Ever since I bought my first Pay-as-you-go cell phone, the life expectancy has never been very long. The first phone lasted about 3 months before it broke while I was sitting down. The second and last pay-as-you-go phone found itself covalent bonding with a brick wall when it wouldn’t accept a $20 phone card I was trying to upload. From that moment on I figured I might as well get a phone on a plan with some large company. There were a few things wrong with this rational:
1. I went with Sprint. Great phones, Great coverage, Crappy service. As long as you dont have to deal with the customer service, you’ll be fine! However, as soon as something goes wrong, you’re screwed.
2. The phones with a service plan cost 3, 4, and 5 times as much as a normal phone! With sprint if you are within the 12-21 month range of having your service and your phone breaks, you will get 75 dollars off a new phone. If you are at the 22+ month range, you will get $150 off your phone. Sounds good right? Well, their cheapest phone in the stores is around $250!!! Replacements are Extremely expensive.
3. Phones = problems. You cant have a phone and something not bug you. Either the camera isn’t good enough, the reception sucks in important areas (like at your desk where you work).
So, my first Cell phone on a plan… was in a horrible dispute between me and the wall. We both won however the phone was pummeled into oblivion. Pretty much, the screen on the top stopped working and a couple of the keys stopped working. When i went to the store to get a replacement, they didnt have any. They offered me something like.. $50 off a new phone. I had been paying an extra $7 a month for insurance which didnt apply to whatever was wrong with the phone. So, I went ahead and bought a new phone… the Upstage.
Remeber when I previously mentioned that theres always something about a phone that bothers you? Well this had EVERYTHING wrong with it. I always had to flip the phone around, the case was annoying, it didnt get good reception at all… it was just a $350 disaster!
Well, the way that phone died: I went on another hour and a half to two hour bike ride, and in the middle it started to rain heavily. When I finally got home and opened my backpack, water poured out. When I sifted through the clothes and the towel to get my phone, it was really messing up. Determined to get my contacts off the phone, I took it completely apart and dried each individual part (this was the day after it stopped working). Now I can sorta make outgoing calls if I navigate through the contacts list and press the Talk button. I cant talk though, but I can hear. One screen doesnt work, the other is water-marked.
So, I was pretty pissed when the cheapest phone in the store was $100. Talk about a very basic piece of crap phone. So Amazon.com here I come! I’m now waiting for a Palm Treo 650 to arrive in the mail, hopefully on Monday. The phone is in “Like New” condition and cost me a whopping $110 (including shipping). When it arrives in the mail, I’ll stick a few pictures on here, but I’m really excited, and antsy to make sure it works! The lady I bought it from assured me it will work just fine or she’ll give me a full refund.
So, I guess we’ll see what happens.
Posted by Tatum 