cell phone help/opinions

[phatkid77]

bored, thinking of a hardeware upgrade...im with rogers...

was originally thinking blackberry flip, but am thinking i want to get away from the flip and back to 1 piece...

talked to the guy at the rogers store, and instead of $249, i could have it for $99 with the data plan...now ive always felt i would never use the internet...but i bet if i had it, i would use it, be it at work, hospital, or whatever

family data plan plus sounds not bad,, $80 for 400 mins shared/UNLIMITED TEXT/EMAIL AND INTERNET.. UNLIMITED LOCAL AND LONG DISTANCE TO MY FAV 5 numbers...pretty good i think

i was originally thinking the curve, but read here about freezing...plus if i can get the faster bold on the cheap, fack it..

please give me your advice?? any other real good flip or otherwise out there

not feeling the IPHONE, not big on touch screeen..

phats

[gsxr750]

I like my Bold. It's fast, the keyboard and screen are great, call quality is perfect and never drops any calls. Plus the WIFI is nice, and Opera Mini runs great.

You can get them for $0-100 if you work on your social engineering skills when you call customer service.. I believe I gave Bowlcut some advice and he had some luck.

Oh make sure when it comes in the mail you call them and ask where your bluetooth headset is. They'll mail you one free ;)

[phatkid77]

dont hold out on me ****er!!!...dont you AND your medicine cabinet owe me??? lolo

[gsxr750]

Hahah ok ok you're right i'll summarize the main points quickly:

- Don't let them gouge you on a data plan all you will need to sign up for is an e-mail plan to get them to play ball.

- Do not call cancellation department right away as they can see if you were transferred or called directly

- Call customer service and tell them you're trying to run a business and you're unhappy with the current performance of your phone.

- Tell them you're been happy with the service but you NEED a new phone and you've been hassled by Bell as of late, but you are somewhat impressed with the offers.

- This is when Rogers tells you to switch you have to pay $100-300 in cancellation fees depending on your contract status. But you're prepared, you respond with Bell has offered me the Palm worth $600 so i'm still $300 ahead by switching.

- If they don't play ball you tell them to cancel your service.

- They will tell you they will cancel your service, but they don't do it on the spot it takes 30 days. That's fine, tell them to cancel.

- Within 30 days the retention team will call you on your cell phone and ask you some questions and pretty much do anything in their power to get you to stay. If you don't like the offer, tell them to reactivate your phone temporarily while you think about it. Give it a week, and start the process over again.

Eventually they give you what you want you just need to be patient and expect to wait on hold for a while.

- Remember after you get what you want to call in, and leave a happy note on your account thanking Rogers for the excellent customer service. This will help for the next time you want some free stuff, as it will be the last note on the account, and the representative that helps you will hope that you do the same so they get praised, and they will be more willing to give you what you want.

[phatkid77]

**** me ....that sounds like a major hassle....lol

phats

[gsxr750]

If it takes you two hours you're making $100/hr+

:)

[macka]

I moved out of rogers coverage, but in guelph I went from a basic freebie phone, to a samsung 510 because they kept messing up my account, and trying to bill me for calling people on the my5 plan. When I moved up here and put in the cancellation order, they tried to get me back on their service, and I said I'd be happy to when they put a tower up here. As much grief as I had at the get go, they'd happily clip down bills and give me freebies like net acces for nothing, everytime they screwed up.

[Big D]

gsxr you are one smart man

[420]

gsxr knows how to play the customer service game haha.

[Anatomy]

you definitely have to negotiate your cell phone contracts to minimize the pillaging. As a bonus, if you make it sweet enough you can increase the value and sell the contract for a profit. Sign up a new contract sell the new discounted [or free] phone and do it again.

As far as the phone goes; I like my BB Bold but the Curve was also good and I would consider going back to the iPhone if I didn't strongly prefer the BB email functions. I get better call quality, bluetooth, tethering, communications and faster use with the BB but iPhone is more fun to use, has better multimedia and the apps are more plentiful and fun. They both do the same things but BB is better suited to my needs. Don't forget to check out the G1... it is getting better fast

For you it will depend on your budget and priorities.

[BrownDevil]

I've got the Nokia E71 and love it. It has the same functionality as the BB but without any of the Bluetooth and file transfer limitations.

For 70 bucks a month, I have unlimited network calling, 10000 sent sms, 10000 sent mms, 500 mb of data, (which is plenty, considering it's wifi as well), plus a couple of hundred daytime minutes (which is plenty considering most calls I make are to other Rogers devices hence covered under unlimited network calling), unlimited evenings and weekends.

It's the smartphone plan 45 plus the 15 dollar smartphone value pack...off the top of my head.

Smartphones are not just limited to the iPhone (which I had and got rid of quickly) and Blackberries.

[Anatomy]

forgot to mention...

www.howardforums.com is a great place to get info on cell phones as well as packages.

[varking]

I would go with a iphone if it was me

[gsxr750]

I can't type on the Iphone its brutal.. I text alot.

[BrownDevil]

I can't type on the Iphone its brutal.. I text alot.

Same. I tried it, it was brutal.

[Anatomy]

how long did you use the iphone for?

[phatkid77]

Well, I'm impatient and paid the 100. Worth it too, this thing is sweet!!

[Anatomy]

which one did you get?

[phatkid77]

Bold. Really enjoy it!

[phatkid77]

Pic with it

[BrownDevil]

how long did you use the iphone for?

About a month. 10 days of which I was in the hospital (acute pancreatitis)...so I really put it through its paces. I found that I could sort of live with the touch screen typing, but the crappy battery life put me over the edge in terms of being suitable for my needs.

Plus Apple's restriction on the Bluetooth being limited to headset support only, sucked as well.

The E71 connects through BT automatically with my laptop as well as the BT module I have in my car, allowing me to stream music touch free while driving (it detects and streams as soon as I get in) and I can transfer files and apps seamlessly to and from my pc/laptops. And the battery life is phenomenal.