Negotiating Your Cell Contract It's a wild ride, but haggling with your cell carrier can pay off.

Back when I lived in San Francisco and visitors would ask me for directions, I usually had to tell them: "You can't get there from here."

Now, I know that's not literally true: Every Frisco street goes somewhere. What I really meant was, they couldn't find a way through San Franciso's alleys, one-way streets, dog legs and dead ends. Better to circle the city and approach the destination from a different compass point.

Still, everything's relative, isn't it? For example, I could crisscross all San Fran's compass points in the time it took me to coax a new cell phone agreement out of Sprint. It all started when I got a gander at Sprint's TV commercials aimed at new users. A longtime Sprint customer myself, I wanted in on those new phones, discount service plans, and early night and weekend start times. They were way better than my long-expired service agreement.