[geeks] Rebates

[Phil Stracchino]

Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> On Feb 5, 2008, at 1:55 PM, Phil Stracchino wrote:
>> I won't use Verizon because I refuse to pay good money for a phone 
>> only to have them intentionally cripple it.  Later this year, if they 
>> open their network as promised ... maybe.  But they'd have to beat the 
>> cost of my current pre-paid T-Mobile service, which looks set to give 
>> me change in my pocket from $100 for a year's service.
> 
> How is the phone you get with that?

Well, I already had the one I'm using  :)

> I have T-Mobile, and the first thing I noticed is that they use fairly 
> vanilla Motorola software with a few of their own additions and minimal 
> customizations.

Mine's a V3i Razr, straight out of the box, bought unlocked.

Well, I say bought ...  I got it free-with-service-agreement from 
Wirefly, then AT&T bought Cingular, then we moved here and AT&T told me 
that because they couldn't get me signal, they couldn't sell me service 
or charge me for early termination.

> Sprint seems to modify the software far more heavily, and Verizon seems 
> to have completely rewritten it.

Yeah, as previously discussed here, Verizon intentionally cripples all 
their phones to force you to use extra-cost Verizon services instead of 
built-in functionality your phone already has.

> My only complaint, besides the rebate issue, is I'm paying $45/month 
> after taxes, and I think that's just way too much for what I get.

Yeah, cell service has become a racket.  If you're on contract, you pay 
for airtime you'll never use, and as people start using more airtime, 
they keep jacking up the minimums to ensure you keep buying more airtime 
than you'll use.

THis is why I went prepaid.  Spend $100 on TMO airtime and you hit 
platinum, which means (a) 20% more minutes per dollar, and (b) the 
thousand minutes your $100 gets you doesn't expire for a year.  At the 
end of the year, top your account back up to $100 balance and you're 
back at platinum, and good to go for another year.

-- 
   Phil Stracchino, CDK#2         ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
   Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
   alaric at caerllewys.net            alaric at metrocast.net
           It's not the years, it's the mileage.