A week after my 17th birthday I got a job and my parents decided that it was time for me to get a cell phone.
My dad and I went to Best Buy to check out the deals they had for phones and their plans, and we found that Sprint was the cheapest provider that they had. I ended up getting my very first phone, a Red Motorolla RAZR, which was free, and was paying $30 a month for around 250 minutes.
The first day that I got it, I accidentally went on the web. Mind you, all I did was click the web browser and clicked on something random from the Spring home page and exited. At the end of the month my dad was outraged at the extra $18 or so. After I explained to him that it was an accident, my dad called Sprint, and after maybe an hour of talking to the customer service lady, my dad had enough and hung up the phone and just paid the bill.
A few months later, I found myself out of the loop from everyone I knew in high school, and started getting texts from people and then replying to them. At $0.25 per text at the time, those piled up pretty high. After getting a $9 charge one month, I ended up getting 300 texts per month plan for a $5 charge. $5 to send and receive 160 letters of bullshit. Seeing how most people my age at the time texted much more than they did talk, it seemed appropriate.
My parents found that it would be cheaper for the entire family to be under a family plan. This was a 450 minutes/month plan for $70/month for 3 people. My parents moved to Sprint and they each got themselves a dumbphone like the one I had.
After 3 years of basically killing my phone with usage, my battery started only lasting me about 2-3 hours of just being on, and when I talked on it, it would probably last me 30 minutes at the most.
By this time, I have gotten a few raises at my job, and I've been making a bit extra. Also, by this time, the iPhone and Blackberry lifestyles have been on the rise.
I got myself a Blackberry Tour the month it came out. I ended up paying $200 for it (after rebates and a 2 year contract), and on top of that, I had to pay $30 extra a month for the 3G internet. 3G was the newest thing to hit the market at the time, though it wasn't more expensive than the older connection. I've been using my Blackberry extensively since the 1.8 years that I have had it, and I love how amazing the email capabilities that it has, along with easy Facebook and Twitter connectivity.
Today, the Android phones are the new cool thing to have, and being with Sprint, I have the option to get a 4G connection with the EVO Android phone. Since my phone's 2 year contract is almost up, I was pondering whether the white or black EVO looked cooler, and was super excited to get it. Mind you, my current phone bill is at $120 a month after taxes and after having my brother join up for an extra $10 a month into the plan.
Last night I was looking at the EVO phone on Sprint's website, and I noticed that they will charge me an extra $10 a month because I will have 4G instead of 3G internet :monocle: . I was just really pissed right then and there, and thought to myself, that in a year's time, almost no phone will have 3G, but just 4G, and the monthly internet plan will be at $40 a month, which I was not going to pay. I sat down and thought about if it was worth paying an extra $500 a year to have some email or Facebook message sent to me, while I could just check it on my laptop an hour or 2 later (especially since I have been clean of Facebook for 6 days already thanks to the "You need to get off Facebook" thread in the video section).
I decided to downgrade to a "dumb" phone, where there was no internet contract needed to use the phone, then I went to look at the Sprint online store, and found that they only like 3 non-internet phones available, and about 9-12 internet phones (like 4 different types of Blackberry phones, like 6 different Android phones, and a couple of WebOS phones). These few dumb phones have shitty cameras as well, when compared to my Blackberry's 3.2MP auto-focus camera (which is not much compared to the 8MP phone cameras that are around today).
I feel like I have had a revelation to how much of a scam the cell phone market is, and it just keeps on expanding onto us. Makes us feel like the cell phone dealer is just like a drug dealer. Whenever you go to your drug dealer, it seems like he has something new that just beats the last thing he sold you, and it's only a few extra bucks at cost to you. By the time you've been in the drug/cell phone game, you're paying about 150% more on a product that you really never thought you needed, but now feels like a necessity to you.
I hope this thread has made you think about your own phone decisions, and maybe you have already thought about this before. Tell me what your own cell phone story, and give me your opinion on my decision on not going with the trend of upgrading my phone's features every 2 years with the extra price tag.
[b]EDIT[/b]
After reading through the comments, I have realized that people in the UK and other parts of Europe have it much better than us in the US and Canada.
[b]UPDATE[/b]
Sprint can suck my cock: [url]http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/18/sprint-increasing-new-3g-data-plan-contract-pricing-by-10-call/[/url]
FOr a couple of years I stopped using my phone. Internets is much cheaper and you just get used to not having one.
Though now I use mine again to text gf and all. But even then, we mostly send mesages like "come to msn".
Welcome to the wonderful world of REAL LIFE.
Get a pay-as-you-go phone if you hate contractual shite.
My bills are always under 20€, so no scam here.
And that's why I use one of those cheap $20 "throwaway" cell phones you can buy at any electronics store. Granted, even that's somewhat of a rip-off because you have to buy $20 "minute cards" every few months, but it's much better than getting entangled in a 2-year contract with the major cell phone companies that actually get away with claiming that it costs $0.25 to send a 140-character SMS message from one phone to another.
I got a htc desire for free at £25 a month with unlimited texts, a fair amount of internet usage (easily enough) and about 4x more minutes than I've ever used. It's fine.
I don't get how it's a rip off.
I pay £15 a month, which came with a free HTC Wildfire. I get unlimited texts and 300 minutes.
Now, when you consider £15 is the equivalent of about 150 texts, you begin to see why it's so worth it. I send around 2000 texts per month, so I really get my value out of it. If I was on pay as you go, I'd be spending like £200 a month on credit alone.
Not to mention I got a £200 phone for free with it.
Clearly, OP doesn't have any friends and sends 20 texts a month.
I have an LG EnV Touch with internet and all that shit but I don't need it so I just have a basic plan with 500 text messages per month. I probably only send out a 200 or so per month and most of them go to other Verizon users so they're free anyways just like my calls.
Fuck paying money for useless internet and additional bullshit.
[QUOTE=JamesMay;27330723]I don't get how it's a rip off.
I pay £15 a month, which came with a free HTC Wildfire. I get unlimited texts and 300 minutes.
Now, when you consider £15 is the equivalent of about 150 texts, you begin to see why it's so worth it. I send around 2000 texts per month, so I really get my value out of it. If I was on pay as you go, I'd be spending like £200 a month on credit alone.
Not to mention I got a £200 phone for free with it.
Clearly, OP doesn't have any friends and sends 20 texts a month.[/QUOTE]
The last part of your reply is true.
Also, it seems to me as the prices in the US are so much more expensive than the ones in Europe.
iphone, prepaid and unlocked, jailbroken
text plan (upgrade €10, get 300 texts free). 0.10 a text, 0.12 a minute. Works like a charm.
I've never really followed up to most people's desire to get the latest phone, had my previous one for 3 years and it had a really cheap bundle, no internet, and a shitty camera. I didn't care since I only needed to call/text.
Got the iphone and it does the trick, bought the cell separate without a contract or anything (after having an ipod touch for a while). Unlocked it and still using my old cellphone's SIMcard
htc wildfire
free phone, £20 a month 2-year contract
500 minutes, 6,000 texts, 1gb internet per month
perfect for me. my old phone, a sony ericsson cybershot c903, cost £18 a month for 200 minutes, 4,000 texts, 1gb internet. huge step up for £2 extra.
3 are the best phone network
I only got a phone because I wanted a mobile data plan. I pay $30/month for 6GB of data, and that is ridiculously cheap for such service here in Canada. However, I must sign up for a voice plan as well in order to be eligible, which totalled my bill to $60 a month, where I do not really need half of the features.
I have unlimited international calling/text messaging/data. So, so much better. Of course, I actually use all of these features on a daily basis, so the cost is worth it.
I feel sorry for Americans and Canadians, your monthly phone contracts are totally awful.
I have a Samsung Galaxy S, 600 Minutes and Texts, Unlimited Internet (It has a 2GB fair usage but i've gone over it and it still works) for £25 a month.
Get unlimited texting and if you keep your phone on the charger for too long after it's full the battery starts to go bad.
Problem solved.
30$ each month for 500 minutes and unlimited texts.
Wow, I got my first cell phone at the age of 7.
What, it was the age when I went to school, and I needed it if I would for some reason get lost on my way to school. I lived in the suburbs.
Also, Finland.
[QUOTE=Halahazam;27330868]Wow, I got my first cell phone at the age of 7.[/QUOTE]
The fuck.
£18 a month for 500 Texts + Unlimited Internet, and the phone that I got was worth £320 on Pay as you go at the time. Contracts are usually better value, especially if you use alot of texts/internet.
[QUOTE=Halahazam;27330868]Wow, I got my first cell phone at the age of 7.[/QUOTE]
i got my first mobile when i was about 9
first for novelty value but then it came into use when i turned 10 and started actually going out
i got my first cellphone last year
[editline]10th January 2011[/editline]
you have to pay when you receive text?
oh wow
[QUOTE=Halahazam;27330868]Wow, I got my first cell phone at the age of 7.[/QUOTE]
I also have a feeling that you're not too old either in the present.
[QUOTE=Halahazam;27330868]Wow, I got my first cell phone at the age of 7.[/QUOTE]
Yes, because you're clearly going to need it since going diaper shopping with your friends is ALL THE RAGE.
I like mine.
Then again I dont have to pay for it....
It isn't a scam if you're using it heavily, using useful applications, keeping in contact with friends and in my case, contacts related to my job through text messaging, Facebook instant messaging/MSN instant messaging, Skype is also important too and being able to administrate my dedicated server is a huge thing for me.
I hardly ever text anymore. Mostly everyone has interwebs and Facebook or stuff like WhatsApp on their phone nowadays. Since i'm paying for the internet anyway, might as well use those.
[QUOTE=MasterG;27330954]Pay as you go, bitches.[/QUOTE]
[img]http://avatars.fpcontent.net/image.php?u=43805&dateline=1292715390[/img]
You signed up for a phone contract which you subsequently exceeded the terms of and were charged a penalty you agreed to in that contract.
Those bastards.
Read the contract and follow it in future. Even unlimited contracts with 'Fair use' policies will outline them clearly, just read every word before signing. Don't say you don't have the time or you assumed certain things. The money and time you spend sorting out your mistakes could have been saved in the first place by you not being so stupid.
Don't like upgrading or changing phones as new technology is released? Don't participate in a universe in which the sentient beings contained within make new discoveries as time progresses. Or something.
Also, Pay As You Go.
Data plans. I don't know how they get away with this shit.
My internet is free. I never use SMS or call anyone. Yay.
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