I’m ready to take the leap and get a smart phone. We already have one in the family, but it’s no longer under contract, so we’re free to fly.  For me, it’s not such an easy decision. If I’m lucky and don’t lose or damage the phone, I’ll likely have it for at least two years. That’s a long time considering the speed at which technology travels. At least that narrows the field to the latest and greatest phones available. In my mind, there isn’t enough difference in price to convince me to buy anything doesn’t have a lot of industry buzz. With that in mind, I’ve actually narrowed the field to just a few phones…. Google’s Nexus One (when it comes to Verizon this Spring), the iPhone 3GS, the Motorola Droid, the HTC Droid Eris, the HTC Hero and possibly the Palm Pre.

Another consideration is whether or not I have a preference for one cell phone carrier over another.  I’ve been with Sprint for a long time and the customer service used to be horrible, but has gotten much better in the past year or so. Although the price of Sprint’s lowest family plan for two phones is the same as other carriers, they do include texting as well as more minutes, so it would cost me a little less.  The Sprint phones I’m considering are the HTC Hero and the Palm Pre.  Verizon’s ad campaign about their 3G coverage is impressive, but it does make AT&T look worse than it really is. AT&T’s Edge network is pretty fast fills in its 3G gaps pretty well.

————————-

HOLD THE PRESSES

Before I finished writing this blog entry, we decided it was time to go look again. Although we knew the two Sprint phones were not as exciting as the Verizon phones or the iPhone, we wanted to give Sprint one last chance to make a deal so sweet we couldn’t pass it up. At the Sprint store a pleasant young man told us there was really nothing he could do, but gave us the phone number to the cancellation department and told us they would probably try to keep us with some type of incentive. We called the number and immediately were connected to Kasha, a seemingly knowledgeable and helpful representative. After about 45 minutes on the phone (speaker so both of us could hear) with Kasha, we were signed up for a new deal with Sprint.  Kasha not only promised us, but gave us a confirmation number for our new two-year deal.  It sounded almost too good to be true. Kasha was letting us stay on our current voice plan with a $20 monthly discount plus letting us keep the $15 monthly data plan that we currently had on one line and adding the same $15 data plan to the other line. Our monthly plan total for two smartphones with data – $70!!!  The plan would give us our existing 500 minutes with no roaming or long distance charges. It doesn’t have texting built in, but we don’t text much, so that’s a non-issue. It doesn’t include mobile to mobile, but we’ve never had a problem going over our minutes, so this was PERFECT!  All we had to do was go down to Best Buy and buy the phones….

We spent quite awhile playing with the two phones and waiting in line for someone to be available to help us. Finally, we chose one HTC Hero and one Samsung Moment and began the upgrade process. Then came the glitch… although Kasha had assured us that everything was set-up and ready to go, the computer didn’t agree. Our Best Buy rep was unable to make the upgrade without bumping us up to the Sprint plan that would cost $130 monthly ($60 more than we had been told).  We called the cancellation department back and the rep read what I had been promised and tried to set-up a work-around. It took some time for this to happen, but it failed. The Sprint rep on the phone finally called her supervisor who came on the line to tell me that I had been misinformed by Kasha. The only discount available to us was the $20 per month, which would bring this plan to $110 monthly. If you compare cell phone plans between the top three carriers, this plan gives you a bunch and $110 is a better price than I can get anywhere else even for lesser plans. BUT, I have had enough with Sprint.  Over the years, I have wasted hours in Sprint stores and on the phone to their customer support getting inaccurate information and then have to sort and resort it out over and over again. I had two lines plus a $60 a month air card with Sprint and more headaches than I can count. Although I thought the customer service had improved recently, what happened last night was completely unacceptable.  I told the supervisor that I was leaving Sprint and she seemed not to care.  Within an hour we were enjoying our new iPhones.

I LOVE MY NEW iPHONE!!!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.