Does purchase location matter?

[lancex]

I'm currently with T-mobile, but my contract is up this month. I'm strongly considering getting an Eris. Wal-mart has/had the $30 deal. I was told by someone at BestBuy that they would match it. This is a great price for this phone IMO, but I'm concerned that if I don't buy it directly from Verizon, I may have support issues later on. Is this a concern that I should have? Are there any other concerns that I maybe haven't considered? Any other thoughts on the subject?

 

[Moondonkey]

Don't take me as an expert on Verizon's policy, but if you want my opinion here it is.

You are entering into a contract with Verizon, not Wal-mart or Best Buy or wherever you buy it. I don't think you shouldn't have any problems with service down the road.


I bought my Droid from a independent cell phone store that sells exclusively Verizon on release day, because they had the best price. I got a pair of the Droids for $179.99 each with no activation fee.

I would go where you can get the best deal.

 

[mhotovec]

Like Moondonkey (Moon Donkey??? ) don't take me as a Verizon expert. However I expect when/if you have a hardware problem you'll end up taking the phone back to where you purchased it for service/exchange/repair. At some point you might find yourself caught in the middle between two companies saying "It's not our problem, it's their problem" if you need your phone serviced.
We got two from Verizon, $99 each with no activation fee. I had found them online for $49 dollars each, but decided to avoid potential problems and pay the extra $50.

 

[WOOLLECL]

I have got my last two phones from Wal-mart both of them being linked to a two year contract. If you have any issues with the phone you will deal directly with Verizon. The 1st one that I got was for my son and it gave us some problems, so I contacted verzion and they replaced it for free. The last one was the droid and I only paided 188.00 with out having to mess with the rebate process. At the time I got the phone I did not purchase the insurance and was told that I had 30 day to do so. Just yesterday I contacted Verizon 611 and they added the insurance for me. I guess that I am saying that it does not matter where you buy your phone, since the contract that you sign is with verizon. Bottom line, get the best price you can.