Hello everybody,

I am looking to get a cellphone for myself sometime soon, and I would like to ask all of you for some help. I need some pretty cheap phone, nothing too expensive, that might have some rebate deal on it so that it comes out to cost barely anything. I will also not need too many minutes, so I'm hoping to get a pretty good deal.

Please post any comments you might have or any links to offers. Thanks in advance.

I'm on Nextel's "Nextel National Free Incoming Plan".  If you receive more people calling you, then this works great because all your incoming is FREE.  Also, outgoing long-distance is FREE as long as you don't exceed your minutes.

So far (being on it for 1 year), I've never exceeded my outgoing minutes, and all my customers/people who call me (my "incoming"), I'm never charged for.

Like every company, there's good and bad about the service.  I'm very disappointed with their customer service end, but since I've heard horror stories about every other company out there, as well, it's not worth for me to change and take a down-graded plan and risk getting the same kind of bad customer service.

Nextel's plan was the best for my needs that I could find.

Here's the link:

http://nextel.com

P.S. the actual phone is cheap.  With rebates, you will probably only spend $49.95 for a phone.  Make sure you print out a copy of the ad that you see on the website for your records, because I paid $150 for the phone and they had offered a February special of a $100 rebate when I ordered in 2003, but when I got the phone there was only a $50 rebate coupon.  In March the website had the phone at $99.95 with a rebate of $50.

Anyway, when I called customer service, the person told me that the remaining $50 credit/refund of the rebate will appear on my 3rd statement (why 3rd statement and not right away?!!!,) but like a trusting soul, I waited and when that statement date came around, no credit/refund was issued.  I then called back again and they denied having ever had a $100 rebate and because I had no proof to back up my end, I just ate it.

I know there are others out there who probably went through what I did, because the first time I called, the rep said that someone just called regarding the same thing (boy I wish I had tape recorded the whole ordering when the salesperson told me the rebate was $100 and when the other rep said someone else called about that).

Normally, I would immediately put in a complaint to the FTC but because I had no paperwork to back up my side of it, I had to let it go.

Anyway, just make copies of everything, so you have proof if they ever deny what they promised.

To tell you the truth, I can't even remember which company that is.. Verizon? Sprint? Gah!

Thanks for all the help everybody. Keep the comments coming...

hey Coon i will make you a deal, you can have my cell phone. i dropped a pallet on it it still works you just cant see anything on the display, so when some one calls its real crap shoot. lets talk numbers here, send me a pm so we can do business.    oh BTW, i heard verizon is pretty good.

hey what can i say i drive a hard bargain.