Monday, April 20, 2015

I need help figuring out what phones my mom can buy for her plan


I need help figuring out what phones my mom can buy for her plan

So last week my mom shut her phone in her car door. She went into the Verizon store, and as always, gets flustered and threatens to leave Verizon, blah blah. Anyway, the employee she was talking to said she could buy a phone from an outside vendor (i.e. not Verizon) and then activate it as her number on the Verizon network.

I don't know much about this because I've bought all my phones from Verizon and thus, they work great on the Verizon network. Recently, my mom sent me some links from eBay and asked how I felt about her getting a phone from eBay.

So I have a few questions:

  1. Is it a good idea for her to get a phone from eBay?

  2. Some of the links she sent said the phones were "unlocked for GSM" or just "unlocked". I wasn't really sure how any of that played into the Verizon network. I read this, which cleared up a few things. I'm still pretty confused, though. What do I need to look for in a phone for her? Does the phone need to be unlocked for CDMA? As far as I can tell, she does not want one unlocked for GSM, is that correct? Should I just look for one originally from Verizon being sold? She's looking into a 4G LTE phone on Verizon (Edge, I think? Not really sure if that makes a difference). I suggested the Droid Turbo, as that's what I have and I like it. All the eBay links she sent me were the Droid Ultra. I think I'd like to stay on Motorola phones just because that's what she (and I) are used to, so when she has questions I can answer them easily.

  3. Besides Amazon and eBay, are there other places that sell phones (reputably) that I need to know about?

  4. If she doesn't buy a phone directly from the Verizon store, can she still get insurance for it? Are there outside insurers that she could look into?

Thanks for your help. If I've been unclear about anything, please ask and I'll edit this post.



Submitted April 20, 2015 at 09:03PM by _blackbird
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