Obligatory iPhone Post
I want an iPhone. I do not want Cingular / AT&T. I also don’t want to activate my phone online. While this is appealing to me as someone who prefers not dealing with people, it does not appeal to me as a person who has no idea what kind of ridiculous deposit AT&T will want from me.
Several years ago while in college I had an account with Verizon. I got a bill with about $300 in bogus charges. To this day the issue is not resolved. To make a long story short, even though I shouldn’t be held responsible for charges for calls that never came from my phone, I’m willing to pay the amount of the original bill and settle the account. However, Verizon passed it on to collections without investigating the charges like I asked, and now a $300 bill is $800. I am not going to pay $800 for calls I never made, it’s just not happening. In hindsight I should’ve just paid the original bill and then let Verizon sort it out, but I was 20 and hotheaded. Until they agree to allow me to pay the original amount of the bill (which I think is more than reasonable) this will never be settled.
As a result of this, I’ve kept a no contract GoPhone for the last 4 years. It’s slightly more expensive than a regular plan (I get about 100 fewer minutes) it’s worked out rather well, and I have rollover. Because there really is no bill, I’m just refilling my phone with $50 every month, I can’t get any bad charges, or overages. Anything I’m charged for comes off my monthly balance. I see my balance every time I make a call. Ergo, if there is only $50 on my account, AT&T cannot charge me more than $50 for anything, the phone balance just runs out. I’m always able to know how many minutes I have left. I don’t talk on my phone that frequently, but this is great for the times where I’d like to call someone for a long conversation. I can also buy any AT&T phone I want to go with this plan, as long as I pay full price.
Unfortunately, buying data on top of this is ridiculously expensive, for what is surely a slow and clunky service. This means, finally signing up for a service agreement if I want an iPhone. Seeing how I’ve had this provider for 4 years, I can safely commit to another 2. The introductory iPhone plan would actually be perfect for my needs. But in addition to being wary of another contract, I know that my history with Verizon will result in me having to pay a deposit. So if I want this phone I have to shell out $500 before I even know how much of a deposit they will require. This seems a little crazy. I might pay $250, but I hear they get pretty steep and there’s no way I want to pay more than that. Basically I’m at the carrier’s mercy if I want an iPhone. And with the new service I lose the ability to keep track of my minutes easily.
I decided the easiest thing to do would be to contact AT&T, they could tell me what the deposits average, and if perhaps as a loyal customer of 4 years they can waive the fee. No such luck, unless I want to physically go into a mall and deal with a sleazy teenage boy. You can’t just email AT&T customer service. You have to log into your account. I tried this, I’d never done it before, and it takes me to a new screen telling me I will have to log into a different area of the site for a prepaid account. So I attempt to log into this, no dice. I don’t really know what I’m expected to do, because I received no instruction for this with my phone. Anytime I’ve actually had to call customer service, it’s been a call center in India. The people are very polite, but I have a difficult time communicating with them and generally understanding anything I say. Additionally, all their answers come from a script, so if my question doesn’t deal with any of their canned answers I’m out of luck. The reason I don’t go into the stores is because the salespeople have either been rude, deceptive, or have no knowledge of the products and services they sell. Do I really want service from a company who makes it practically impossible to talk to them?
Though I really want a phone with a decent interface, the convenience of wifi, and synching with my work calendar, I don’t know that it’s worth the inconvenience of AT&T. I’m not going to drop $1000 for a phone. I’m either going to have to wait until GoPhone data plans become reasonable, or the iPhone becomes available on another carrier with less exorbitant security deposits and better, friendlier service. If you’re going to be getting approximately $2500 (after two years of service, price of phone, and deposits) from me, you’re going to have to treat me a little better.
