Disclaimer: I’m being paid to write this review.

In mid December 2006 our two year cell phone contract with Verizon was up and we didn’t renew. It would have been month to month after that, but we talked it over and decided we’d shop around for awhile and maybe go the pay as you go route. We paid OnStar for 100 minutes and as of this writing have 51 left, so we still have the ability to call from our the car, but otherwise we’re shopping.

Enter Wirefly which according to their own about page:

is the leading online retailer of cell phones and wireless service plans, offering more carriers, plans and phones than any other online cell phone store.

The parent company InPhonic Inc. is on the NASDAQ (symbol: INPC) and a quick perusal of the INPC perfomance at Google Finance shows the stock history as mostly trending downhill which surprised me somewhat considering they were #1 online for selling cell phones and services.

Site design, elements and page loading speed
Along the top of the Wirefly home page seven blue tabs are neatly aligned: home, phones, service plans, family plans, accessories, ring tones and pre-paid. According to the Webwait checker, page loading speed over five tests 60 seconds apart averaged 4.5 seconds. Maybe they were having some maintenance problems when I stopped by because I noticed some inconsistent loading between similarly sized pages with some loading extremely fast and others slow. A couple times I experienced timeouts.

Along the lefthand side of the home page prospective customers can enter their zip code and shop by carrier, phone and/or service plan. I entered our zip to test all three options and the resulting screens were designed well, clean and easy to understand and follow.

Minimal ads are run on the site with a standard banner atop to the right of the logo and smaller boxed mostly first party ads. They shove a lot of information into the pages, but manage to do it very well. A good example of how to get a lot of information into a small amount of space and not look cluttered and spammy.

Shop by carrier
Enter your zip code and choose the shop by carrier option and you’re taken to an additional screen to choose one or more carriers to compare. Wirefly uses J.D Powers & Associates Circle Rating system which showed the best carrier at T-Mobile and Verizon as the runner-up.

There’s a separate rating category for coverage area. T-Mobile received 5/6 and Verizon, Sprint, Nextel and others received 6/6. After choosing one or more you’re taken to a page detailing the plans including the pertinent information. The plan names by carrier are hyperlinked and you can click to have a small popup window tell you additional plan details like how long the subscription period runs, monthly cost and more.

You can “select” the plan and go to a page with phone options. You can search from there by phone that works with the plan. No unnecessary registration screens or annoying login reminders until you actually get to the point to pay for the shopping cart. If you don’t want to fill out the shopping cart forms you can also order by phone.

This is the way to do an online ordering system, I like it.

Shop by phone
For those who want to look for a cool phone first, use this option. Same deal as shop by carrier, enter zip, hit submit and start shopping by: carrier, phone brand or pre-paid phone. I checked out the selection of pre-paid phones from the available carriers: Cingular Go Phone, Liberty Wireless, Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile To Go.

Yes, they offer crack, er Blackberries too.

I didn’t see much in the way of smartphones and became a bit frustrated that there was no easily displayed search form. I know they offer smartphones because their guarantee talks about them (will cover the guarantee shortly). This is one glaring weakness. If you have a phone you are interested in and would like to buy through Wirefly but aren’t sure of the carrier you need to poke around or use Google and hope it’s covered there? Wirefly needs a site search. Anybody else see this anywhere?

Wirefly does offer a wireless wizard for those who aren’t sure what plan to buy.

Shop by plans
This will take you directly to plans by the carrier. Perhaps the least useful of the options unless you already know what company you want to do business with. Like the other two options, just enter your zip code and rock and roll.

Wirefly satisfaction guarantee
Wirefly offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee that basically says you can try out any phone and make a few short calls (no more than 30 minutes) and if you don’t like you can return and get your money back within 15 days. The fine print:

If you are not satisfied with your purchase or any other offers available from the wireless service provider, you may request a 100% refund of your purchase price. To be eligible for a refund, you must contact our Customer Service department within 15 days of your activation date to obtain a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) number, and you must ensure that we receive your purchase in original new condition including the wireless device(s) with no more than 30 minutes of usage, product literature, manufacturer packaging and parts shipped with your order within 30 days of your activation date.

You still need to contact the Wireless carrier directly to cancel their service, but most of them have 15 day return periods. This part which Wirefly can’t (or won’t?) help you with sometimes is easier said than done. We tried out a Sprint phone and service once upon a time and it took a couple calls to get them to acknowledge that we cancelled within 15 days and they received their phone back. Despite taking it into the store and getting a receipt, they still tried to bill us and called wondering why we didn’t pay their first and second bill. Buyer return beware.

The ahhhccessories and ringtones
The accessories tab leads to the accessories.inphonic.com subdomain and offers the ability to buy: car chargers, phone batteries, cases & holsters, Bluetooth, chargers, memory & data, faceplates and cover (skin your phone), headsets, value bundles, wireless signal boosters and the clearance items.

I don’t have much experience buying cell phone accessories but poking around at random the prices seemed reasonable and competitive.

As for the ringtones thing, since I don’t get the whole excitement with ringtones, I’m not going to leave that part of Wirefly to readers to decide on the merits. Personally, I think custom ringtones are annoying and not worthy paying extra. I can maybe see buying into software that allows you to make all the ring tones you want. The standard telephone ring works for me though and even when we have had cell phone service I haven’t done much (any?) ringtone customization. Better yet, vibrate mode and not bother everybody else, but keep in mind this is coming from a guy that doesn’t usually decorate his desktop either. I never promised to be a style hound.

I can see why Wirefly has this section though and I did clickthru to check it out briefly. I was mildly interested in their U-DOO service that allows you to create your own custom character and ringtones.

Wirefly affiliate program
Wirefly doesn’t stop at offering a compelling cell phone and service shopping site, they also offer an affiliate program through Linkshare (an affiliate program we like and also advertise here at Hmm). Since we are already with Linkshare I logged into our Linkshare account, checked the terms, and joined Wirefly’s program. We’re going to be running their banners and product text links in the future, if we aren’t already when you read this review.

Summary and grade
I can see why Wirefly is #1 in their niche. They have refined the site and have very few areas needing improvement (site search is one problem area). I bookmarked Wirefly.com and will likely be doing business with them on our next cell phone purchase. Highly recommended you check this site out for your next cell phone/plan purchase. I would welcome any comments on their service — good, bad or indifferent — from others who have tried Wirefly. Grade: A

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