Author: Bob

All the joys of dealing with big companies and the fine print.  I’m old enough to remember when AT&T had a monopoly and you could get your phone any any color as long as it was black.  Anyway,  my cell phone contract has been complete for over a year so every so often I think, maybe I’ll renew the contract and see if I can get a better phone in the process.  You know, thinking that maybe the phone company would give me a little incentive to stay as their customer.

My sister’s contract is also up, so we went looking. 

The first thing you have to understand is that both of us use our phones as, gasp…. PHONES!  And not that much either.  We are on the minimum plan and neither of us come close to the monthly limit on minutes.  We don’t browse the web with our phones.  We don’t text with our phones.  We don’t play games on our phones.  We pretty much talk on our phones.  Call us dinosaurs.  In fact the only two things I wanted as part of upgrading was a bigger screen that was a touch screen, and a nicer camera in the phone.

So we went out looking.  We stopped at an AT&T store in a local mall.  The salesperson was very helpful.  We explained that we were pretty much happy with the phones we had.  That we did not text or need internet access, etc.  I told him the couple of features I wanted.  He beamed and said wait a minute.  He went into the back, and then emerged with a box containing a Samsung Eternity.  It was a refurbished phone that he could let us have for only $50.00 with a renewal of the contract.

Well it is a beatiful phone.  Tactile feedback, three megapixel camera, video, nice screen.  But he only had one.  I wanted two, one for myself and one for my sister.  Also being a refurbished phone, it only had a 30 day warrenty.  So we passed.

A couple of days later I was in another AT&T store.  I went through my spiel explaining what I wanted.  Just a  phone, no data, no TV, no texting.  I told the salesperson that I had seen the Samsung Eternity and had liked it.  The Eternity was a discontinued model so I had hopes that I could get two.  Well this salesman beamed and said he could get two from the other stores in the area.  But they would be new and cost $100.00 apiece with a $50 dollar rebate each.  Well as much as I hate mail in rebates I said sure go ahead and get them.  I also had a premonition, so I said I would pay for them when I picked them up.

So a couple of days later I go back to the store to get them.  My sister met me there. A different salesman is there (a store manager).  The phones are not there and he doesn’t know where they are.  I explain everything to him.  He calls the salesman.  He calls other stores trying to find two phones that he can get run over to the store asap.  He finds one near by and it is sent over.  But while he is doing this he mentions that, oh by the way, I knew that I would have to purchase a $20 a month data plan on each phone.

Ok, now remember that I have explained to each salesperson that I did not want data, text or anything else.  I wanted a phone!  So to make a long story just a few seconds shorter, I said thanks but no thanks and my sister and I left.

At this point I’m considering my options.  I liked the phone.  But I am not paying for a data plan.  And in this economy, $50.00 is more that we wanted to pay anyway.  We are happy with the phones we have.  I have both a car charger and a data cable on the phone I have.  So I’m ready to live with what I have.  But I decide to google the Samsung Eternity phone to see what customers think about it.

Whoa…. there is the phone at amazonwireless.com for $000.01.  Free shipping! Yes!  You read that right.  One cent.  Okay I think.  Whats the catch?  Do I need to pay for every conceivable plan (data, TV, texting) to qualify for buying it.  I can’t find any hidden "fine print".  No, no, that isn’t quite true.  I finally see that there is an $18.00 activation fee.  Wow! That is a good deal.  But I still think there has to be some catch.  Maybe when I try to activate the phone.  I ask myself do I want to deal with the hassle of it if when I activate the phone AT&T insists that I have to buy an add-on plan.  I finally decide to give it a go.  I press the "buy" button.

About a week later the phone arrives.  I carefully unpack it (expecting to have to return it).  I charge the phone and dial the number they tell me to dial in order to activate the phone.  It gets activated.  Nothing about having to buy other plans.  Great….  but wait.  I better wait a day or two and check my account on line to make certain that nothing was added "automatically".

I check a day later and surprise.  No other plans added.  I got a beautiful touch screen phone, with a three megapixel camera and video, that also can take a microSD memory card and plays music for under $19.00. 

I love the  phone.  It is easy to use.  Nice features.  Everything I wanted.  Of course, I still need to buy a data cable and car chargers.  And a protective "skin" would be nice.  So I go online looking for those.  I’m expecting to pay about $25.00 for a charger.  They soak you for the data cable so I’m thinking about $40.00 for that.  And a protective silicon cover would be at least $10.00.  I find a site will all  of that on sale. So with shipping it all costs $15.00. 

I love the internet.  But for those of you who know me, I still hate computers.

ps.  I went back online to see if I could get the same phone for my sister, but it was no longer up on the amazonwireless site.  Oh well

Like the following post, this video was done by Chris Foleen and myself in 1988. It was for sales to give to customers. I make a cameo appearance at about 8:04.

The following video was done in 1988 by Chris Foleen and myself.  Our boss at the time, Larry Wade tasked us with coming up with a better video than the one the company had commissioned for about $50,000.  Neither of us had done anything like this before.  We researched what could be done “in-house” and ended up buying a IBM PC with a Targa video card.  We rented a Sony A/B roll tape deck.  Chris did the computer graphics using Lumina software.  I went down to California to a military base that held archived movie footage going back to WWI.  Chris, do you remember where the music came from?  Be sure to check out the tank and missile scene at about 1 minute and 18 seconds.  This video was continuously run on a stack of four televisions at trade shows and was quite successful.