Verizon 5s

[greynlds]

1. Probably Nov/Dev.
2. Any iPhone comes with the 1yr warranty from Apple, changing providers or accounts has no bearing on this. You can also pay $100 (to Apple, not Verizon) to extend the warranty (AppleCare+) by 1 year (2yr total) and have 2 accidental damage claims on the phone ($79 deductible). AppleCare+ also doesn't care if you swap the phone between accounts, providers, owners, etc. Any issue with the phone you just call Apple or to go an Apple Store... never Verizon/ATT/etc.

Also if you don't buy AC+, you can always take the phone to an Apple Store for an out of warranty replacement. You swap the broken phone + $280ish for a refurb of the same color, model and size.

Thanks for the info. It sounds like my best bet is probably to wait for the Apple stores to get the phone in stock. Verizon isn't promising delivery dates much sooner than the end of October or early November anyway and it would be less hassle (and probably less expensive) if I don't have to setup and then cancel a Verizon account to get the phone.

 

[ronkuba]

Rather than starting a new thread, this one seems like a good place for me to ask my question... I'm fairly new to this forum, so if it would be better to start a new thread, let me know.

I currently have a 64GB iPhone 4S (I bought the AT&T no contract version for ~$850 from the local Apple store about 1 1/2 years ago). The phone is on my company's AT&T account, so they take care of the monthly phone/texting/data fees.

The company has recently decided to switch to Verizon, so I need to get a new phone. The way our company handles this is that we can get an 8GB iPhone 4S (or a few other low end choices, like a Blackberry Curve) provided for free OR we can purchase our own contract-free phone and have it activated on the corporate account. The phone I'd like to go with is a 64GB iPhone 5S.

I stopped by one of the local Verizon stores today and was told that they can sell me the 5S (when they get them one in stock) at the month to month price ($850), but they can't let a phone leave the store unless it's activated on a Verizon account. I have to provide my company with the phone's details after I get it and let them activate it (which could potentially take 24 hours), so I would be forced to start with an account with Verizon, switch over to the company account, and then cancel my Verizon account. They also told me that if I had the phone switched over to my company's account that the iPhone warranty through Verizon would be void (I've also seen this piece of info posted in several other places). I'm not keen on having to pay even for 1 month of service that I obviously don't need and I'm not at all happy about the prospect of having no warranty on a brand new phone. Worst case, would I be able to purchase another warranty (Apple Care?) to get warranty coverage?

I also stopped by the Apple store. The salesperson told me that they get a few Verizon contract-free phones in during the course of the week, but I'd have to get there early every day until I got lucky and got one which really isn't practical given that I sort of have to get work done in order to stay employed . My understanding if I bought the phone from Apple is that there would be no warranty issues with having the phone activated on my company's account and I obviously wouldn't have to setup a phone/data contract with a provider in order to purchase the phone.

I also called Apple and the salesperson I spoke with tried to convince me that the contract-free T-Mobile version of the 5S would work fine with Verizon. I'm pretty sure that's bad info.

So my questions:

Does anyone happen to know how soon Apple will have 64GB contract-free Verizon iPhone 5S's in stock so one can just walk in the store and have reasonably good odds of them being in stock?

Are there any other legitimate sources for contract-free Verizon iPhones that don't charge a huge premium over $850 for the 64GB version and don't have a requirement for setting up a contract with the service provider and/or void the warranty?

Do what I did, order online from verizon, select month to month, pick the cheapest plan. When the phone arrives call in and tell them to cancel the plan and you don't want the phone activated. Once that's done you have a contract free phone that works on the 3 carriers. I'm using mine with AT&T