Last Tuesday I noticed that my beloved Android didn’t seem to be charging for very long. My room is littered with chargers and adaptors from previous cell phones and other electronics. I’d already “killed” several of them. Rather than drag it out, I high tailed it down to Staples on my lunch break on Wednesday to buy a universal adaptor for the bargain price of $25.00. Back at the office, my cell phone charged up nicely and all was right in the world again. Lo and behold, the cell didn’t seem to be holding a charge again that night or the following morning. Since the adaptor was brand spanking new, I came to the conclusion that – OMG – there must be something wrong with the phone. I expected the worst – that my phone had died. So on my lunch break on Thursday, I made a little trip to the closest Verizon branch. My worst fears were true. The “charger thingie” on the side of my Android was damaged and couldn’t be fixed. Since my phone was no longer under warranty (only good for a year) and since I wasn’t due for a discounted upgrade to a new phone until next January, I’d be forced to buy a new phone at full retail price. I rolled my eyes and asked them what ridiculous price that would be. They assured me that it would be possible for me to buy a phone anywhere else that was adaptable to their system. Let’s see, my land line is no more and my current cell phone is dead. I have no communication (phone-wise) with the outside world and didn’t have any more time to waste on my lunch break to search in person or via the internet for another phone, let alone wait for it to arrive, should it be ordered on-line. I just wanted to get the business over and done with. They informed me that a new phone comparable to or better than my Android would run between $400 and $575 in the full retail price range! They couldn’t mistake my look of unhappiness. So they asked if I’d ever considered getting a tablet. Honestly, I’d intended to research tablets next week because I’m tired of dragging the heavy laptop on trips with me. They promised that if I got a tablet through them, not only would they give me a discounted price on a new phone, but they’d also give me a better data plan. My current data plan gives me 5 g’s of data for something like $50/month, which isn’t nearly enough if I want to download photos, listen to radio stations or watch YouTube. The salesman was dead set on hard selling me an iPhone and an iPad Mini. I’ve never been one to jump on the bandwagon and have what everyone else has; that’s so not like me. I’ve been against an iPhone for years. As for a tablet, a Kindle Fire was my main thought. Said salesman told me that he’d been against an iPhone until he got one about 6 months ago; now he can’t live without it. He said that the only thing comparable would be the new Samsung Galaxy, but he didn’t show me anything other than Apple products! Due to my limited time, I really didn’t give a flying F*** at the moment; just needed to get a working phone immediately and get back to the office before my boss had a heart attack wondering as to my whereabouts. I walked out of there with an iPhone 5 (which will be obsolete when the new one comes out in what – a month?!) and an iPad Mini, along with 1 extra g of data for the same price as before. Not bad, I thought. The iPhone was sold to me at the discounted price; I paid a deposit on the iPad Mini and the other payments will be spread out over 12 months. Back to the office I went, feeling confused.
After lots of time messing with both of them, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m madly in love with the iPad Mini, but am not at all impressed with the stupid iPhone that everyone raves about. There’s only one button on the iPhone, which means there isn’t a “back” button. When you want to go back, you press the one button that takes you back to your home screen, which isn’t necessarily where I want to go. The camera was far better on my Android. It takes a million years for a picture taken with the camera on the iPhone to download directly to Facebook. While my Android had all kinds of free apps and free music, Apple charges you for every move you make. Believe me, I haven’t been able to find any truly free music. As for my Hawaiian radio stations, most of them don’t seem to be available on the iPhone. The one plus is that I can finally listen to my favorite L.A. radio station, KROQ, again. That one comes in quite clearly. I downloaded “free” Italian lessons. Out of about 20 lessons, only the first 4 are free, then they charge you. The first 4 are for beginners, so I definitely don’t need those. The truly creepy thing about the iPhone is that I linked it to my Facebook account, not quite knowing what it would do. As I was browsing my Contacts last night, I was amazed to find that it gave me all kinds of personal information about people, based on their telephone number alone. Certain guys from the dating website had given me only their first name and a phone number. With the iPhone, it filled in the blanks, so to speak. This little stalker of a phone gave me their last name, a photo (in some cases) and their Facebook profile name. It also lists certain people as my “iPhone contacts”, which apparently means people who have certain smartphones, such as iPhones, Androids and Blackberries.
Now let’s get to the data, shall we? After messing with my new Apple products for a couple of days, it already used up more than half of my data. I’d originally had unlimited data on my other phone. After being forced to upgrade/get a new phone, the unlimited data goes away. I never really knew how much data was being eaten up by checking E-mails, listening to the radio, checking the weather, etc., etc. Since it doesn’t seem feasible to me in the long run, I put in a little call to Verizon this afternoon, loaded with a bevy of questions. Did I lose all of my unlimited data on my phone? Yes. Do you still offer any monthly plan with unlimited data? No. Am I using data when I’m using ANYTHING on my phone? Yes, with the exception of actual phone calls and texting. How much do I have left to pay on my iPad Mini? (Let’s just say, a lot.) How much would it cost me to break the contract? There’s a termination fee for my MiFi/Jetpack of $165. What if I wanted to go in with my roommates on their internet connection (which is UNLIMITED, by the way), is it possible for me to get rid of the data for my tablet and laptop, but keep the absolute minimum for my iPhone? Why yes! He also told me that he could get me a plan with 700 minutes of talking time (I virtually never talk on my phone or even answer when anyone calls), unlimited texting (my texting has gone way down with 2 certain people now out of my life), 10 g’s of data for my laptop and 10 g’s of data for my tablet at the bargain price of $362.90/month! Are you freaking SERIOUS?!?! Let’s see, taxes went up at the beginning of the year, which made me have to redo my deductions from my paycheck. My rent is going up in September and my data plan seems to have jumped off at 2 or 3 times what I was paying before. I explained that all to the Verizon person, who said that he completely understood. As an offset, he said that he could give me 2 more g’s of data on my current plan for an additional $10. That’s better than nothing, so I told him to go ahead with it. I thanked him for his time, then promised to call him back and harass him/change up everything again by the end of the week. In the meantime, I’m waiting for my one roommate, the one who has the internet connection in the apartment, to answer my text. Once he tells me what my third of the monthly internet payment will be, I intend to kiss Verizon goodbye before the end of the month, as far as my tablet and laptop are concerned.
These phone companies are making a killing, but I refuse to play the game the way they want me to. However, that iPad Mini is a keeper. I want to marry it!
At the end of the month, I’m going to call Verizon and ask them if I can downgrade – to a rotary phone!