I now have a smartphone.
But wait. Before you think I've compromised here, let me assure you that my cell phone has the same exact plan it had before. I am not paying for any extra data charges.
Allow me to explain.
My cell phone was dying a slow death, for the second time. Last May, I started to lose the use of some of my buttons on my touch screen. Since it was still under warranty, they sent me a refurbished phone to replace mine. I lost a bunch of photos of Caleb that I hadn't saved to my memory card, and I was really upset about that. But, at least as far as the replacement phone was concerned, all was fine for a while.
A few weeks ago (or whenever it was), my buttons again starting to stop functioning, and the lack of function slowly worked its way up the screen. When I could no longer text, enough was enough. (Texting my sister is a priority for me.)
When we were in NJ visiting my family, we squeezed in a trip to AT&T (and I mean squeezed), to try to see what my options were. I am still in contract, so I knew it wouldn't be good, but I figured they wouldn't allow me to be stuck with such a bad phone, when I've been a loyal, on-time paying customer for years.
I was wrong. The sales clerk informed me there was nothing to be done except upgrade, and since I was still under contract, that upgrade would be quite costly. (Guess he didn't realize he was talking to cheapskates.) He suggested I call customer service to see if they could do anything for me there. I was annoyed, to say the least, that we wasted time out of our brief getaway, but there was one highlight. Brian and I were walking Caleb around the store while we were waiting, and there was one point Brian had him on the other side of the room from where I was, and Caleb all of the sudden started running straight toward me with a big smile on his face. It was so cute, and I grabbed him in a fierce hug. THAT was worth it.
When we returned home, I took up my sword, prepared for battle, and called AT&T. The lady I spoke with was much nicer, and she told me that if I purchased a GO phone, which is an AT&T prepaid phone, and put my SIM card in there, that would be a good solution. I asked her why the idiot (I didn't say that word, exactly), at the store didn't just tell me that? She didn't have an answer, but she assured me this was a good solution to my problem.
I continued to call AT&T quite a few times over the next couple of days, wanting to make sure I did everything correctly. They offered me some kind of plan upgrade, but we didn't want to change our monthly fee, so we decided not to. At first, I thought the smartphones were off-limits to me, because I do not have a data plan, only voice minutes and 200 text messages a month. However, one lady assured me that I could get a smartphone, because I was purchasing a pre-paid phone, and the phone would then be mine.
Since most of the phones were refurbs (some were basic and some were smartphones), and I didn't want used again, Brian let me go all out. (All out meant my limit of $50.) I got a really nice smartphone for $49.99, and I just got it this week.
As I turned it on, it automatically started connecting me to my home internet, and I panicked, wondering if I was accruing charges. I called customer service yet again, and though the lady could not believe I even had a smartphone with my plan as I am only allowed basic (I explained the situation to her), she assured me that wi-fi was completely free, and I could do anything I wanted on my phone without getting a charge. If I leave the house and go to the park, for example, my internet is blocked and can't get on it anyway. Fine by me.
For Brian and me, this is a big deal. We are simple folk who don't even own a flat screen television. We have no tablets, wi-fi DVD players, nor whatever else folks own these days. I am loving the fact that the weather is always at my fingertips, especially since our house thermometer broke and I never know the temperature outside unless I look it up on the computer.
When this phone dies, perhaps I'll be forced to go back to a basic phone, since I am really NOT supposed to have a smartphone with my plan. Hopefully that won't happen for a while, because right now, I feel pretty spoiled. I get to enjoy my low cost monthly charge, all while having the internet on my phone.
That's pretty neat how that worked out, right?
