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PocketPC or Palm?
Ralf Maximus:
Verizon usually will not from my experience no matter what. They tell their salesmen that it won't work at all without a data-plan. It is a bunch of crap, but it is a requirement for them to sell it at the price listed.
-steeladept (October 13, 2007, 08:27 PM)
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Why am I not surprised? When my wife died (some time ago) I tried to cancel her Verizon cell phone account. The customer support rep tried to talk me into keeping it! It was surreal. Then, when he sensed his sales pitch was failing he switched tactics and told me that cancelling the contract would incur a $175 "penalty" and that it would be cheaper for me to just keep the phone service going!
ON MY DEAD WIFE'S CELL PHONE.
Yeah, Verizon's a top notch organization.
steeladept:
Why am I not surprised? When my wife died (some time ago) I tried to cancel her Verizon cell phone account. The customer support rep tried to talk me into keeping it! It was surreal. Then, when he sensed his sales pitch was failing he switched tactics and told me that cancelling the contract would incur a $175 "penalty" and that it would be cheaper for me to just keep the phone service going!
ON MY DEAD WIFE'S CELL PHONE.
Yeah, Verizon's a top notch organization.
-Ralf Maximus (October 13, 2007, 08:47 PM)
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Bummer! All the more so because they were so wrong by their own policy (as well as by law I think)! When my Mother died earlier this year, they tried to get me to keep her account and I told them they were out of their minds. First of all, I have my own account, second of all I wasn't on the account, and third of all I didn't need another phone. They promptly sent me to customer service who took a copy of the death certificate, closed the account, and sent me on my way. There was no fees whatsoever with the proof of death I had. Was this from a Verizon store/customer service, or was it an "authroized reseller". I find the resellers are worse that worthless, personally, but the company stores are as good as the service. Barely passible, but about average for the industry - UNFORTUNATELY! Anyway, sorry to hear about your situation.
Deozaan:
Why am I not surprised? When my wife died (some time ago) I tried to cancel her Verizon cell phone account. The customer support rep tried to talk me into keeping it! It was surreal. Then, when he sensed his sales pitch was failing he switched tactics and told me that cancelling the contract would incur a $175 "penalty" and that it would be cheaper for me to just keep the phone service going!
ON MY DEAD WIFE'S CELL PHONE.
Yeah, Verizon's a top notch organization.
-Ralf Maximus (October 13, 2007, 08:47 PM)
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I have a similar anecdote except I was in the terrible position of being the customer service employee. I had just finished training and started working phone support for Directv when someone called in saying that the owner of the account had passed away and they needed to close the account.
I had been trained that I always had to warn the customer about a possible cancellation fee if the account still had an active contract. I felt like such a jerk, but I did it. Then I transferred him to the retention department. :(
Shortly after that I learned that account owner death was one of the few exceptions to the cancellation fee. I still felt like a jerk, but was relieved to know I wouldn't have to do that again. :-[
suleika:
I used Palm for years but I switched to Windows Mobile when offered one by my phone provider as a free upgrade with an extremely useful 3G monthly data offer. I thought it would play better with my data/gtd system - at least I could easily read .txt files on the memory card, which was surprisingly awkward to do on the palm. I also wanted to finally integrate phone and handheld - my old Sony Clie was not a phone.
I like it but it is slower than palm. And somewhat buggier. But all in all the difference has not been as great as I thought - the experience is much the same, including the annoyances. However, many of the available equivalent third-party programs are much more sophisticated on windows mobile than on palm, which I like.
Stephen Fry (of all people) writes about smartphones here. And here's a (somewhat old) Palm v. Pocket PC FAQ.
Jammo the OrganizedFellow:
Fun fact: If you see a phone sold by your carrier that you want, but don't need a new/different plan than what you already have, you can often go on eBay and buy an "unlocked" version of that phone. Brand new, factory warranty, often for cheaper than the carrier's price. Swap your SIM chip into the new phone and ta-da, you're done. As far as EvilExpensiveWireless Co. is concerned you're still using the old phone.
-Ralf Maximus (October 13, 2007, 07:54 PM)
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This ONLY works with GSM phones and their carriers. Cingular/AT&T and T-Mobile are both on GSM networks.
So when I switched from Cingular to T-Mobile, I switched to their service in a shop, bought my new T-Mobile Dash online, and while waiting for shipping of my new phone, I unlocked my old Audiovox SMT5600 (Cingular branded) smartphone to work on T-Mobile. And used my old phone on my new network. I thought it was slick as hell, so I also unlocked my Dash.
BACK ON TOPIC :)
I'd highly recommend a Palm device. As much as I love my smartphones, you may rather have a dedicated device JUST for this. Keep your old phone, upgrade when comfortable. Not ALL geeks have uber-cool phones!! :P
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