My brother and nephew have both gone the iPhone route. But I bristle at the whole "one of us! one of us!" -ness of the Apple Cult. I mean, the hardware is slick and all. I even caved and shelved my Creative Zen for a "pod" a this past fall. But buying IMusic at the iStore through my iTunes only to succumb to iDrm ... can't do it. So, when it came time to relinquish the old nokia flip phone, I went with an Android OS.
That was like three days ago and I gotta admit, it's been like getting a new computer used to be ... staying up late, downloading and tryin' out new apps; then wakin' up the next morin' thinkin': what else do I need? hell, what else can I *get*?
So, go for it. Get a smart phone ... but don't believe that you're limited to Apple products any more than you *must* use a Windoze operating system on your desktop. There *are* alternatives. You *may* like them better. It *could* happen.
Btw, I can totally relate to your grief w/AT&T. Myself, I'm a refugee from Sprint, now living w/T-Mobile. Our experience has been good w/the T. But listening to the other customers in line ahead of me at the kiosk and at the stores while I was shopping for and later outfitting my new phone was enlightening, to say the least.
I guess we come to rely on these things pretty heavily and anyone who provides a service upon which we become this reliant is going to let us down sooner or later.
And they *are* in it for the money.
Trick is to find a company that thinks the best way to make money is to provide the best service ... then hope they keep thinking that way.
G'luck!

Verizonnn

Originally Posted by teknikalei

If anyone has any input I'd love to hear it. Take it easy.

Does anyone have any advice on what to do?

I have some advice. Get an iphone. Bwahahahahaha!!

none

hello, welcome to cpf

Hi to all...

Hello-

I'm a longtime AT&T sufferer, and I don't even have an Iphone. I'm thinking about taking the plunge with an Iphone, but I thought I'd do some research and ask what some "power users" thought of it.

I'm pretty much sick to death of hearing about all the OMG cool ass apps for the damn thing, and whenever I see somebody messing with one I admit I get a little curious (and maybe a little jealous), but here's the thing.

I think AT&T sucks. Their rate plans are freakin' lame. I was pricing a couple of other companies, and for what I've been paying all these years, I could have almost unlimited talk/text/web on other networks.

I mean come on- they have the nerve to still charge an extra $20 for unlimited messaging when almost every other carrier throws that in with almost ANY rate plan. That right there is a freakin' joke. And that $20 is ON TOP of the required data plan for an Iphone. If I have access to wifi at home and at school, why the hell should it be mandatory to pay $30 extra a month for network access?!? To me that's just extortion.

So to me, that's the main downside is the price over the life of the contract.

That's why I'm here. My wife and I are both out of contract. I've heard there are ways to get an Iphone without having to get reamed in the cornhole every single month. I'm tempted to go to a corporate store and tell them I'm leaving the company (after almost 12 years!!) unless I get a sweet deal. I hear that customer retention is important (if you find the right rep who can pull some strings?), and maybe I can get thrown a bone or 2. At the very least I'd like to get a decent messaging package thrown on top of their data & voice for 2 lines for a year (preferably for my whole contract).

If anyone has any input I'd love to hear it. Take it easy.

Does anyone have any advice on what to do?