This is my first post to the Electronics Forum and I'm glad to have the resource. The kitchen, bath, painting, electric, garden and cooking forums have all proven very helpful in the past.

My husband and I need new cell phones. Our priorities are best reception and durability. I would like a camera, he could care less. We don't text because we are too chea...I mean frugal to pay more than the outrageous price we already pay them monthly.

"They" are US Cellular, we live in central Maine and have extremely limited options for cell service. We are not currently on a contract and would prefer not to go back on one. I called the local store yesterday and spoke with someone who was just short of rude. He had no idea how to sell a phone to a grown-up person who doesn't need an MP3 player or to download and can recall when phones lasted forever (okay, they had a cord and were very very large). I resent that a phone is now disposable but I guess I will get over it. I would spend more money to get a better phone but it seems that the price of the phones go up with the add-ons, not because there are a superior product.

We both have Motorola V265 phones that we purchased with our previous contract, not quite three years ago. Both of our phones refuse to hold a charge, we tried new batteries and that didn't work. To complicate matters we have recently disconnected our landline service and reception in our home seems to have worsened. I'm truly hoping that's something to do with the phones. We've had all sorts of dropped calls recently and I'm going crazy!

The brands the US Cellular guy mentioned for sale in the store were Motorola, Samsung, LG and Kyocera. He personally doesn't like the Kyocera phones. He did not believe that there was any improved reception between brands but people have told him Motorola is better.

I would prefer to NOT buy a phone through the company and get one on eBay. If I do that, do I need to bring my phone to them to activate it or can I do it myself?

Thanks for hanging with me on this,

Linda