I don't want to return to school with Grant, he's creepy!
I obviously read the ad wrong, but hey, at least I read the ad.
Booze? Well, that explains how Wall Street lost all that money
I don’t know what they’re selling but what were they THINKING?
Sick? Wild? I'll stick to Pac-Man
I still can’t get used to the word ‘sick’ being used in a good context.
UPDATE: The free promotion for “The Rules of Tech Support is now over, but you can still get “One Sheet Stories” for free!
My second e-book “The Rules of Tech Support” is available for free today via Amazon Kindle devices and software, and of course, you can always get “One Sheet Stories” for FREE here!”
UPDATE: I received a call from the CEO of River City Federal Credit Union the afternoon after sending the email below and apparently their e-statement system is down due to some upgrades they are in the process of implementing. Nice.
Everything is going to be sorted out as far as I’m concerned, but I have to admit to rolling my eyes when I was being told about how wonderful the system was going to be in the future. I mean, seriously, it isn’t working right now so I could care less about TEH FUTURE! So for the moment, its ‘all’s well that ends well’ but we shall see how things work out after they get everything done and (hopefully) working. I am cautiously optimistic.
I joined River City FCU last year partially because I was tired of ‘business as usual’ with banks. I had hoped that joining a local credit union would provide a better overall experience and looked forward to supporting a local business. While your people have been great, your technology has been sorely lacking, especially where e-statements are concerned. Not only did I miss my March statement but after contacting RCFCU via the online system, I was told over a week ago that a statement would be mailed to me and I have yet to receive it. I have also cancelled my e-statements so that I don’t have to go through this mess for the near future and am no longer receiving REWARD Checking benefits because I have to choose between those benefits or not receiving my statements in a timely fashion which is an inconvenience.
This is inexcusable. This is the 21st century and if you want to compete with other credit unions to say nothing of the big banks then you need to accept the fact that keeping an important system like eStatements down for more than hours in UNACCEPTABLE. As much distaste as I have developed for banks, at least their online systems have always worked and as much as I hate to admit it, I may find myself going back to them (or at least another credit union) just so that I don’t have to worry about not having access to my information because a tube popped in the mainframe.
Thank you.
Eduardo Soliz
New (or new to you) cars are great. The smell, the shiny exterior, the pristine interior and smooth ride make driving a joyous experience. Of course, all good things come to an end, and years later, the honeymoon is over. You find that your once noble steed has become a pack mule that smells funny and doesn’t always obey your commands.
Such was the case with my 2005 Dodge Neon. I purchased it new in 2006 and christened it the “Reliant” during those halcyon days when it was nice and shiny. Fast-forward almost six years later, and it now has some ‘personality quirks’ such a the stains on the driver’s seat, dent on the back where I punched it one particularly bad day, and yeah, I haven’t been washing it nearly as frequently as I should have been. It also started running fairly loudly a few months ago, sounding more like a Cessna than a car. After almost being driven insane by the noise during a drive up to Dallas a few weeks ago, I decided to get the thing fixed and started asking friends and acquaintances if they knew of a good garage in town. Nobody knew of one, which was more than a little aggravating.
And then I had my little accident…
So I was stuck when the tow truck guy was asked where to send my car to. I asked the insurance guys for a suggestion and they gave me an address, which I then gave to the tow truck guy. I then saw my car hauled off to who-knows-where to have who-knows-what done to it. A week and a half later, I had my car back without a working air conditioner and it was still shaking, so not only was I back to square one, I now needed to have my car looked at before the triple-digit Texas heat kicked in and turned my car into an EZ-Bake oven on wheels.
Luckily my friend Kate finally came around with a recommendation: Alamo Heights Garage. She spoke highly of them so I figured I’d give them a shot. I went to their website, and filled out their online form asking for an appointment on Saturday. I got a response back in a few hours saying that they weren’t open on Saturday.
What is it with mechanics being closed on Saturdays? Sundays I can understand, but come on, it sucks to have to take time off of work to get my car looked at, and it’s never a short visit. Anyway, I set up an appointment for the following Tuesday morning, guessing that I would be waiting a half-day while the A/C fixed. I figured I’d ask them to see just what was making the shaking noise as well.
I arrived at Alamo Heights Garage early Tuesday morning. I had bought my laptop along so I could work on some writing while I waited. The first thing I noticed was that the waiting area was very clean, there was a table and chairs where I could sit and work, a television tuned to the local news with some more comfortable seating in front of it and most importantly to me: coffee.
After describing what was happening to the woman behind the counter, I grabbed a cup of coffee, opened up my lappy and did some work. I was glad to discover that they had WiFi available. About a half an hour later, I got the diagnosis: the air conditioner’s discharge hose was bad, and the shaking was caused by three worn engine mounts that would have to be replaced. The total cost to get both things fixed was going to be $800: $300 for the A/C and $500 for the mounts. I figured that since the Reliant had not given me any major problems in the past, I would get the work done and hopefully have a better-running car that I could hold onto longer as well as be easier to sell once that time came.
The work was going to take most of the day, so I was offered a ride to work and was told that I would be contacted once everything was done. I gratefully accepted the ride and spent the day at work as usual, that is, except for having to hitch a ride to lunch. As four o’clock arrived, I waited to get a call from the garage letting me know my car was ready. I started getting nervous, because my job is answering technical support calls, and a bad call could easily last an hour. Our lines were open beyond the garage’s closing time, so if I got stuck on a long call, I might not be able to leave work in time to get to the garage to pick up my car before they closed.
If that isn’t a setup, I don’t know what is…you can just guess what happened next.
My next call was a customer with a Big Nasty Problem, and of course, five minutes into the call, my cell phone started ringing. To make matters worse, the customer was dumber than a box of rocks, and I kept looking back and forth at the time while repeatedly trying to tell the customer how to open up a web page. My anxiety only increased as the phone kept ringing about every ten minutes, and I started looking for an opening where I could close out the call. Luckily, I didn’t have to, either the customer hung up out of frustration or their phone battery died. Either way, I didn’t care, I immediately called the garage and let them know I was on my way.
I could have been picked up by someone from the garage, but a friend had offered to give me a ride as it was on his way home, so I took him up on it. I was dropped off, paid the bill, got my keys and hopped into my should-now-be-running-like-new car. And you know what? It really feels like a whole new car now, because the guys at Alamo Heights Garage did a great job on it. The Reliant’s ride was nice and smooth, and the air conditioner worked like a champ.
Did I pay too much for the repairs? I don’t know enough about cars to know if I did or not. All I know is that I am happy with the excellent service I received, and the follow up call to see if everything was still work the week after and the 12-month/12,000 mile warranty on the repairs tell me that these guys are going to stand behind their work.
I’d like to thank the folks at Alamo Heights Garage, not only for doing a great job on the repairs to my car, but for making the process as pleasant as it could be. I didn’t have to take much time off from work, either. This was easily the best experience I have ever had with a mechanic that I didn’t personally know and I feel more comfortable knowing if my noble steed should ever be in need of repair in the future I know where to take it.
That’s right, almost six years later, the Reliant is my noble steed once again.
Looks nice, but it'll be an oven come August
This is a follow up to my original post, click here to read it.
3/21/2012 UPDATE : After taking it to a real mechanic, it turns out that the A/C wasn’t working because there was a bad hose that had to be replaced. While they don’t believe it was caused by the accident, it means that Progressive’s grease monkeys misdiagnosed a problem TWO TIMES. I will definitely be shopping for a new insurance provider now.
For the most part, my experience with Progressive has been fairly positive, except for a few bumps in the road: they had me send my car to the wrong repair shop, the repair shop they did send it to incorrectly diagnosed the alternator as being bad when the battery was the issue, it wasn’t ready on the day I was told it was going to be ready, and despite not being found at fault, I am out $500 for my deductible, but that’s a philosophical issue I’ll discuss some other time.
Now, call me crazy (you wouldn’t be the first) but I thought part of the point of having insurance was so that your vehicle would be restored back to the state it was in before it was involved in an accident. Except for running a bit noisy due to an issue with the manifold, everything in my car had been working just fine before I had my little accident a few weeks ago. Indeed, upon getting my vehicle back, I was satisfied to find that it seemed to run as well as it did before. I also checked to see if a new battery had been installed, and yes, it had been. I had grown suspicious after realizing that my radio presets hadn’t gone away as has been the case in the past when I have replaced batteries.
So everything was fine and dandy until I hop in my car to go somewhere on Sunday. It was warm out, about 80 degrees, so I figured I’d turn on the air conditioner to give it a test run. Air came out of the air conditioner but it was not much cooler than the air outside. I left the air conditioner on for the duration of the short trip and there wasn’t much happening. Now I’m worried, because if the battery went bad due to the accident, who’s to say that something else didn’t go wrong somewhere within all the coils, tubes and who-knows-what-else that make up the air conditioning system?
I don’t go running to Progressive just yet, though. Monday was also going to be a warm day, so I figured I’d give it another test run before calling them. I started up my car during my lunch break, at about 1 in the afternoon on another warm day and I ran it for about ten minutes with the air conditioner set to maximum. It seemed as if it was trying, but the air coming out was not cooler than the air outside. As it was a warm day, it was easy to tell that it was not working.
I now knew for sure that the air conditioner wasn’t working, so it was time to contact Progressive and get it looked at. I scheduled an appointment to drop off my car this morning and pick up a rental. The temperatures on Thursday morning were pretty cool, in the mid-60s; thus, I wasn’t entirely sure that the cool air coming into my car at the time wasn’t just the product of the outside air combined my not-quite-warmed-up car, but I was now certain that my air conditioner wasn’t working as well as it had been before.
I arrived at the claims center and let the person there know what was happening. The woman said that they were going to have someone check it out and then let me know how we were going to proceed. I said okay and waited for her to return. Not even fifteen minutes later, she came back and let me know that they were not going to look at it. Apparently I had given the impression that my air conditioner was completely out, and since the air coming out was just a little bit cool (which may have been due to the outside temperature) I was going to have to get it fixed myself. She cheerfully let me know that it probably just needed refrigerant and that any mechanic could probably fix it.
But it was WORKING JUST FINE before the accident, I said. She ignored that statement, gave me my key back, and bade me farewell.
I am not very happy with Progressive right now. I now have to take time and money to have a real mechanic check my car’s air conditioner. If he finds something wrong, I then have to convince Progressive that there was no problem with it before the accident, then drop it off, get another rental, and essentially go through the same thing I did this morning. As I type this, I am getting ready to talk to my claims rep and let them know how I feel about this development, but right now I am all but ready to dump them.
Half an hour later…
So I spoke with a second agent (the one that I’ve been working with is not in the office and I won’t hold that against her) who told me that I needed to have it looked at by a mechanic…
WELL, NO KIDDING, SHERLOCK, THAT’S WHY I TOOK IT TO YOU THIS MORNING!
Apparently, they don’t have mechanics at the claim centers. So some paper-pusher turned on my AC, felt cool air coming out (remember, it is a cool morning today) and used her 1337 paper-pusher skills to deduct that I had a Freon leak somewhere. Aw, HELL NO.
Agent #2 is going to look into it and I now get to wait for his phone call.
Another thirty minutes later…
Agent #2 said that he was very sorry and let me know that yes, a mechanic did have a look at my car this morning (as you can see above, I was not told that) and he was the one that said the AC was fine except for being low on Freon. I told the guy that I was skeptical because the last shop couldn’t even properly diagnose a bad battery. So now I need to take my car to a (hopefully competent) mechanic to look at my air conditioner.
So in the best case scenario, I get to pay to get my AC recharged with Freon, which I may have had to have done anyway. Worst case scenario is that I get to deal with Progressive again and have their grease monkeys bang on it with giant wrenches.
I know that sounds backwards, but I think I’m going to be shopping for a new insurance company now.
Okay, so I couldn't help myself
So, a ten inch tablet is way too big for me, an eight inch one was just a hair too big, and so a seven-inch tablet should be just right…right? After returning my Vizio tablet, I decided to see what was available in the 7-inch space. Neither the Kindle Fire nor the Nook Tablet had been announced at the time, so I was looking at full-featured tablets with GPS, Bluetooth, a micro-SD card slot and all those nerdy things nerdy nerds like me care for.
The Samsung Galaxy was nice, but it was also pretty darn pricey and running the phone version of Android. There was no way I was going to pay a premium for another ‘phone without the phone’ device. The Dell Streak 7 was very nice and was even supposed to get a Honeycomb update in the near future, but at the time I was looking, T-Mobile was the only place selling it. While I didn’t mind the thought of getting a data plan, T-Mobile data service is pretty craptacular in my hometown, which was where I would really want to have that mobile data connection. The HTC Flyer was also ridonkulously overpriced, even more so than the Galaxy. Sure, it had a stylus, but as much as I miss using a stylus, I don’t miss it that much. And as I mentioned before, the cheapo ‘e-readers with Android on them’ were a no-go with their lack of access to the Android Market and barely-responsive screens.
The Acer ICONIA TAB A100 was the first 7-inch device to come with the ‘Honeycomb’ version of Android out-of-the-box. This is important because Honeycomb is written specifically for tablets and should not have that the ‘phone without the phone’ feeling the Vizio did.
HARDWARE
The A100 has a 7-inch widescreen that is nice to look at but gets washed out in sunlight like most mobile screens. The Gorilla Glass that sits atop the screen is also highly reflective (as you can tell by the photos) which can be a little distracting. I also found the touchscreen to be just a hair on the overly sensitive side when I was typing, but that may just be the keyboard software, my fat fingers, or more than likely, a little bit of both. It is multi-touch, though, so I can zoom and out with ease.
The power button and headphone jack are on the top right of the device, pretty standard stuff there. The volume control, rotation lock switch and a MicroSD card slot are on the right side. The A100 provided an okay amount of audio, nothing earth-shattering, but then again I’ve learned to not expect decent audio out of anything smaller than a 13-inch laptop. The bottom of the device has a host of ports: Micro-HDMI, microUSB, a docking connector and a charging port. A 5MP outward facing camera with LED flash and 2MP front facing camera are also present, and a capacitative Home button lies just underneath the screen. The cameras take okay pictures, certainly ones that are good enough for throwing onto the web. At a half-inch thick and weighing in at .92 pounds, the A100 feels comfortable in my hands with its rounded corners and sides. The casing is plastic and a bit of a fingerprint magnet, though.
Battery life is about 4-5 hours, depending on Wi-Fi and GPS usage, of course. After being able to use the Vizio tablet for almost an entire workday (9 hours), having to recharge the A100 barely after my lunch break is a bit of a letdown. Unfortunately, the A100 cannot be charged via its USB port; the included AC adapter is your only charging option, well, that or a $100 dock. The lack of charging options only serves to make its limited battery life a bigger limitation than it should be. If the A100 could be charged via USB, I could use nearly any charger, but as it stands, there is no official Acer mobile charger available for purchase as of this writing, so I either have to find a wall socket or run out of juice.
Under the hood is the same 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU that powers most of the other first-gen Honeycomb tablets, 1GB of memory, and 8 or 16 GB of storage, which can be supplemented via a microSD card. The A100 is fairly responsive, and doesn’t feel underpowered or sluggish.
SOFTWARE
Home is where the data is
Honeycomb is a different animal than the phone versions of Android. The first thing I noticed about it was the bar that ran across the bottom of the screen, it makes it look and feel more like a PC desktop. Honeycomb places Home and Back buttons on the bottom left of the screen, so physical buttons are not needed on Honeycomb devices at all. A new third button brings up the last ten open apps, which comes in handy, and if you are using a phone-based app, a fourth menu button appears that takes the place of the physical “menu” button found on Android phones. Aside from the Home button just below the screen there are no physical navigation buttons to be found.
On the top left of the Home screen are a Google search button and a voice search button. The upper right corner has an Apps button that gives access to all apps and a plus sign that allows the user to add widgets and apps to the Home screen or change the wallpaper.
Having been accustomed to using Gingerbread on my phone, it took me a little doing to get accustomed to getting around Honeycomb, but once I did, I appreciated the way it worked. I do miss having physical buttons, though, the bar on the bottom of the screen that holds the soft buttons never really goes away, which I found annoying when viewing pictures or videos.
Overall, though, Honeycomb is a step forward for Android and it is quite nice once you get the hang of it, which doesn’t take too long.
APPS
Amazon made a better store, go figure
The A100 has access to the Android market, and unlike the Vizio, I was able to download all of the apps I needed. Some of them were optimized for tablet use, but some appeared to be phone apps that were scaled up to fill the device’s screen. They didn’t look too bad, but the amount of empty spaces in such apps is pretty hard to ignore. I have to say that while I’m not a big fan of playing games on my phone because of the inaccuracy of my big fingers, doing so on the A100 was quite nice thanks to the increased screen size.
I also discovered the Amazon Appstore, which, I have to say, is awesome for two reasons: First off, they give away a free paid app every day. While it is often a game of some kind, every now and then it’ll be something nicer, like a Microsoft Office app or a drawing program. The second and more important reason is that it keeps track of your downloads and synchronizes your apps across multiple Android devices. This means that when I download an app onto my phone the appstore is smart enough to ask me if I also want it on my tablet and vice versa. For the life of me, I don’t know why the Android Market can’t do this, but hopefully Google Play will take care of that.
CONCLUSION
The Acer Iconia TAB A100 is a good tablet with one flaw that may be fatal for some users. Plastic nonwithstanding, the hardware feels good, and as is often the case with mobile devices, the screen is a bit reflective and not-quite-so-good in sunlight. Micro-USB and HDMI ports are nice to have, though I haven’t really done much with them. The same also applies to the micro-SD card slot; even though I have an 8GB card installed, I use it mainly for storing media. The device’s internal 8GB has been sufficient, though I should mention that I am a pretty light app user.
Honeycomb is a step up for Android, it feels like an actual desktop environment as opposed to a ‘giant phone.’ It would be nice to not have those soft buttons following me around nearly everywhere I go, but that’s a minor quibble. An upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich (the next version of Android) is forthcoming, so I’ll have to wait and see how that pans out.
The A100’s Achille’s heel is its limited battery life. I’ll go as far as to say it prevents it from being a really great tablet. The 4-5 hour uptime is not even enough to even last a full workday, and the lack of additional charging options makes it feel even more limited. A mobile charging option or at least the ability to charge via USB are sorely lacking. Thus, while I have been very satisified with how well my A100 works, the fun is often cut short by being constantly tied to AC outlets, which significantly reduces the device’s portability.
While the Acer Iconia TAB A100 is a good device overall and I love the 7-inch form factor, this particular device limited by its relatively short battery life. I would call it a good ‘home tablet;’ something nice to have around the house for those moments when you want to look something up quickly, take to bed with you, or take on a trip to the coffee shop. Road warriors and those who intended to use it for extended periods of time should be leery of its lack of charging options.
That said, with the next wave of Android tablets hitting stores, you can definitely find one for much cheaper now than its original retail price of $329. Heck, its going for $249 at the Acer Store. It isn’t a bad device, and I am certainly enjoying mine…I just wish it had a bigger gas tank.
I give the Acer Iconia TAB A100 just barely four out of five AC Chargers.
I believe that every creative person has, in their head somewhere, their masterpiece. The Big One, the Magnum Opus, that one work that they believe will knock everyone’s socks off and change the world, or at the least, make them rich and/or famous. One concept that we always preached in First Storm Manga was the idea that your Big One should never, ever, be your first project.
Why not? As eager as you may be to unleash your book, song or artwork onto an unsuspecting world, the fact of the matter is that when you undertake your first major project, you are more than likely going to make mistakes. Thus, you should undertake a similar smaller project that you aren’t quite as emotionally invested in, so when things go wrong, you won’t be discouraged from having borked up your masterpiece.
Thus, “The Rules of Tech Support” is actually my second ebook. My first one was “One Sheet Stories” which was a collection of five of my one-page stories. Nobody bought it, and I also encountered a few slip-ups along the way. I tried using a service called Smashwords which ended up not working as well as I had hoped. Their touted ‘Meatgrinder’ conversion program didn’t quite spit out my e-book the way that I wanted it to look, which was frustrating. I did some research and found a spiffy program called eCub that I could use to convert my text properly to e-book format then upload it directly to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
That was just one of the lessons I learned while working on “One Sheet Stories” that I was able to apply to the production of “The Rules of Tech Support.” The process went much smoother because I was doing it the second time around and I didn’t make as many mistakes. Time will tell whether it “The Rules of Tech Support” will be successful or not, but on a technical level, I am happy with the result.
Its not that you can’t strike gold on your first try, but the unfortunate reality is that most folks will not, and who knows, that small project just could be the one that makes it big!
YOU GET NOTHING! YOU LOSE! GOOD DAY, SIR!
There are many common terms that have different meanings when put into the context of computers. To most people, “monitor” means to keep an eye on something, but to us IT Guys, its a display device. “Legacy” is another one of those terms; in the computer world, it is a nice way of saying “obsolete.” I learned this at a previous support job where the company pushed and pushed for its customers to upgrade (and spend more money on) the Latest and Greatest version of their software, but there were plenty of hangers-on that were content to use older versions. That’s the way it was, it worked, and they liked it.
Eventually, a new service pack or new version of Windows would come along that would completely break the software, and there wasn’t much else we could tell those guys besides “well, you need to upgrade.” The customers would get mad and stomp their feet and demand that we fix it right away, but 95% of the time, that wasn’t going to happen. If the customer didn’t upgrade, they were out of luck. On a certain level, I can understand the desire to not change something that works (heck, I still use Microsoft Money 2000 and WinAmp 2.9), but at the same time, nearly all computer software will eventually go off into the night of obsolescence because eventually the developer will decide that it isn’t worth the expense of continuing development and support.
One common customer response I would hear (and still do) to this situation was that we were awful people that wanted them to spend more money. To that, I say: I’m sorry, but this is a BUSINESS, it exists to create a product, provide a service, and make money. If we don’t make money by releasing new products and lose money by devoting too many resources to old software, we go out of business and all lose our jobs. Yeah, it royally sucks for users (I myself had a printer that was ‘orphaned’ when Windows Vista came around) but it is a necessary part of the software “circle of life.”
At least that’s how it should work, but instead, many companies insist on continuing to support outdated software, and continue to sell it in many cases. The end result is that tech support gets driven bonkers trying to support the old stuff on top of all the new stuff that comes out and it can get overwhelming. It also results in poorer customer service because techs have to take extra customer time to dig into knowledgebases and ask senior techs about programs that were written for Windows 95.
This is one of the few things I love about Apple. Instead of letting software linger around and stink up the place like old cheese, they have the cojones to tell their customers that the bar is closing, its lights out, so go to the newer nicer bar down the street or go home. They did it when they nuked support for ‘classic’ Mac applications in Leopard, and again by no longer supporting PowerPC applications in Lion. In both cases they waited until four years until after the product was discontinued before pulling the plug and did not hesitate to do so.
In the short term, yes, some customers will be upset and some will go to competitors, but in the long-term, the company can continue to move forward as opposed to having the dead weight of zombie software hanging around their necks like an albatross. I guess we can put this in the “painfully obvious observation that senior management never gets” file. I can’t wait to see what happens when Windows XP support goes away in 2014…or maybe I can.
The blackout is over and it’s back to unusual here on RANDOMIZER9.COM. While SOPA may be down for the count, it certainly hasn’t gone away and so we must stay on our guard to make sure it or some other misguided attempt to regulate the Internet never ever rears its ugly head again. Stay informed, everybody, and a big ‘way to go’ to everyone that participated!
For the entirety of January 18, 2012, I am shutting down RANDOMIZER9.COM in protest against the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). These are bills that are currently making their way through the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America.
While my blog is but one of millions that are fighting for your attention on the wild kingdom that is the Internet, I feel that if I can make my few visitors aware of what is going on, then I will have done my part.
My blog is currently a labor of love more than anything else, but I do hope to one day make a living from my other creative endeavors and so the topic of piracy is important to me. While the intentions behind those two proposed laws may have been good, their language is so broad and their methods are so draconian that they cannot be allowed to become law.
I don’t expect everyone reading this message to support this effort, but I hope that you will take the time to read up on the subject and decide for yourself whether we should let control of this crazy new wonderful thing called the Internet fall into the hands of corporations and the government.
Thanks for reading
–Eduardo “Randomizer9” Soliz
As my cell phone contract nears its end, I find myself metaphorically drooling over the thought of getting a new phone. Well, okay, so maybe I’m doing a little bit of real-life drooling, too. While the Samsung Moment I got from Sprint has been fairly reliable these past two years, it would be nice to get something new, and yes, there is some gadget-lust feeding that desire to upgrade as well.
While my desire to keep up with the virtual Joneses is strong, it is tempered by my desire to be more responsible with my finances. I recently consolidated all my debts and am working on boosting my savings, which, of course, means cutting back on expenses. I currently pay just under eighty bucks a month for my cell phone plan. That isn’t bad, but it would be nice if I could get that number to drop. I recently learned that I can an employee discount through my job. Even then, I think I can shave even more off my cell phone bill by going with a pre-paid provider. Doing so will come with a few caveats, but before I go over them, I should mention that I had pre-paid cell service from T-Mobile way back when because money was tight. It was pretty good, but it was quite some time before I had a smartphone. Now on to the issues:
The biggest one has to do with the carriers themselves. While some of them piggyback off of the big boys (for example, Virgin Mobile uses Sprint’s network) and some are run by the big boys (Verizon and AT&T each have their own pre-paid services) others have their own networks that are not as robust as the ones the “big boys” have. This probably won’t be a big deal when I’m at home in San Antonio, but once I go to other cities for conferences or events things just might not work!
Related to this issue are the phones that are offered by pre-paid providers. They aren’t nearly quite as nice as the new ones the major providers carry. From what I have seen in my research, some of them are just downright awful, as they are often made by second- and third-tier manufacturers. Adding to this is the fact that you have to pay the full cost of a pre-paid phone up front. That is one of the reasons that pre-paid service is less expensive, those carriers don’t subsidize the cost of their phones. This isn’t quite as big a deal as it sounds, because the phones that I can get for free from the big boys are about as lousy as the one I have now. If I want something better, I’m going to have to fork out some cash up front either way.
Another reason the ‘lousy phone’ thing may not be an issue is the fact that I just don’t do a whole lot with my smartphone. For all the “OMG THOUSANDS OF APPS” available on Android, I barely have any apps installed and use less than ten on a regular basis. Non-smartphones have gotten smarter these days, so I might be able to ditch a smartphone completely and go with a much cheaper non-smartphone plan. If I can find a messaging phone that does Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail, that would be just about perfect. The obvious downside is that I would probably be very limited to what I could install on that not-so-smartphone.
One final consideration is the porting of my current phone number. I’ve had the same phone number for a few years now and have gotten pretty attached to it, so I’m a little jittery about moving to a new provider. I get even jitterier (yes it’s a word, BTW) when I consider that a lower-cost operation may not have all of those nice people answering phones for them in customer service. I’ve actually received good customer service the few times I’ve had to call Sprint, and shudder at the thought of talking to who knows who from who-knows-where. That isn’t an “I hate Indian call center” thing, either. In my AT&T debacle from earlier this year, I was actually glad to get a polite person with an accent instead of all the home-grown jerkasses I had been dealing with up to that point. Yeah, the ‘USA-based support’ they were so proudly trumpeting was that bad.
While the thought of getting a shiny new phone with a nice big screen, new operating system and fast CPU is a pleasant one, the thought of being caught without enough money in the event of an emergency is enough to make me think over the amount of cash I’m currently shelling out for my phone service. On the other hand, the service I have been getting has been pretty good, even in the boonies of my hometown and I’m not sure that going with someone different for the sake of saving a few bucks is the best plan in the world. My bill should be dropping thanks to the employee discount, so I’m wondering if perhaps going pre-paid isn’t worth the trouble when things are working well as it is.
And yeah, those shiny new phones in the Sprint Store are looking pretty nice!
Eduardo Soliz 