i never wanted one of these fucking things in the first place, but between moving around a lot and not being home much it kind of worked its way into my life.
firs i had t mobile and the service sucked, and when i changed plans they tried to buttfuck me on the charges. so i cancelled, and they tried ot buttfuck me on the cancellation 'fee'.
then i switched to verizon b/c the service was a lot better and i got a family plan deal. but my phone died, so i had to get a new one last summer.
now ive had this phone since last july 30th and the fucking backlight has burned out and i cant even see my phone numbers or get messages or anything.
FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT.

they should just be able to replace your phone for free.

my sister went through something like 5 phones in about a year and a half. she just kept breaking them somehow. i've had three phones in 6 years and the changes were only because i also changed services.

(a) cell phone companies are all about snagging you with a low intro price, and gauging you when you decide to leave early or break your phone
(b) do research online... pick a phone that's reliable
(c) if you're unhappy with the price gauging, get a "buy as you go" plan, where you can purchase minutes as you need them-- no contracts involved.
(d) in the case with T-Mobile, you can always buy a used phone on ebay , craigslist or whatnot, and swap out your sim card. With Verizon, you need to buy a Verizon phone, then you can call Verizon and have them change the serial number that your phone number is associated with.

Some people are really harsh on their phones- I think my brother has been through 6 in less than 6 years or something like that. You might look into insurance (I think they offer it).

Anyhow, my rant is related.. but much more general. And that is, how fucking brilliant marketing has convinced so many people that so many monthly subscription services are essentially to our world compared to just 15-20 years ago. No wonder no one has disposable income.. cellphone (at least $40 each), cable and internet (what is this now $100?, throw in there perhaps Netflix ($10) and/or Sirius/XM (dunno, $12 each)?

Im getting rid of my cell phone once I move so we will be left with just one 'family' cell phone.. I dont have cable or internet at home now (this might have to change once I move).

damn anyhow I was thinking of this in the shower this morning.. fucking brilliant "lifestyle" marketing

i totally agree. i have no cable or internet at home [it's free at work so why should i pay for it?] and i have a netflix sub but only at the 9 bucks a month/one at a time level b/c we just have no video stores near us that we can get decent movies at [and i refuse to use blockbuster since they censor what movies they carry].

i'd love ot get rid of my cell after i move, too. it's a distinct possibility.

agreed on the subscriptions. they've already coined a term for the distaste for it. . . "subscription fatigue". when mlle's gone for school i'm cancelling cable and watching soccer at a pub.

here's a couple articles i found when i googled "subscription fatigue"
http://www.anti-mega.com/antimega/archives/001236.html
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/13570081.htm

Oh if Cap'N only knew this thread was here. He'd write a ten page response about it.

Can't you go to Verizon and have them extend your contract for a year in exchange for a new phone?
Cingular will do that if it is in the last 6 months of your contract.

I'd probably go the ebay route to avoid the dang contracts.

I am thinking of switching to Cricket for service. They have a deal now for $45, you get unlimited everything, minutes, text, voicemail, picture messages, etc. but the catch is you have to stay in your local market or pay roaming. The other catch is they only have 8 phones available on their website.
www.mycricket.com

I think it's worth it, because we just got nabbed for $30 of data transfer on our Cingular contract. What a bunch of B.S. I don't even know what it is for, so they are getting a nasty call.

Sprint has the best deals now since they are including the 7:00 anytime minutes into their family plans for free. Now I pay $14 to Cingular for this feature.

i'm going home and digging through my paperwork tonight to see what sort of protection i have. i do know that i have insurance on the phone, and there should be some kind of warranty/guarantee. we'll see what happens.
i think i'm more pissed off about this b/c of the constant feeling that we're all being sold more expensive crap that is increasingly poor in quality. i guess it's time to start being a smarter consumer, as infrequently as i buy anything like this to begin with.

If it makes you feel any better it is extremely likely that the expensive crap that Verizon sold you cost them a whole lot more than they charged you - most phones are discounted well over a hundred dollars in return for you signing a contract.

yeah, that's why there are contracts. at the conclusion of the contract they start making money on you (or something like that). it's a pretty low-margin industry from what i understand.

that being said, this is my beef capitalism in general. everyone is constantly selling you something and it's all "more, more, bigger, bigger" and "you're less of a human if you don't own our product"--i'm f-ing sick of it and want out.

I should have known they would coin a term for it. First, 'they' stick it to you, and then 'they' tell you how exactly they did it. Seriously though, Im not sure its only capitalism - I mean every System sells you some pre-packaged BS- what i cant believe is how easily people buy into it (You should have seen the look on the door-to-door person the local cable provider sends to people who dont have cable when I told her that I had no intention of supporting a service that encourages obesity of our young and the stupidity of the human race in general.

I think TMo has the best deals, minute-wise.

Well, since I drove to the Neuros... I'll keep it short I promise.

Yes, subscriptions suck. Pre-pay sucks too, because it's a shitty rate per minute. I hate the whole model the way it was set up in the early 90's, and the forefathers of the current megalopolis conglomerate companies are directly at fault for that. The thinking went thus:

"We want customers. It takes customers to make money. But it costs us about $1million a tower to put these shits up, and that only buys us roughly a 7 mile radius of coverage each, and america is BIG. There are, then, two choices - grow very slowly, or sell at a loss and bank on later growth."

They went for Plan B, and began to charge a penny for phones that cost them $200, and had plans down to $15 a month for 100 minutes. That isn't profitable. It takes them (today) about $20 a month to run every account, and the discount on your $70 phone means they're in the hole (at an average of) $280-$300 when you walk out the door. 6 months later when you drop it in the toilet, and they don't start throwing free merchandise your way, don't wonder why.

Having said that, it's a decision the industry here made, and they own it. I say again (repeats self for the 400th time): as soon as someone comes up with a good way to get around that pricing model, and lets you pay for the phone outright yet get good per-minute pricing with no overage, everyone else is toast. It's those idiots at the mall kiosks who bitch that a $400 phone is "costing" them $79, ... now I'm having flashbacks. Excuse me.

i gotta go get a new battery. I will not pay for it.

Right now the best deals minute-wise are T-mobile.
iWireless and Cricket have deals for all inclusive plans for $60 and $45 respectively which includes unlimited minutes, long distance, data text, etc, but does not include roaming out of the local area. The local area is pretty big for me and includes all the small cities around.

Cincinnati Bell's concept is no contracts, just give you a deal on a phone, like the Razr for $100, and a lot mor minutes. They also have a thing for an extra $10, they give you free calls to any Cincinnati Bell land line.

My problems are, roaming for work if I go out of town. Cricket is .59 a minute, which my office would pay for so it's not really a big deal.

The big deal is international rates/ texting, etc. Cingular and Sprint are the only ones that have good international per minute rate plans if you buy their $4 rate plan add on. It's a scam.

I'm thinking of switching to cricket, and then just getting a calling card for my wife to use.

The biggest problem with Cricket is they use CDMA phones instead of GSM ones, which means we need to buy new phones, and their online selection is pure shite. I think they had 8 phones via the website. I'm going to check out one of their stores to see if they have any other deals or phones there.

I just combed over my Cingular bill of $136 and found they overcharged me $18, so I called them and they are crediting it back. whoopy.