got a Tour on a early upgrade

So I was just wondering if this has happened to to anyone else:

My wife and I switched from cricket to US Cellular in August at the time we got 2 cheap A** Samsung SCH u340 phones. I really hated that phone with a passion, but at the time we could not afford to get BlackBerries. The 30day gurantee came and went. As much as I wanted a blackberry it was not in the cards. So I went to eBay and purchased 2 Moto w385's for less then $10 I activated them on my account and I liked them allot better then the u340 Last week a rep from US Cellular calls and tells me that my account had 2 upgrades available because we were using the W385. What that was awsome, i thought I had to wait a year or more before I qualified for an upgrade. I still did not beleive her until we went to US Cellular last week and got 2 Tours at upgrade price. we had to sign another contract but we signed the first in August so really whats 3 more monts added to it, and the best part is I now have a BlackBerry. SO is this normal or did I get lucky and find a loophole by activating 2 older phones?

It's not really a loophole so much as the fact that USCC is pushing hard to get people to switch to smartphone to increase their data revenues. They likely would have called you even if you didn't switch to the w385's. They've been running a promotion for a while that if you've never had a smartphone on your account then you can upgrade early.

Win for USCC b/c they now get an extra $50/month out of you with the data plans and win for you because you got your Tours.

Originally Posted by BigE4284

It's not really a loophole so much as the fact that USCC is pushing hard to get people to switch to smartphone to increase their data revenues. They likely would have called you even if you didn't switch to the w385's. They've been running a promotion for a while that if you've never had a smartphone on your account then you can upgrade early.

Win for USCC b/c they now get an extra $50/month out of you with the data plans and win for you because you got your Tours.

my bill did not go much higher it was like 20 more dollars a month no biggie but I guess 20x12= $240.00 more dollars yearly for US Cellular so that is still a win for them too. :)

Originally Posted by Rmorton0573

my bill did not go much higher it was like 20 more dollars a month no biggie but I guess 20x12= $240.00 more dollars yearly for US Cellular so that is still a win for them too. :)

Double check, the associate may have done it incorrectly but every BlackBerry requires the $24.95/month/line BIS data plan or the $39.95/month/line BES data plan (typically for corporate email access).

So if both you and your wife got BB's then each line SHOULD also have an additional $24.95/mo data plan.

The plans are on the right hand of the page
U.S. Cellular

Originally Posted by BigE4284

Double check, the associate may have done it incorrectly but every BlackBerry requires the $24.95/month/line BIS data plan or the $39.95/month/line BES data plan (typically for corporate email access).

So if both you and your wife got BB's then each line SHOULD also have an additional $24.95/mo data plan.

The plans are on the right hand of the page

$20 was just an estimate, we had the Unlimited Family Messaging and Mobile Internet plain which is $50 per month,we dropped that and added the 2 BB plains $25 per month x2 so bill stayed the same here, we also added Unlimited Family Messaging which is $30 per month. It upped my bill by $30 so closer to $360 more per year but still not a bad deal for what we have, and cheaper than some other carriers we checked with.

Absolutely, just wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting into.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Question - Why do you have Family Messaging if you have 2 Tours? You would be better off using Blackberry Messenger instead of Texting and Email instead of Picture Messaging. Then you would just need the BIS plan.

Originally Posted by as400man

Question - Why do you have Family Messaging if you have 2 Tours? You would be better off using Blackberry Messenger instead of Texting and Email instead of Picture Messaging. Then you would just need the BIS plan.

My son is on our plain also he just has a basic flip phone, but him and my wife can send a 1000+ text per month each, and only a few of our friends have BB's or other "smartphones". so beleive me if we did not have unlimited texting my bill would skyrocket

Does USCC still have this early upgrade option for people going from a dumb to a smart phone? Been trying to get my friend to do it but one store told her she had to wait till her renewal date. Tried looking at the USCC web page but not finding any info on it.

Originally Posted by kmstampe4

Does USCC still have this early upgrade option for people going from a dumb to a smart phone? Been trying to get my friend to do it but one store told her she had to wait till her renewal date. Tried looking at the USCC web page but not finding any info on it.

They do still have it. It's not on the website but if she goes to a corporate store or telesales they'll hook her up.

Originally Posted by BigE4284

They do still have it. It's not on the website but if she goes to a corporate store or telesales they'll hook her up.

Cool Thanks for the quick reply! :cool: