More Fun With iPhones

You'll recall that in May of this year I got my first iPhone, which the industry deceptively identifies as "smart phones".  Then, in early August I got a new iPhone 3GS, though with some frustration.  Well, things got fun again.

One morning about a week and a half ago I was leaving for work and the new iPhone 3GS was dead.  I had forgotten to plug it in to the charger the night prior, and if you've ever owned an iPhone, you know that you have to charge them 8 times per day, otherwise the battery will die.  When I got to work I plopped it into my charger.  At about 10am I grabbed it to go to the gym and go for a run.  It has the MapMyRun app and my music.  Can't run without it.  Much to my chagrin, the phone was still dead.  What the heck?!!!

I ran without the phone.  It's not much fun running without my tunes.  You end up thinking too much.  When I got back to my massive corner office overlooking the park, I went through the normal process of trying to hold the two buttons and shutting it down and restarting.  Nothing.  Plug it into iTunes.  Nothing.  Ugh.  It's like déjà vu all over again!

I call AT&T.  They run me through the same processes that I just did.  They tell me they can't help me, but transfer me to Apple.  Apple runs me through the the same process, again!  Nothing.  They tell me to schedule an appointment with my conveniently located Apple store and it will get resolved, and I won't leave there without a phone.



My buddy Duckman is an iPhone Phanatic, except that he doesn't actually own an iPhone.  He wanted to go with me, so we went to the conveniently located Columbia Mall, which isn't really convenient.  The store is packed.  Granola-looking people are walking around with iPhones and iPads helping people.  After about 15 minutes past my appointment time, someone finally helps me.  I tell them that it's really crowded.  He looks around and gives me a smug smile.  "It's not crowded today.  Most days are worse."  Wow.

He takes my 3GS to the back and runs through a bunch of tests.  He said he took it apart and put it back together without any success.  When he returned he had that look of disappointment.  He said that he couldn't fix it and he had no replacements.  And since I already upgraded a week ago, he couldn't upgrade me.  So that means - I left without a phone.

The next day I called AT&T and told them my sob story.  I was really disappointed with Apple and couldn't believe they told me that I would not leave without a phone and yet they were unable to resolve my problem.  I asked if I could turn in my 3GS, cancel the upgrade, and get an iPhone 4S.  The customer service representative told me that he couldn't do that because I had already upgraded. I grunted and snarled and breathed heavily for a while.  Finally he relented and said he would talk to his supervisor.  He returned 7 1/2 minutes later and said that they were going to cancel my upgrade and I was free to get a new phone as if my upgrade never occurred.

In a matter of a few weeks, I owned 3 different iPhones.

I then asked what it would take to get an iPhone 4S.  He said I could order it online, but I wouldn't get it for a few days.  Or I could go to the nearest conveniently located AT&T store and buy one for $199.  I asked if he matched prices, and he said that Apple demands that they sell it for $199.  I told him (correctly) that Target was selling iPhone 4Ss for $149.  "Fantastic.  Go there and buy it."  I thought his response was a bit dismissive, but you know, I wanted a phone today, so I hung up and and called Target.

I spoke to a young man and told him my intentions.  He said he'd check to see if they had any 4Ss in stock.  He came back and said that he had one phone left, but it was white.  I was fine with that.  I worked a few more hours, then went to Target.  When I got there I saw a young man in the electronics department and approached him.  I told him I was there to buy an iPhone.  He asked if I was the one that called earlier in the day.  In a matter of a few minutes, Michael had me hooked up with a phone and it was already charged.  He was really cool  and I appreciated his help and told him I'd give him a shout-out for his awesome service.

So, if you're getting an iPhone, check out Target in Owings Mills.  And take your favorite Duckman with you.

Doink Media - It's a Fraud

I got my Verizon phone bill for our land line the other day and there was a seemingly fraudulent charge from Doink Media for $30 on it.  I know what you're thinking - what's a land line?  Yes, we still have a land line at our house.  Sadly, the cellphone reception at our house is terrible.  It doesn't matter if you have Verizon, ATT, or T-Mobile.  They're all terrible at our house.  I have no idea why.  There are not a lot of trees around us.  Perhaps there's a secret NSA tower blocking the signal near us.

Anyway, I got this charge and I had no idea what it was.  Doink Media?  Who the heck is that?  I immediately called Verizon and asked them what it was.  They said it was a third-party billing, so it's not their  problem.  Oh, yeah???  It becomes your problem when I post the issue on Twitter, Facebook, and on my blog.  They said they could cancel the current bogus charges, but we'd need to contact Doink Media to resolve the problem so that future charges would not be billed to me.

I then Googled Doink Media, as that seemed like the most reasonable second response.  Common sense tells me that if you Google a company's name, the first item returned in the search is the website for the company.  First hit - Yahoo! Answers - Is Doink Media a scam?  The third item - www.complaintsboard.com.  Yup.  This is fraud.

I contacted Doink Media and they looked at my account.  They said that they provide credit monitoring services and that we signed up for it by completing a survey in a pop-up window.  No we didn't.  Liar.  Fraud.  Anyway, they cancelled our account without any resistance and gave me the usual contact information and confirmation number.  Oh, and I was helped by Beth.  Beth who has a thick Indian accent.  Every time I spoke to her I should have used a more realistic Indian name. "Thank you, Swetha."  "You've been very helpful, Rishi."  "Have a nice day, Arshia."

So in conclusion, keep an eye on your land line phone bill for fraudulent charges.  All 5 of you that still have land lines.

My New iPhone 3GS - Welcome to 2009!

I've always been a latent technology adopter.  This is evident when coming in my house and looking at my new VCR, my new project screen television, and my new MP3 disc player.

My daughter dropped her cellphone last week - a Samsung Flight.  The keyboard still works, but the screen is dead.  She asked if she could get a new phone.  I had a better idea - I'll get a new phone and she can have my old cellphone.  She wasn't too keen on the idea and even sassed a little bit about how it wasn't fair.  But I reminded her that (to paraphrase the cliche), '12 year olds can't be choosers'.

We shopped a little bit and it seems that nearly all of the phones are now data plan phones.  I refuse to call them smart phones, because they're not smart.  They're just programmed to do what they do.  And I wasn't thrilled with having to pay $100 for a new phone.  The free upgrade phones were all crap.

We went to my in-law's for Mother's Day and I was discussing our phone situation with my brother-in-law and he offered my his old iPhone 3GS.  Sure, it's three years old and the screen is slightly goopy.  The rubberized cover is faded on the corners and torn.  But you know what?  Cheapskates can't be choosers.  I'm very grateful for to him for letting me have his phone.  Thank you!

I called AT&T and added the required data plan.  There was no activation fee since it is not a new phone.  Now I have my own iPhone!  Yay, me!

Still trying to figure it out and I'm still transferring my contacts from the old phone.  I thought the SIM card contained your contacts.  Apparently not?  I told you I'm not a tech gadget kind of guy.  I can replace the master cylinder on the corrugator at work and reprogram the XML output.  But I have no idea what my cellphone can do.  And I don't really care that much.

How do you like your phone?