Topic: Anyone ever buy an "Unlocked" Cell Phone on eBay?

[micah]

My wife and I currently have cellphones from Cingular and have been customers of theirs for about 6 years.   We like new phones but don't want to keep having to renew our contracts every other year to get the latest phones.

my wife really wants one of those pink Razor phones and her birthday is in a couple months.

I'm thinking of buying her one on eBay, either used for around $100 or NIB for $200.  According to most of the ads on eBay, they say that there is no programming required and that you can just slip your SIM card into the phone and it will work.

Does anyone know if this is true?  Sounds pretty easy but I don't want it to backfire and have to go through a whole bunch of hastle.

Some of the phones sold online say they are "Unlocked" and will work on almost ANY network while others say they are programmed for "Cingular"  - do you think it matters which one I buy?

Thoughts?     

[Perspective]

If it doesn't work you can spend $10 bucks to have it unlocked. I see places that advertise doing that everywhere. Never tried it myself though

[ober]

I'd personally buy the Cingular-specific phone.  They basically flash the phones with a new version of the embedded software that opens up or ties down the access you have within the network.

EDIT: And if you end up getting a v3 RAZR, let me know.  I just ran across a way to hack them the other day.  You just need a cable and a hex editor.  I was going to hack mine but got scared.

[Jake]

i never bought an unlocked phone, but i got a decent ericsson a few years back..I spent 10 bucks on the data cable and unlocked it easily with some free software that you can find everywhere on the net.

[Steve]

watever u get make sure they give you the IEMI so you can make sure it isnt stolen

[drakkenkorin]

and then provide cingular with said imei number