No More iPhone! September 11, 2007
Posted by qoheleths in AT$T, God's deliverance, iPhone.add a comment
Some of the most exciting stories in the Bible present situations where God’s people had their fortunes totally reversed in a very short time – like over night or in one day. In the Book of Revelation (NOT “Revelations” – but that is another post) God destroys the Babylonian worldwide government and economy in ONE DAY (Rev. 18:8). In the Old Testament (II Kings 7) there was a severe famine. The Syrians were coming to destroy Israel, things looked bleak! But then four lepers decided to enter Samaria as they reasoned there was nothing to lose by doing so (II Kings 7:4). They entered, found everything that the Syrians had left, and immediately Israel went from famine to plenty!
What does that have to do with “No More iPhone?” One week ago I was joyously using my beloved iPhone as I had since June 29 (see posts below). On Wednesday evening after church I logged on to the AT$T website to see about upgrading my wife’s phone. Strangely, the link to upgrade was not present and I was offered the magnaminous option to “upgrade with no contractual commitment” which in plain English means “pay full price” for the new cell phone! So I called AT$T and found out they wanted to get rid of me! We were using too many “off-network” minutes and they determined I wasn’t making enough money for them. My monthly cell phone service bill, with unlimited data transfer on the iPhone, was $110-120.
To make a long story short, after three calls and 2 hours on the phone with AT$T customer service, they offered to buy back my iPhone (which I paid $499.95 for, now sells for $299.95, another post!) at full price and cancel me out. I could see the Lord’s hand on this as I am trying to cut back on expenses, so I went for it. Saturday I got set up with T-Mobile at the Costco kiosk with two free Razrs and much cheaper service. I heartily recommend ALWAYS checking with BJ’s or Costco if you are getting anything. The deal there was much better than elsewhere. The Razr I bought is usually $149 or more with a $50 rebate after. I paid $0.00. No rebate needed!
On Monday (September 10) I received my refund from the local AT$T store minus a 10% restocking fee which later on was refunded to me via a helpful AT$T customer service rep.
So, no more iPhone! I loved using it, but the Lord bailed me out of $500 spent and $30-35 per month extra on the cell bill each month. In a matter of 48 hours I went from thinking I’d be using it for 22 more months to not having it at all!
iPhone Review July 5, 2007
Posted by qoheleths in iPhone.2 comments
I’ve been using my iPhone since around 8:15 PM on Friday. I have to say that it is everything I expected and then some. My activation went great – had to download the new iTunes, then the phone was activated in about 5 minutes. The iPhone is tremendous! The email, SMS messaging and the phone function itself are all head and shoulders above anything else out there. The keyboard is also awesome! It takes a few days to truly get accustomed to it, but once one does get used to “trusting” the keyboard software it is really fast.
The Google maps are great also. Used them on visitation on Tuesday night and got right where I wanted to go more quickly than ever before.
Two things about the price: Since it includes an iPod, $199 for a 4GB Nano doesn’t have to be spent – and the Nano doesn’t have the video. which brings one up to $249 for the regular iPod. Throw in the fact that the unlimited data transmission via internet and email is only $20 per month (200 messages, $10 more for 1500, $20 more for unlimited text messaging) the price isn’t actually that high. The Blackberry packages that are similar are generally $40-50 per month extra. Not to mention it far and away has the best video resolution of any device like it.
I’d better get back to work! I have to say I’ve never been more pleased with a technological device than I am with the iPhone!
