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[frankly_norse]

I searched on this topic but didn't get anything current - would love some advice on purchasing a SIM-capable cell phone here in HCMC. I went to a place yesterday that had prices very close to what I'd pay back in California. Maybe that's how it is with this type of purchase? Also, is it bad form to try to negotiate a lower price than sticker in the more western style electronics shops?

[LettersAthruZ]

Nope...bargain EVERYWHERE in Vietnam (except in the obvious places like restaurants, Big C / METRO supermarkets where the price is clearly listed, etc. etc.)...doesn't matter HOW "western-looking" the place is!!

What I find with mobile phones here is that they are AT LEAST one generation behind (to what we have in the West).

An example being is that I saw one store a few months ago touting the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone for, like, 7,500,000VND (or, say, $375USD).

I was slightly impressed by this...looked cool enough, 3G, all the stuff....but before I plunked down any ca$h, I ran home to Google specs and such.

Found it was released in 2008 in The States....then found them on eBay, also brand new, averaging at $250USD......

See if you can get a decent shipping (WITH insurance) price and grab one on eBay and have a friend ship it to you.....phones are so badly overpriced for obsolete stuff here that it isn't even funny.....

[hot_rock]

1 generation behind? Nonsense. Most of my sdtudents and Vn friends seem to have the very latest phones- iPhones, nokias with keyboards (you know the ones...).

[LettersAthruZ]

Right - well, also, I'm not in The South.....up here (and in Da Nang as well), thee only people who have iPhones and such (and most of THOSE are pirated Chinese knock-offs with an Apple logo on 'em) are Viet Mafia types.....one can't find ANY Androids up here......

....you may be correct in referring to HCMC ONLY, but still, even if there are current generation phones there (that aren't pirated knock-offs), I'd wager that they're still 25%-40% higher in cost than in The West.....

[tefl peasant]

Go to several phone shops and compare prices for the phone you want.

You can ask a friend, also. if he/she got a phone you like at a certain price you can compare.

Phone shops all over town...too many.

[tonyjones01]

[LettersAthruZ]

GOOD point....that's why I said WITH insurance ('cause I KNOW that either Customs OR V.N.P.T. will lift it and then claim that it went missing)......

.....I've musta gotten lucky - I've had things shipped here on a few occasions (net values generally around two or three hundred USD) and they just got dropped at my door....never got hit up for import taxes of any sort! Weird.....just caught a break, I guess!

Just remember to negotiate HARD! Like TEFL Peasant said, there literally are almost too many cell phone shops all over Vietnam....use this fact to your advantage when negotiating!!

[tonyjones01]

[I'm With Stupid]

I got my phone from Nguyen Kim. Same price as back home. I think they're usually a few months behind on release dates of the latest models, but nothing too drastic. The Samsung Galaxy S was being advertised as coming soon, and had only been out for a couple of months elsewhere.

[toiyeuthitmeo]

one of the best decisions i ever made was never to buy an expensive phone here. i've been through no less than 5 cheap phones here due to theft, clumsiness, and big-night-assisted mysterious circumstances. or maybe if I bought an expensive one i'd take more care? in any case, the back and green-screen nokias are everywhere and if you send your viet friend to buy for you, cost 400,000 dong and do the job sans bells and whistles.

[tefl peasant]

I bought a good quality, name-brand phone many years ago, when it was considered the "cheapest" on the market (as in price).

I still have the same old, phone. And I love it.

I'd never buy an expensive phone because of the possibility of theft, but I know people that have had 5-10 phones stolen/lost.

It's common sense. You keep your phone in your pocked. Don't put it on the table at a cafe/bar or club.

If you have street crumudgeons come to your aparment/room or house that is the risk you take.

Common sense.

[frankly_norse]

thanks everybody for your input on this. my class starts monday so i bit the bullet and forced myself to just buy the cheap one (haven't made any strong enough viet friends yet to feel ok enough w/ the imposition - that and really i need to be able to fend for myself if i'm going to make it here, right?).

i tried kim nguyen yesterday twice - first during the day but i wasn't yet sure what to get and then again at night once i'd girded my loins but then they were so busy and the music was so loud and i have a real problem hearing w/ that much white noise so i bailed rather than freak out on frustration and anxiety, so i went over to hoan long mobile which is on the right side of ton that tung north of nguyen trai going as you head toward district 3, i think this is the address:

C�ng Ty Cp M�y T�nh Ho�n Long
101, Sương Nguyệt �nh, P.Bến Th�nh, Q.1, Vietnam

the staff there was initially aloof but once i was able to communicate that this was my first phone in vietnam, they became quite helpful. the store is also not plagued by loud music so i could hear myself and the staff easily. one young lady, looked a lot like lucy liu, spoke enough english to make it all work. low pressure and i could tell they were trying to help and not take advantage.

i got a nokia 1280. the phone also came with what appeared to a gift 35k dong sim card but the phone is not recognizing it - no doubt i misunderstood what the staff was trying to tell me about it. they seemed to indicate that i needed to take that sim to a vina shop to have something done. when i did that, the people at the vina shop had no idea what i was asking for or why anything needed doing. so i'll be hitting this streets this morning looking for a SIM. hopefully it's my own stupidity and not something with the phone!!

thanks again everybody for the hand holding!!

[Oh My God]

[tefl peasant]

When you buy/register a new number/SIM card now you have to bring your passport b/c they want one number per one person in general, as many people have had several numbers. It think it's a good idea.

[jamieg]

I got a sim from a shop on Huynh Thuc Khang and didn't have to register it or anything. Just put it in and started using the bundled minutes that it came with.