these days, well, most people like looking more important than they really are. Some people really do need them, for the emailing, 'cause they're required to keep in touch with many people at once. But when I see kids in their teens, or ditzy blondes coming into my store wanting to buy a Blackberry, I always wonder why. They're paying more for a service they probably won't use, and in addition to that, Blackberries aren't as user friendly as regular phones. It's basically the "check me out, I have a fuckin blackberry" factor that makes it attractive. This goes for all data phones, actually. Motorola Q, all of those HTC phones, Treo, etc. I guarantee the majority of the people around our age that have those barely use the phones to even half of their potential. It's still just phone calls and text-messaging.

randomuser

thanks magnificent but before i saw your post i was looking at my mytelus info and apparently i do have those offers you speak of

but now im thinking twice about getting one, i really only plan on using it for email txting and calls, if thats all am i really buying it for a good reason? going on the web browser on my razr just sucks, and my work is almost entirely email based for communication, but at the same time I dont want to be paying significantly more than i am now

Magnificent_Bastard

Web-browsing on a blackberry will always cost a crapload of money. They intentionally give you very little data (2MB on the $15 data add-on, 4MB on the $25). That would be decent for emails with no attachments, but if you're going to be opening attachments and viewing web-pages, you'll be charged an arm and a leg in overage. But yeah, for emails, they're great, used it all the time when I had a Blackberry. Just be sure that if you get one, you're not going crazy with the data usage.

baby e

My bf just got one a few weeks ago and he loves it.

Broken Lizard

i just wanted one to text quickly, haha. 45 a month, ugh so much, no thanks, lol.

Magnificent_Bastard

Yeah, it's incredibly easy to rack up a high bill on any data phone with a Canadian provider. Hell, the cost of data hasn't really changed much. Seems they're about the same since I had my Blackberry back in early 2005. My first bill after that was about $600. Removed the data plan right after that. Also called into Rogers to complain about it. Lied and said the guy in the store told me that I'd have unlimited data. They refunded $500+ to me. Even though, if they would've checked, the name of the guy who activated my data plan was....me.