Droidinite
Lurker
SOLVED
Solution: The new phones need to be activated (lines switched to their ESNs) for legal purposes. They can be immediately deactivated (switch lines back to old ESNs) and sold. This answer was given to me from another source and agrees with my expectations. Thank you all!
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Original Question
I'm a current Verizon month-to-month customer with 4 lines. I plan on signing up for a new family account to get the Droid X cheap. In looking at the plans, I see that I can get 3 free feature phones for the other lines. The people on those other lines like the phones they have, so I'd like to sell the 3 free feature phones.
I have been told elsewhere that if I do not activate these phones on my account after receiving them, that I will be charged full retail price for them. So, my question is what activation/deactivation process must I go through to not be charged the retail price.
My understanding at this point:
1) Setup account, receive phones
2) Activate the 3 feature phones on my account (If I understand correctly, I change the ESNs for the lines to the new phones' ESNs)
3) Reactivate the old phones on their lines (change back to old ESNs)
4) Have avoided full retail. ESNs are clear on new phones and free to sell on ebay.
If this is right, do I have to keep the new phones activated on the account for a certain period of time (say a day or a week) to ensure that this works, or is it enough that they were activated on the account *at some point*.
Let me know if this is the right idea, or what I can do (if anything) with these free phones besides just keeping them as spares. If I can sell them (and not get charged full retail), that'd be awesome (and seems to make sense from everything I've seen).
I can't wait to get my droid on and try some app programming.
Thanks! =)
Edit: Added that I'm a current Verizon month-to-month customer.
Solution: The new phones need to be activated (lines switched to their ESNs) for legal purposes. They can be immediately deactivated (switch lines back to old ESNs) and sold. This answer was given to me from another source and agrees with my expectations. Thank you all!
-----------------
Original Question
I'm a current Verizon month-to-month customer with 4 lines. I plan on signing up for a new family account to get the Droid X cheap. In looking at the plans, I see that I can get 3 free feature phones for the other lines. The people on those other lines like the phones they have, so I'd like to sell the 3 free feature phones.
I have been told elsewhere that if I do not activate these phones on my account after receiving them, that I will be charged full retail price for them. So, my question is what activation/deactivation process must I go through to not be charged the retail price.
My understanding at this point:
1) Setup account, receive phones
2) Activate the 3 feature phones on my account (If I understand correctly, I change the ESNs for the lines to the new phones' ESNs)
3) Reactivate the old phones on their lines (change back to old ESNs)
4) Have avoided full retail. ESNs are clear on new phones and free to sell on ebay.
If this is right, do I have to keep the new phones activated on the account for a certain period of time (say a day or a week) to ensure that this works, or is it enough that they were activated on the account *at some point*.
Let me know if this is the right idea, or what I can do (if anything) with these free phones besides just keeping them as spares. If I can sell them (and not get charged full retail), that'd be awesome (and seems to make sense from everything I've seen).
I can't wait to get my droid on and try some app programming.
Thanks! =)
Edit: Added that I'm a current Verizon month-to-month customer.
You're not required to pay for any data plan if the smartphone is not active, so no worries that Verizon will charge you more.