The $0.60 Verizon Cell Phone Battery At Amazon.com

Posted by The Happy Rock on October 1, 2007

18 month into our two year contract our Verizon LG VX4650 cell phone began to act up. Gradually, the cell phone seemed to hold a charge for shorter and shorter periods of time. Then one day after only ten minutes on the charger the phone was blinking ‘Charge Complete’. I knew it couldn’t be fully charged, because the phone was just dead and it normally takes over an hour to charge. The phone thought that battery was fully charged, but I would only get one or two battery bars. The phone was almost useless, except if it was plugged into a car charger.

I called Verizon and they said I have to go to a local store for battery problems. At the store they confirmed it was the battery, and offered me a replacement for $39.99. I asked for a deal, and they weren’t having any of that. I persisted and he finally asked if I wanted the battery in an exasperated ‘I just work here tone’, and I replied with “I think I could find it for much cheaper online”. I didn’t really know if I could find it cheaper, but I was running off the assumption that dealer retail stores severely mark prices up and that the net offers some great deals.

Little did I know, I would find the exact battery for my Verizon cell phone on Amazon for just $0.60. Click here to see the deal page. The great thing about the internet is that there were a couple of reviews, most of which were positive, reassuring me that it wasn’t a scam. Since it was sold through an Amazon third party Eforcity, shipping was $5 for a total of $5.60.

The catch here was that more expensive and name brand is not always better! The battery sold directly through Amazon was about $9.00 and the reviews were nearly as good.

I received the battery in a no frills shipping envelope in about 3 days. Popped the battery right in the phone and hooked it up to the charger. In about an hour the phone was fully charged and showing a full battery. The phone now lasts about a week without having to be charged, just like 18 months ago. The deals you find on the web at places like Ebay and Amazon are incredible; you just have to be creative and get comfortable with the web.

Similar deals can be found for Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Motorola, and other such cell phone batteries.

» Filed Under Cell Phones, Frugality, Money Savers

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Comments

8 Responses to “The $0.60 Verizon Cell Phone Battery At Amazon.com”

Quad City Classified Poster (1 comments.) on October 4th, 2007 5:02 pm

If they only had a brick and mortar store to get around the shipping costs. I wonder how much the battery actually costs them wholesale.
shela on November 9th, 2007 11:03 pm

Thank you for the tip! I searched Amazon and found a battery for my Motorola phone for around $2.60, less than $7 including shipping. That was much less expensive than the ones I found on other sites (around $20 to $24, plus shipping!). So I will take the $20 I saved and apply it to debt reduction.

I looked at several site to try to sell my old phone. But I guess the phone is too old. Nobody wants it!
The Happy Rock (329 comments.) on November 12th, 2007 10:57 pm

Shela,

Glad to help and welcome to The Happy Rock.
mattb @ cool ringback tones (1 comments.) on December 3rd, 2008 1:28 am

thanks for taking the time to blog this … I recently had a similar thing happen to me, but it was my charger not the battery. The markup in the carrier and bigbox stores is just awful on accessories … good to know that the no-name products are worth ordering to save some cash.
aaron@cellphone accessories wholesale (1 comments.) on April 19th, 2009 10:27 am

That is a really good deal you got on that battery. Honestly that is below wholesale cost and there is no way to make any money on a battery that cheap.
mark (2 comments.) on June 27th, 2009 5:59 pm

i have got my batterys from amazon in the past with no problems.