Best Buy Mobile to skip rebate, sell Palm Pre for $199.99 outright
By Darren Murph 
posted May 20th 2009 11:21AM
posted May 20th 2009 11:21AM
[Via Brighthand]
posted May 20th 2009 11:21AM
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It is true 199.99 out the door, but you will still get taxed at the retail price of the phone
as in for upgrades and add a line prices might be diffrent
That is determined by the state. Completely irrelevant as to wether it is bought from Sprint directly or a Best Buy.
If you go to any Sprint Kiosk (inside most major malls) or RadioShack you can get it without Mail-in-rebates too! Who REALLY wants to pay an extra $100 if you don't have to. And as an added bonus you wont have to wait in line for hours at the Sprint Kiosk or Radioshack because mostly everyone will go to Sprint Corporate or BestBuy.
@Dolittledy
IIRC Best Buy is the exclusive retailer of this thing and it won't show up at Radioshack or any of the other resellers. Just Best Buy and Sprint Store.
SERO!
Okay...I just joined Sprint back in early December. So I'll be at 6-7 months when this phone gets released. I currently have a Samsung Ace and love it, but it's kinda sluggish, I'm starting to really miss having a touch screen and I didn't know about the problems with the ear piece allowing dust to get inside the phone between the LCD and glass.
Plus I kinda banged it into a railing and now there's this nasty discolored spot on the bottom left corner of the screen :(
But...I'm SOL, aren't I? I can't walk in and get this for $200 as I sign a new 2 year contract...correct?
If you add a number to your account, yes.
If you just want to replace your current phone and keep the same number, no.
nope you would have to pay full retail (which i hear is $549 according to a post yesterday). i think you get some kind of discount at like 10 months or so though, so you wouldn't have a completely unbearable wait to get some kind of discount. it'll give you time to see all the bugs worked out first and judge the issues (every phone, no matter how awesome, has some issues at launch).
But does it work for people upgrading?! You also get rewards points too, which is an added bonus for people who tend to shop at best buy.
Actually, if you are Sprint Premier (69.99 or more a month plan) then you only have to wait til December...
hey morons. radioshack and sam's club don't do mail in rebates either, and their return policy is a lot smoother than best buy's.
why are we morons? they mentioned that in the announcement post yesterday anyway.
How much easier can a return get? Bring it to Best Buy, get your money back (no restocking fee), or pick a different phone...yeah, what a pain in the ass.
Does anyone know if this is still true for Adding A Line????
that's probably where i'll end up buying mine from. no need doing a mail in rebate if i don't have to.
i wonder how much Sprint looses to Best Buy on this though cause i'm sure Best Buy gets something out of it or they wouldn't do it. i doubt the mail in rebate will stick for long anyway.
bestbuy can recognize the revenue on this sale, that is incentive enough.
RadioShack never does mail-in rebates (even on upgrades!) and will probably be easier to get into than a BB because nobody is going to think to go to RadioShack first.
I think it's nuts you guys blatantly ignore your partonage relationship with The 'Shack to exhibit the blue box bias. Last I checked it wasn't Best Buy ads I saw posted all over this site. Come to my shack and pick a pre up and I promise I wont try and hock you battteries. much.
I went through the Sprint rebate process when I got my Touch Diamond in November. I don't remember having any issues and I'm pretty sure I got the money within a month.
But yeah, if I had the choice I would get it without the rebate.
Except everyone is forgetting one major thing- Lest buy, Crappy Shack and Wal Marx will have little to no stock. So unless you get there before they open and wait in line, see you at the sprint store with everyone else. Oh, and upgrades are not instant at anybody's place.
Um, yes they are... where ru getting this info?? Ugrades or not, Best Buy, Radio Shack etc. DO NOT DO MAIL IN REBATES AT ALL... why is that so difficult to understand??
i upgraded to the instinct when it release last year @ Best Buy and didnt have to deal with a MIR then, so why is now any different...
they are going to eat the rebate....in a way instead of you getting the rebate they are going to get it back, its a trick that some third-party dealers are doing, its getting hard in some areas to sale new activations, too many people are saving and not buying, so the best thing to do is if the customers seems like they are going to stay on contract and not going to cancel(people still do it even unther contract) then we just send the rebate for us and we discount it for them
As it is a wanted device risk seems to be less, then the more rebates can be done and automatic discounts will be for customers, as business is and how big is best buy they have a better chance of not lossing as much and getting alot of customers(as long as brightpoint has stock)
where i work we do it to some people but being a small third-party and the area the risk is high, we might end up loosing alot of money
when did radio shack stop using mail in rebates when i worked for them less then 2 years ago pretty much every cell phone had a mail in rebate and on att they forced you to get a data plan to get the mail in rebate so when did all this change
and a note the training at radio shack no stinks and the people are worthless from what i have seen they cut the pay 2 years ago so bad all the people that had any real knowledge just up and quit and got jobs that paid better so really they are little better then the people at wal mart now good luck if you try and go to them
Radioshack has stopped using mail-in-rebates for a little over a year. And its great! I work for a Sprint Kiosk and I know that both RadioShack & The Sprint Kiosk's are going to carry them on launch day! I know at my location I am setting up a reserve list, which worked perfect for me on Instinct Launch day.
Dear US mobile phone purchasers, welcome to how the rest of the world works.
In a few years, you might all have started texting, some decent phones might actually be available free on a contract and Motorola might finally stop releasing new versions of the Razr ;-)
For the 100th time, RS does not have MIRs for Sprint. Not for new, not for upgrade, not for add-a-line. And AFA the Sprint stores, I know my local one does do MIRs for upgrades.
Oh, and as for all of the "helpful" RS Associates offering to sell Pre's to everyone, read your memos and rethink your offer. It's only launching in "select" stores in a couple states in the South, East, and West. But, hey, there's always the S30 to sell! :)
the point still would stand radio shack killed itself by cutting the pay the way it did so the people working at radio shack right now are half trained and rather sad when measured up to the people who used to work for radio shack so why would a person want to buy a phone from them