Is there a loophole with Cell Phone contracts?

My sister has been a long time subscriber to VerizonWireless...even back when they were Airtouch (and prior to that LA Cellular). She's had her beloved number for over 10 years...she's been so good at staying away from "local number portability" and trying out other carriers. She wanted the new Treo 700P and since she was not eligible for an upgrade - she didn't want to pay the retail $619 price for a new handset.

My father and I (really big Cingular fans and GSM in general) finally got my sister to switch over to Cingular (and pay the dreaded $175 VerizonWireless Term fee). She really wanted a phone with a keyboard, but didn't want to get the old Treo 650 but also couldn't wait until the Treo 680 became available. So what did she do - she settled for the Motorola iTunes SLVR phone. Since she's a Mac fan - her iTunes and purchased tunes synch'd right over. We even got her iSync hooked up to synch iCal and Addresses.

But she wasn't satisfied - she gets tons of txt messages and her previous VerizonWireless phone was the "V" phone with a qwerty. Needless to say...in the 10 days with the phone - she txt'd once and it was a horrible experience (what do you expect it was a Motorola).

After salivating over everyone else that had a Treo or other qwerty phone (like my Nokia E62 from Cingular), she gave in and decided to go back to VerizonWireless on her old phone...

Meanwhile, VerizonWireless sends her a "we want you back" package (actually a mailed letter) saying we'll do this and that and give you tons of free minutes to get you back (usual customer retention stuff).

For those of you that know me....I saw an opportunity for a "Jimmy Jamm" :-)

Here's the story:

We went to Cingular and said - we weren't satisfied with the phone and the service and just wanted to go back to VerizonWireless. They had no problem at all (even with the UPC code removed from the box to redeem the $50 rebate). They refunded the money and kept the line open so VerizonWireless can "port it back". The process here took about 15 minutes from start to finish.

Next we drove across town to our local VerizonWireless store.

After we showed them the letter...they were more than happy to help.

They allowed her to pick from any phone and any phone plan and basically startup a BRAND NEW 2-year contract and was allowed all the benefits of rebates and deep handset discounts. Sure enough - my sister picked the Ultra - Bad - Ass Treo 700p (Palm - yes, remember she has a Mac and Palm supports Mac out of the box - period). We got all kinds of deals and they also waived the early $175 term fee and waived the $35 new activation fee. Process took under 15 minutes once our time came up on the queue.

Overall my sister got a great deal. She got a new Treo 700P for the new contract price of $299 (and not the retail price of $619) AND she's still getting the $50 rebate from Cingular. The new contract didn't matter to her - she's a "lifer"

So let's do the math:

1) If you do the "normal" way, you would have paid $619 + tax for a new Treo 600p
2) If you did it the "Jimmy Jamm" way, you would have paid $299 + tax - $50 rebate from Cingular bringing that Treo down to $249 before taxes...

Money saved --> $370 before taxes.

NICE!