Upgrade Issue

Today was an interesting day for me as it pertains to my wireless experience. I attempted to go into a Verizon Wireless store to check out the HTC Thunderbolt and the Apple Iphone 4. I wanted to look at the iphone 4 first because I have been dealing with android devices for a while now. I go over to the Iphone 4, and I start to play around with it. I feel like a deer caught in headlights because I have NEVER used one before (don't judge me). I go to the Verizon store and ask some very specific questions because I know what I use my phone for. If you have read my previous blog entitled "This Samsung Fascinate!", you would know that I had a very serious issue with utilizing my call waiting and conference calling on that phone because of a software issue with the phone. Well naturally when I go to try to get a new phone, I am going to need the phone to complete those tasks appropriately.

I go in the store and have a nice young man eager to assist me because I would like to upgrade. I tell him what I use the phone for and what I am looking for and immediately he seems turned off like I am talking too much. I explain to him that I need to make sure these features work and when I explain it to him, his eyes glaze over like he has NO idea what I am talking about. After a solid 10 minutes, and me having to demonstrate the issue, he finally understands. He even goes and gets another gentleman to try to assist him with this. We try placing calls on the iPhone 4 so we can utilize the call waiting. That works fine. Then we try to utilize call conferencing after using the call waiting and it was unsuccessful. Then we try placing calls utilizing the call waiting, and disconnecting one of the calls (not all). That was unsuccessful. Next we try all of this on the Thunderbolt. These steps were also unsuccessful.

When the reps finally understand what I am trying to accomplish, and see how unsuccessful we were with trying to get this done, the rep originally helping me says "You may just have to give up on upgrading". I was shocked that he said that to me. Was he implying that I can never upgrade again if that feature is important to me? He asked me "does it work on your current phone [Droid X]"? I told him yes and showed him HOW it works. He said "well if you really care about placing those kinda calls, you may just have to use Motorola's from now on!" Again I was floored! You are telling me that even with all the money I pay each month, and with all the money that I am paying for the phone, I just have to be stuck with one kind of phone and just deal with it because I want to place calls? I thought that was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard in my life and when I asked if he was serious he completely said yes like there was nothing wrong with the whole scenario. I asked if he had ever heard of this and he said no. I asked if he understood why I felt the way I felt, and he said yes. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do. Needless to say I was very unsatisfied.

This just further proved that Verizon Wireless doesn't care about the satisfaction of their customers. They are willing to charge you all this money for products and services, but don't really care if the product or services really work!

Sounding Off To The Termination of VZW's One-Year Contracts

I was making my rounds on the different mobile websites, and I landed on one of my favorite sites Phonescoop. I go there when I want to learn about what's going on in the mobile world. I happen to be looking on the main page, and I come across an article that made me feel a little bit un at ease. The article is entitled Verizon Wireless to Eliminate One-Year Contracts. Naturally I read it because I have Verizon, and they have been going through so many changes since the release of the Verizon iPhone 4, that I figured what now? As I read it goes on to say that it is no longer profitable for them to offer one-year contracts because customers have been utilizing two year contracts to take advantage of lower phone prices. Earlier in the year, we saw the introduction of the iPhone 4. Then we saw that they are doing away with New Every Two discounts. Next they terminate early upgrades, now this!

With all these changes, it makes you really wonder what exactly are they really trying to accomplish? These sorts of changes in my opinion don't promote customer satisfaction. It would be one thing if these changes were gradually rolled out between a time frame of at least six months apart each, but all changes rolled out within 2-3 months. This is just another way for their company to say they can pretty much do whatever they want and there is nothing we can do about it!

Emotional Spending

I felt the need to just give you a little insight about who I am and my electronic spending habits. I am an emotional spender when it comes to my electronics. When I get upset about something, instead of me getting a pizza or crying my eyeballs out, I spend money. And when I spend, I spend BIG! I spend on electronics. I think I need something to take my mind off of what is bothering me and need to play with something. So more than likely a phone, a camera, or even something like a laptop. Something that has a lot of features. Now these things do not come cheap, but at least I will be satisfied and preoccupied. And I get to expand my portfolio on something I can have a little more knowledge on. And I mean, hey, knowledge IS power...LOL!

VZW 3G Mobile Hotspot

I have a Verizon Droid X and I have decided to try out the 3G Mobile Hotspot on the phone to see how well it works. I currently also have a Clearwire modem in my home where I can plug up my ethernet cable. I have been trying both out just to get a feel of how one compares to the other. Currently in my home, not only do I NOT get the greatest signal for the Clear modem (which on a good day is maybe 2-3 bars), but I also only get no more than two bars of 3G coverage in my home. Needless to say I must have lead paint on my walls because my signal strength is pretty much non existent. Even when I am out of the house, the 3G hotspot works semi ok. It is nothing compared to my Comcast or Verizon internet (even though I couldn't stand to have either service). 

All in all, I don't see the use for it at the moment because the only place I would really need to have up to five devices hooked up to it is my home, and if I can't even get a 3G signal here, I don't have much hope for the 4G. Hopefully the 4G will be LOADS better! 

HAPPY SURFING

My Newest Toy

I am so over the moon with my latest toy. My new Apple Macbook Pro. Now I know that this is not anything new to most people, but for me this is a BIG DEAL! Sure I have used MACs back in the day when I was in school, but have never owned one or cared to use one for my own personal use. It literally took for someone very close to me to convince me that MAC is where I need to be. For so long I have been using PC's, but I find that I do so much with them that even a PC notebook with the fastest processor was not cutting it. I really have no idea what I do that is causing my notebooks to go up, but I go thru notebooks very quickly. Now that I think about it, I get one once a year. I have had them literally "blow up" from me doing so much (I'm talking about smoke coming from the unit and everything...lol)! But I am hoping that even though the user interface is much different, I will be able to adjust. Especially knowing Apple's track record, I am sure this is going to be a very good investment. No more crashing, slow, notebooks w/ viruses for me. I have officially moved over to the MAC side! YYAAYY!

Wireless MoneyPit

So I have been COMPLETELY obsessed with this for about a week or so now. I was thinking to myself how these wireless carriers are charging us up the wazoo every month and how we spend all this money on phones because something new comes out every other month. Since I LLOOVVEE cell phones so much, I find that when I want to take advantage of another phone, it may not always be available w/ the same carrier I have (I'm sure anybody who's wanted an iphone can relate). These wireless carriers don’t exactly make it easy for you to just switch from one carrier to the other unless you feel like paying an early termination fee which is at least $175 and could go upwards of $350. That means your looking at at least a 1yr contract to even get some kinda discount for the phone. And when you do find that phone you absolutely love, what happens if you want to switch carriers? You more than likely can't take the phone w/ you. Sure that particular carrier may have their own version of what you want, but that means shelling out more money. If you're anything like my mom, you can keep the same phone for at least three years and NEVER need a replacement. But for most, we want something new, bigger, and better. And with bigger & better comes bigger pricing! Oh boy!

This Samsung Fascinate!

Soooo,

I wanted to share with you the recent experience that I had with my Verizon Wireless Samsung Fascinate. I was with T-Mobile and had a Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant which I LLOOVVEEDD! For whatever reason I just wasn't liking T-Mobile anymore so I decided to switch to Verizon. At the time the Fascinate wasn't out yet, but I made sure I waited for it to come out because I liked the Vibrant so much. When I got the phone, it was like love at first sight! I was so happy with the way it looked (the screen was AMAZING), and all the functions it could do. But as I started to use it, I was starting to realize that i didn't heart this phone as much as I thought I did.

I'm pretty much the type of person (when it comes to my gadgets anyway), where I am gonna test out almost every feature and I need to make sure it works in its entirety. The one thing that absolutely needed to work didn't! I come to realize the hard way that this phone does not have independent buttons for call waiting/call forwarding allowing me to properly perform 3-way calls or click over. Something as simple as call waiting/call forwarding just did not work properly. I could take pictures of business cards, and have my phone tell me what mood I was in, but I couldn't place a proper conference call to save my life! It took Verizon five (YES 5) replacements for them to realize that this is something that the phone just can't do. And when I called Samsung, they told me that there was NOTHING they could do because NONE of their Android phones have independent buttons for those functions. I was SSOO sad because I knew that I had to give up my love at first sight all because it couldn't perform what I thought to be something as simple as placing a call! :'(