Mobile Phone Bitterness

[bjarvis]

My current phone has always been a little sluggish. It's a Motorola Droid Bionic, one of the first dual-core phones Verizon Wireless had offered and, when purchased, it was the top of the line. Alas, I do have 2800 address book entries, a number of regularly used apps and four email accounts with significant traffic: once it decides to sync email, performance nose-dives for 2-3 solid minutes, enough to render it unusable.

I had hoped the OS upgrade to Jellybean would help, but it's really no better. If there's an advantage to having two cores, it's not obvious, especially if key components of the OS are at least acting single-threaded if indeed they are multi.

My contract allows me a new phone so perhaps something with more RAM and faster CPUs would at least minimize the problems with the user experience. Oh, look... the Samsung Galaxy S4 is available! I'll go take a look!

Of course, Verizon Wireless doesn't have any in stock. I'm not surprised at that: it's a new phone with hot demand and rides nicely on the coattails of the Galaxy S III model. I was surprised that they didn't even have a demo model so we could see how it feels in one's hand or against one's ear. I was further surprised and annoyed to learn that the only way I could get the phone for the advertised $250 pricetag is to ditch my existing data & voice plans for a greatly more limited version --at the same price as I'm paying for my currently adequate plans. If I want to keep my existing plan, I'll need to purchase the phone for $650.

At the moment, I'm so annoyed & frustrated with Verizon Wireless' uttery disdain for its existing customers that I'd rather ditch them than upgrade, especially if it means locking in for another two years. I'd be willing to switch carriers but Sprint's coverage is hideous and AT&T already burned me years ago so I'm not inclined to give them a shot at a repeat. Verizon Wireless' coverage is good --very spotty in western Maryland and West Virginia-- but generally covers the areas where I regularly travel. I'd be happy to pay the regular $250 rate for a new 2yr contract, but not if it means either dramatically increasing my monthly rates or crippling the phone's abilities.

Comments

[cuyahogarvr.livejournal.com]

Not sure if you remember, but when I changed phones a couple of years ago, I ran into a similar situation with Sprint, so I called and spent much time on the phone with an operator who ended up giving me a new phone at a reduced rate, with the same plan AND she found me a couple of additional discounts to level my monthly bill to the point where me monthly charge didn't change.

Not saying you should switch to Sprint, but it might be worth a phone call to Verizon customer service so that you can spell out your loyalty and what you expect for it.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm going to make a phone call or two to see how inflexible they're going to be on this issue. If they can't/won't give me the model I was looking at, I'll find something/someone else.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Check out the HTC One. It's an *amazing* bit of hardware, and HTC is selling them unlocked/(and stock I believe). Obviously, on contract is way cheaper, but then you don't have the option of cheaper pre-paid plans.

That said, VZN and ATT are EVIL. Sprint is useless, despite piggybacking on VZN's network, and as much as I like them, Tmobile has really poor coverage, but at least they're GSM/SIM based.

The only way to win is not to play.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Alas, I do need a mobile phone for work. It's my primary person-to-person lifeline since I'm on the east coast and the corporate overlords are on the west coast. The data plan is primarily to allow me to operate a wifi hotspot so I can connect to the office VPN while I'm on the road. Server monitoring pings me via txt messages if there are issues. If it were just for my personal use, I'd get a much smaller, much less demanding phone & service plan from a vastly more user-friendly provider. *sigh*

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wasn't implying that you should opt out of getting a mobile phone. I was merely pointing out that there is no 'good' carrier, only various degrees of total suckitude.

(I'm quite aware that you run your entire business off of it)

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I looked up the HTC One per your prior comment... nice! Alas, it's not an option for Verizon's 4gLTE network and an unlocked version costs just as much as the Galaxy S4. :-(

I'm currently looking at older, lesser models: keeping up with the Joneses costs too much.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Boo! (re not on VZN's LTE) I thought they had one out for it. Maybe it's coming soon.

Part of the problem with getting a lesser model is that you wind up needing to replace it more often. I replaced my Original iPhone with the iPhone 5, when it finally stopped being able to get app updates (Apple EOL'd it waaaay before developers stopped making compatible apps). That's over 5 years between phones. I don't plan on buying again for another 5 years.

[cutepacub.livejournal.com]

This was my big complaint, well, really my only complaint. My coverage is excellent, my phone works well for what I use it for, and normally excellent customer service. I do not use that much data that I need to worry about losing the unlimited data, but it's just the idea of losing. And it will cost me 20 bucks more a month.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I've remained with AT&T through thick and thin. I purchased my Samsung Galaxy S III on Black Friday. I paid $49 for it; kept my existing plan at AT&T with the addition of a media plan. Overall, I'm quite happy with it, since I was really resistant to any smart phone. I'm completely aware that you use your phone in ways I never will, but overall, I'm pleased with the product.

[(Anonymous)]

Since you use your phone for business, the 'hideous coverage' is an issue. I use Virgin Mobile, but they are a secondary buyer of Sprint bandwidth, so their coverage is not great. For my purposes it is adequate. Just purchased a Galaxy S2 from them - the latest version compatible with their pay-as-you-go plans. It's working very well for me. I think the later models are too big for comfortable talking, unless you have really big hands, so the S2 will be fine for me.

Virgin is following the 'pay for the phone, no contract model' which I think Verizon and ATT&T are also attempting. This hopefully will, over time, bring down the cost of phones. If consumers have to buy for $650 a piece, the phone manufacturers are going to find it really hard to convince most users to replace their phone every year or two. So I'm hoping to see better phones at lower prices going forward, much as we did with PCs.

Anyway, good luck with finding a plan/phone that work well for you!

[abqdan.livejournal.com]

Duh. The anonymous post you are about to see was from me!

t-mobile?

[jorhett.livejournal.com]

I don't know if t-mobile is any good in your area. They are better than AT&T everywhere except downtown NY. And they have the only reasonable, practical plans available. No weird contracts. You pay full price for your phone, but they give you an interest-free loan broken down over 20 payments. It works out very nice, and they have the Galaxy S4 in their stories.