Cellswapper Archive

Got some news from a new startup last evening. Cellswapper is a new service which was designed to help you get out of your mobile contract quickly and for a reasonable price vs. the early termination fees. Some of these fees exceed $200 and with all carriers basically requiring a 2-year contract (such crap), this may be a way to get out quick. Luckily I finished my contract about 2 years ago and can go at will (you hear me Cingular!)

The process appears to be pretty easy:

• Signup and post your contract
• Pay a fee "success" of $15
• When someone is interested in your plan – Cellswapper makes the transfer with the carrier
• You are now out of your contract and free to purchase an iPhone (ha)

I think the service could certainly have some strong interest especially with these new 2-year requirements. I do have a couple concerns:

• First a simple one – fix the type in your footer – the type looks "cheesy" and not on the level when it matches the background – appears as though they are trying to fool the search engines.
• Could an evil purchaser have access to the former user's account?
• What about the phone! This is a big one. Do I get your phone? I didn't see a clear answer to this. Since some of the carriers require certain phones (i.e. cdma), how do we get a phone without a new contract unless we go eBay or pay crazy prices for unlocked and free from contract phone.
• We have big usability issues… for example, when you do a search, the results flip, but there is no way to get back to the previous option, so if you miss it I guess you have to wait until it flips again? Same thing happens on the buzz page.
• U.S. only at this point

Here is a video that Cellswapper created to explain the service. It's a cute cartoon.