I Got an iPhone
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
I did it. I got rid of my Motorola Q (which broke) and Verizon last Thursday when I bought the iPhone and sold my soul (for two years) to AT&T.
All I can say is that the iPhone lives up to its hype. It is the best phone ever made in regards to features and innovation. The iPhone’s version of Safari (the web browser) is outstanding. Paired with multitouch it leaves others in the dust. Visual voicemail is a breath of fresh air in light of the full minute it takes between dialing and waiting on all the prompts to listen to voicemails. The incorporation of iPod features with simple yet robust controls is a winner.
Now to AT&T. AT&T service in South Georgia is patchy at best. In particular, both my house and work get no service inside the building. Outside they peak at two bars if I walk about 50 feet away from the building. Along the roadways the service is in and out. I can’t really bash the company because they have great customer service. They were really helpful and knowledgeable. It just comes down the the lack of towers. So unfortunate.
Amanda and I tried AT&T for 4 days. During that time Amanda went to Albany, GA with her dad and brother. She had almost no service during the trip.
As of yesterday Amanda and I are Verizon customers again. Since my Moto Q was broken I bought a Blackberry 8830 World Edition - a $400 phone. I knew I had to get a phone and wasn’t going to go back to Windows Mobile or an LG interface. After I told the salesperson which phone I was getting she went to work trying to get the price down. She gave me a $100 rebate for my “new every two” discount I had as of 4 days before (yay!), a $100 rebate as part of their “AT&T winback” program plus free activation (a $75 savings), and $100 off for getting a data plan with the phone. I left there with a $400 phone for $99 and then another $75 in savings off my first bill. Amanda went back to her old phone, the LG V ‚Äî which she loves ‚Äî so no added cost there. Add all that to Verizon’s amazing coverage and I think we got a sweet deal.
We still have our same numbers through the whole process if you were wondering.
I then returned my iPhone (*sniff*) and her Blackberry Curve to AT&T. It was nice to get that $650 back on my debit card. I did have to pay a 10% restocking fee but I think it was worth it to take one for the team and settle my own wonder. At least I’ve had the phone and no longer have to wish I had one.
So here’s my advice to my friends here. Don’t hurry to get an iPhone in South Georgia unless you are ok with patchy coverage. Hopefully AT&T will improve and it’ll be worth it one day.
Any other AT&T/iPhone users out there? What’s your experience?
UPDATE: I found out like 5 minutes after writing this that the iPhone’s storage just got bumped up to 16GB from 8GB. Good for those in big cities. Still doesn’t make AT&T work better for me. If only Verizon had said “Yes” to Apple’s offer to carry the iPhone.
February 5th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
so - tell us about the Blackberry 8830
February 5th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
if only … if Verizon had the iPhone, I’d buy it immediately. So sad.
February 5th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Verizon has the Voyager or whatever it’s called - iPhone rip-off that opens for a QWERTY keyboard. I haven’t heard much about it but it looks like it would be a great competitor. Unfortunately - that’s way too much to pay for a phone! Last time I went to get a phone, all I wanted was something that could make phone calls - I know, a crazy thing to ask when looking for phones. It seems like the phone companies are getting caught up in the cool features and giving us phones with high road noise and muffled sounds. It seriously irritates me to have half the conversation taken up by repeated sentences and ideas because I couldn’t hear what came through the first time. Or to make someone call me back when they get off the road because the road noise is unbearable. But hey, at least they can get on the internet while they drive, right? Just thought I’d vent…
Which leads me to service problems. Verizon and AT&T have the same weight on my scales. Both have an insane amount of dropouts and bad cells - and all at the worst inconvenience for me. My dorm, my work place, the long and dangerous highways I travel to and from home - no service. Text messages and voicemail can be trusted to arrive late, sometimes even days after. And missed calls get… missed. No ring, no notification.
But the bottom line is always price. AT&T has better rates and I haven’t had all kinds of crazy fees - Chris is right: they have great customer service. But I do wish they had better coverage
February 5th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
sorry to hear you didn’t have good service…
February 9th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Man Chris, That had to stink to have such a great phone and then downgrade! The voyager is a good phone but not the iphone