DEAD DEAL: Potentially** GREAT deal on Samsung/T-Mobile phones/service!

So this has the potential to be a great deal. Or a huge waste of your time. But IF it works, it could be a great deal for you to use ... or to resell and make a potentially BIG profit. Read on for more details ...

UPDATE #2: It appears that the BOGO offer on the phones is gone, meaning that this deal is effectively dead.

UPDATE: HERE is a little sweetener for this deal.

Credit to this goes to Vinh over at Miles per Day who posted THIS.  (and Vinh credited SlickDeals)

** First off, I used those asterisks in the headline because this "deal" has a decent-sized upfront expense and commitment. And, as you'll read below, it has the potential to be a pain.

I'll let you go ahead and read all about this at Miles per Day, SlickDeals, and/or the TMobile website. Frankly, I don't have time to recap it all.

But I didn't want to post this until I tried it myself. I did, and I found it to be a frustrating experience. I have a good friend who also tried it and found it to be an even more frustrating experience. So you've been warned!

One KEY thing I'll add that I don't think was covered at Miles per Day (forgive me if I'm wrong!) is that you SHOULD be able to earn $200 per line (so $800 for 4 phones & 4 lines) if you sign up via TopCashBack shopping portal (my referral link). I would advise you to not EXPECT for this to work, but be VERY happy if it does.

In my experience, I signed up on Sunday evening. At first, I was denied (despite them running my credit and my credit being very good). I have no idea why I was denied. Then I tried again, and was denied again! I could have gone to the TMobile store (or called) to sort things out, but: a) going to cell phone stores is painful, and b) it probably would have invalidated my TopCashBack portal bonus.

So I signed up again last night (using a different credit card) and it worked!! Victory! Or so I thought. Be sure to save your order confirmation number, because I never got an order confirm email! So I did call them today, and after some arm-twisting, I got them to process the order with (supposedly) the same order number (to increase my chances of the TopCashBack bonus posting). In the end, the order number came out different - but I was told this is "normal" (and it was, again, supposedly tied to the same online order).

Now IF this all works, here's what I get:  a) 4 phones that are worth $780/each (and I could sell for nearly that amount if I don't want to keep them - obviously they'll be worth more if I don't open them!); b) a rebate (in the form of a MasterCard prepaid card) for the full value of the 2nd & 4th phones (which I can use to payoff those phones); c) 4 Oculus VR headsets (worth $100/each); and d) hopefully $800 from TopCashBack.  Not a bad haul for buying 2 full-price phones. And I'll have to keep the TMobile service (if I don't decide to stay with it) for at least a couple months probably (at which time I could turn off the service, pay for the 2 phones in-full, and walk away owning all 4 phones & VR headsets - to do with whatever I please). The couple months is to wait for the rebates to arrive on the 2 phones. The cheapest 4-person plan T-Mobile has is $100 month (the 2GB data plan).

Again, you've been warned that signing up for this can be a pain. You must be prepared that it might not work at all for you. And if you get far enough along in the process, they will run your credit report (and you still might not get the phones). But, if this deal works, whether you plan to keep the phones or not, it could be a GREAT deal.

It is unknown how long this deal will last. So if you're interested, you might not want to wait. I get nothing (as far as I know) for you doing this deal, unless you use my TopCashBack referral link (then I get a little something for you singing up - don't even know what it is off-hand).