I've gone and done it. Switched back to iPhone in a big way. I've switched to Sprint and started iPhone Forever, with a 6S Plus 64G to start.
The way these things are priced, once you go a particular direction, it only makes sense to go in a big way. So the 6S and not the 6 (a year newer model with many many improvements, only $100 more) and so 64G and not 16G. And I've never exactly been an Apple fanboy (most often seems to me the reverse, though I grudgingly go with Apple for lack of equally friendly alternatives) but it doesn't really make sense, or at least it hadn't, not to upgrade every 2 years anyway on a contract plan. Let me also post my contrarian view that contract plans, or Sprints new add-in purchases or leasing, make a lot of sense.
So why should I pay $399 down and only $5 less a month to own the phone in 2 years? And forgo the opportunity to have a new phone every year, and to avoid having to worry about trade-in.
Of course it's a risk, and that's the point of a good deal. To get a good deal, one must take a risk, and here the risk is that you're going to continue liking Sprint service or iPhone selection will continue to appeal. Part of the deal here is that you're locking in that service. But even here you can simply wait out the contract, and return the phone, and save $280 on total outlays and not have a spare phone to think about.
Part of my problem, actually, may be that I'm too attached to old things. I was completely unwilling to trade in my iPhone 3G when offered to do so when getting my Galaxy S4, and I was completely unwilling this time to trade in my android phone…android is another set of things…perhaps good to have at hand, if not as one's pet rock.
But in future, if I stick with iPhones, just having the latest one…unless too unhappy with it, really appeals. Apple does add stuff, and the newer phones are always better, but also older phones get slower and less friendly with OS updates. That has been especially true in the past, some say, maybe not so much in future some are hoping as I was.
Well isn't there also an opportunity to get a different color or size? So if I really screw up on this I have an out in one year. I personally held a S Plus at an Apple Store and it seemed very fine, shocking me that the power button accident issue I have with the Samsung simply did not occur. But will it become wearing in some other way, over time? That's the risk. I'm onboard for now. I may be becoming a fanboy after all.
It's actually an upside that I know in advance I will not be keeping this, but getting even greater over time, and staying on top of the planned obsolescence rather than being devoured by it, for what seems now to be a modest charge.
New Cadillacs every year may have been even more a big deal back in the days when people did such things, but at much higher cost. New iPhones every year has a lower environmental cost too. And you actually hold and use your phone far more than a car (at least many people do). It's far more the fashion accessory/status emblem/ego trip even than new cars now. And then, the new features and staying on top of the world rather than being crushed by planned obsolescence.
Strangely I had a heck of a time subscribing to iPhone Forever and having it start before the Sprint rate increase on Friday October 16. I first went to the iPhone store on Tuesday October 13, and after deciding I didn't like the sharp edges on the iPhone 5S (a model I had planned to buy because of the top mounted power button) and that I could live with the 6S Plus (because it's power button is beyond my natural grasp and therefore can't be pressed by accident) I asked the very helpful Apple salesman about Sprint service (he said it was fine in San Antonio, and then even looked up my address on a Sprint map to verify that) and then if I could switch from AT&T to Sprint and get an iPhone. He recommended I go to a Sprint store because they could handle the change from AT&T to Sprint. This was my first attempt to buy 6S Plus on Tuesday. A friend at work suggested the Sprint store would be happy indeed to harvest my account from AT&T.
On Wednesday night I went online to Sprint.com. I went through the ordering process, selecting my phone, entering personal information including my Social Security number, and then the ordering app froze up. I got a blank browser screen. The URL made it clear this was a "Review Your Order" page. I waited 20 minutes for slow network or Mac to catch up. I didn't change. Then I tried back to the previous page, then fill stuff out and forward. Same result: blank page. An hour later going back simply brought me to the Sprint.com home page. In fairness I learned afterwards my Safari browser was out of date by some months.
So then on the way to work the next day, 3:00 PM, I stopped at the Sprint store near where I work (and would therefore be getting support from Sprint). I told the Salesman I wanted iPhone Forever and a 64G iPhone 6S Plus in Space Grey. He said he couldn't sell me one because they had no phones in stock. He checked the computer, and confirmed there were no iPhone 6S Plus phones in Space Grey with 64G in San Antonio. He apologized for my experience online, and gave me a card with the phone number to call.
I called the number from my desk at work at 5:30 PM. The phone call was laboriously slow, with long waits between giving information, and having to spell my email out letter by letter. Ultimately, it took 50 minutes, including about a 4 minute wait for the credit check. (Mine should be somewhere between sterling and platinum, FICO about 785.) The saleslady asked lots of questions like why I was switching from AT&T. I gave the reason "personal." She promised not to ask again. Actually it is because I fear that AT&T is now a right wing company with political clout to lobby for rules not in my interest. Sprint, not so much, at least I conceive of them as neither right wing nor pushing their (much lesser anyways) weight around so much. Though I suspected my call, though handled by a lady sounding like a Californian, was actually in Asia. So Sprint may well be as much into offshoring as much as anyone. Maybe more than AT&T? And that may have been the whole reason a local salesman couldn't order the phone for me…
There are other things that have bothered me about AT&T as well. My Samsung phone was filled with AT&T bloatware as well as Samsung bloatware. When my phone broke AT&T couldn't source one locally and I had to ship my phone to AT&T for replacement which took a week. The AT&T store couldn't even ship it for me. Nor could the AT&T kiosk where I got my phone help me with some simple problems. AT&T is endlessly trying to get me to buy UVerse, something I never will. My AT&T cellular service has been fine though recently (in 2009 there were still issues, especially on trips, and they continued through 2012 but my cellular service has been pretty much perfect since I got my Galaxy phone in June 2013). Certainly one gets the general sense that one is not getting the super premium service one is paying for at the highest priced carrier, and one wonders if all the extra money isn't simply being recycled as UVerse ads. Many people would have and did dump AT&T long ago, but I stuck with them after my first iPhone contract feeling and hoping they were a better company, a feeling I subsequently lost over time. Well now I'm seeing that my Sprint experience can be a bit difficult even when trying to buy the phone (where AT&T, and most everyone else is flawlessly obsequious--and you know not to expect that later from anyone) and this is not reassuring. This may just be exceptional for various reasons, anyway, I trust the Sprint store to get my phone dialed in, and hopefully contacts copied. That's basically all the AT&T stores could do for me anyway. If Sprint can at least do that much, they're fine. Now that I'm getting an Apple, so I was told at the Apple Store, I can go there to get help even if I buy my phone at Sprint. Arguably including this week, my experiences at the Apple Store have always been flawless (I hadn't been there in a few years though, and it is notably more crowded now than it was in 2009), a marked contrast to how things have gone at phone stores. I have friends with Sprint and they've long been happy with it, so I don't think this is going to be a big mistake anyway. It couldn't be much worse that AT&T was in 2009 when I got my first iPhone. By and large I don't see my phone carrier as my best friend, mainly I just want them to get out of my way rather than staying in my face and endlessly trying to sell me overpriced add ons I don't need.
I do try to consider the global impacts of my decisions as well as the local and personal ones. It's very hard to know much, and in situation like deciding which company to use, hard to decide if one company is really better than the other.
I am also getting something that AT&T doesn't even offer: an Unlimited Everything rate, and cheaper than what AT&T charges for just about any level of service.
Ultimately, I did get the confirming emails from Sprint.com before the 50 minute phone call ended, despite my very slow email system taking 10 minutes--the saleslady was as patient as me. So it's now official, my new iPhone 6S Plus will be shipped to me next week. I made it just in time to get the old $60 unlimited rate--mere hours before the rate rose to $70. Sometime afterwards I'll be dealing with the switchover. And hopefully before long enjoying being one of the kool kids.
I had images of a line around the block at the Sprint store. Actually, when I got there there was only one other customer. It ultimately took 4 attempts to order iPhone Forever before the Sprint rate increase, and at least 3 hours of effort (and far more hours of worrying).
Nilay Patel, one of the world's leading tech bloggers, says it bluntly. Buy an iPhone 6S Plus. It's the best, and a mind blowing experience if you have 5S or earlier. And sign up for an iPhone upgrade service.
The way these things are priced, once you go a particular direction, it only makes sense to go in a big way. So the 6S and not the 6 (a year newer model with many many improvements, only $100 more) and so 64G and not 16G. And I've never exactly been an Apple fanboy (most often seems to me the reverse, though I grudgingly go with Apple for lack of equally friendly alternatives) but it doesn't really make sense, or at least it hadn't, not to upgrade every 2 years anyway on a contract plan. Let me also post my contrarian view that contract plans, or Sprints new add-in purchases or leasing, make a lot of sense.
So why should I pay $399 down and only $5 less a month to own the phone in 2 years? And forgo the opportunity to have a new phone every year, and to avoid having to worry about trade-in.
Of course it's a risk, and that's the point of a good deal. To get a good deal, one must take a risk, and here the risk is that you're going to continue liking Sprint service or iPhone selection will continue to appeal. Part of the deal here is that you're locking in that service. But even here you can simply wait out the contract, and return the phone, and save $280 on total outlays and not have a spare phone to think about.
Part of my problem, actually, may be that I'm too attached to old things. I was completely unwilling to trade in my iPhone 3G when offered to do so when getting my Galaxy S4, and I was completely unwilling this time to trade in my android phone…android is another set of things…perhaps good to have at hand, if not as one's pet rock.
But in future, if I stick with iPhones, just having the latest one…unless too unhappy with it, really appeals. Apple does add stuff, and the newer phones are always better, but also older phones get slower and less friendly with OS updates. That has been especially true in the past, some say, maybe not so much in future some are hoping as I was.
Well isn't there also an opportunity to get a different color or size? So if I really screw up on this I have an out in one year. I personally held a S Plus at an Apple Store and it seemed very fine, shocking me that the power button accident issue I have with the Samsung simply did not occur. But will it become wearing in some other way, over time? That's the risk. I'm onboard for now. I may be becoming a fanboy after all.
It's actually an upside that I know in advance I will not be keeping this, but getting even greater over time, and staying on top of the planned obsolescence rather than being devoured by it, for what seems now to be a modest charge.
New Cadillacs every year may have been even more a big deal back in the days when people did such things, but at much higher cost. New iPhones every year has a lower environmental cost too. And you actually hold and use your phone far more than a car (at least many people do). It's far more the fashion accessory/status emblem/ego trip even than new cars now. And then, the new features and staying on top of the world rather than being crushed by planned obsolescence.
Strangely I had a heck of a time subscribing to iPhone Forever and having it start before the Sprint rate increase on Friday October 16. I first went to the iPhone store on Tuesday October 13, and after deciding I didn't like the sharp edges on the iPhone 5S (a model I had planned to buy because of the top mounted power button) and that I could live with the 6S Plus (because it's power button is beyond my natural grasp and therefore can't be pressed by accident) I asked the very helpful Apple salesman about Sprint service (he said it was fine in San Antonio, and then even looked up my address on a Sprint map to verify that) and then if I could switch from AT&T to Sprint and get an iPhone. He recommended I go to a Sprint store because they could handle the change from AT&T to Sprint. This was my first attempt to buy 6S Plus on Tuesday. A friend at work suggested the Sprint store would be happy indeed to harvest my account from AT&T.
On Wednesday night I went online to Sprint.com. I went through the ordering process, selecting my phone, entering personal information including my Social Security number, and then the ordering app froze up. I got a blank browser screen. The URL made it clear this was a "Review Your Order" page. I waited 20 minutes for slow network or Mac to catch up. I didn't change. Then I tried back to the previous page, then fill stuff out and forward. Same result: blank page. An hour later going back simply brought me to the Sprint.com home page. In fairness I learned afterwards my Safari browser was out of date by some months.
So then on the way to work the next day, 3:00 PM, I stopped at the Sprint store near where I work (and would therefore be getting support from Sprint). I told the Salesman I wanted iPhone Forever and a 64G iPhone 6S Plus in Space Grey. He said he couldn't sell me one because they had no phones in stock. He checked the computer, and confirmed there were no iPhone 6S Plus phones in Space Grey with 64G in San Antonio. He apologized for my experience online, and gave me a card with the phone number to call.
I called the number from my desk at work at 5:30 PM. The phone call was laboriously slow, with long waits between giving information, and having to spell my email out letter by letter. Ultimately, it took 50 minutes, including about a 4 minute wait for the credit check. (Mine should be somewhere between sterling and platinum, FICO about 785.) The saleslady asked lots of questions like why I was switching from AT&T. I gave the reason "personal." She promised not to ask again. Actually it is because I fear that AT&T is now a right wing company with political clout to lobby for rules not in my interest. Sprint, not so much, at least I conceive of them as neither right wing nor pushing their (much lesser anyways) weight around so much. Though I suspected my call, though handled by a lady sounding like a Californian, was actually in Asia. So Sprint may well be as much into offshoring as much as anyone. Maybe more than AT&T? And that may have been the whole reason a local salesman couldn't order the phone for me…
There are other things that have bothered me about AT&T as well. My Samsung phone was filled with AT&T bloatware as well as Samsung bloatware. When my phone broke AT&T couldn't source one locally and I had to ship my phone to AT&T for replacement which took a week. The AT&T store couldn't even ship it for me. Nor could the AT&T kiosk where I got my phone help me with some simple problems. AT&T is endlessly trying to get me to buy UVerse, something I never will. My AT&T cellular service has been fine though recently (in 2009 there were still issues, especially on trips, and they continued through 2012 but my cellular service has been pretty much perfect since I got my Galaxy phone in June 2013). Certainly one gets the general sense that one is not getting the super premium service one is paying for at the highest priced carrier, and one wonders if all the extra money isn't simply being recycled as UVerse ads. Many people would have and did dump AT&T long ago, but I stuck with them after my first iPhone contract feeling and hoping they were a better company, a feeling I subsequently lost over time. Well now I'm seeing that my Sprint experience can be a bit difficult even when trying to buy the phone (where AT&T, and most everyone else is flawlessly obsequious--and you know not to expect that later from anyone) and this is not reassuring. This may just be exceptional for various reasons, anyway, I trust the Sprint store to get my phone dialed in, and hopefully contacts copied. That's basically all the AT&T stores could do for me anyway. If Sprint can at least do that much, they're fine. Now that I'm getting an Apple, so I was told at the Apple Store, I can go there to get help even if I buy my phone at Sprint. Arguably including this week, my experiences at the Apple Store have always been flawless (I hadn't been there in a few years though, and it is notably more crowded now than it was in 2009), a marked contrast to how things have gone at phone stores. I have friends with Sprint and they've long been happy with it, so I don't think this is going to be a big mistake anyway. It couldn't be much worse that AT&T was in 2009 when I got my first iPhone. By and large I don't see my phone carrier as my best friend, mainly I just want them to get out of my way rather than staying in my face and endlessly trying to sell me overpriced add ons I don't need.
I do try to consider the global impacts of my decisions as well as the local and personal ones. It's very hard to know much, and in situation like deciding which company to use, hard to decide if one company is really better than the other.
I am also getting something that AT&T doesn't even offer: an Unlimited Everything rate, and cheaper than what AT&T charges for just about any level of service.
Ultimately, I did get the confirming emails from Sprint.com before the 50 minute phone call ended, despite my very slow email system taking 10 minutes--the saleslady was as patient as me. So it's now official, my new iPhone 6S Plus will be shipped to me next week. I made it just in time to get the old $60 unlimited rate--mere hours before the rate rose to $70. Sometime afterwards I'll be dealing with the switchover. And hopefully before long enjoying being one of the kool kids.
I had images of a line around the block at the Sprint store. Actually, when I got there there was only one other customer. It ultimately took 4 attempts to order iPhone Forever before the Sprint rate increase, and at least 3 hours of effort (and far more hours of worrying).
Nilay Patel, one of the world's leading tech bloggers, says it bluntly. Buy an iPhone 6S Plus. It's the best, and a mind blowing experience if you have 5S or earlier. And sign up for an iPhone upgrade service.
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