cc_rider wrote:
...so you need a phone?

 cc_rider wrote: 
agreed.

 cc_rider wrote: 
I think all the carriers have a 14 day refund window. You can try a phone to see if it gets coverage where you need it. But it's a hassle if you are porting numbers back and forth. So if it's a concern, sign up, use the 14 day window to confirm it works, then cancel the whole order and start over with a number port if you are satisfied.  

It's a hassle, but you should be prepared for that by cell phone shopping. A couple of years ago, Sprint actually loaned me a phone to try for a few days with no sign up of any kind. I asked them If I could try a new phone this time and they said "sure if you sign up". So I asked if I could just do an ESN swap for my current phone to trial a different model - $36 for the activation, and it automatically re-ups your 2 year contract. See: hassle.

 cc_rider wrote: 
Bump.

Turns out, if we change carriers, we probably won't get reception at the country estate. That could be a deal-breaker. Dangit.

 Beaker wrote:
  Well played, my friend.

 JRenea wrote: 
busted

 cc_rider wrote: 
ROFLMAO!!

 cc_rider wrote: 

 Yibbyl wrote:  Of course you're right. But I'd rather buy a phone and a plan the way I buy a box of cereal. Go to the store, look at three or four boxes of cereal and compare prices and features, select the cereal I want, pay for it, go home.

The less interaction I have with humans, the better off everyone is.

 cc_rider wrote: 
So don't "haggle", just tell them what you want and ask if they can accommodate you. (OK, I know this sounds like haggling, but you're really just asking to see the whole menu.) If they can't, tell them to have a nice day and walk away. No real stress involved as they weren't going to hook you up anyway, so it's not like you actually lost anything beyond what you (don't) have now. If they do make an offer you can live with, cool. Either they offer a service at a price you're willing to pay or they don't. It's really just a vocalized version of selecting between generic & various name-brand corn flakes on a shelf at a grocery store. Nothing personal. No bad feelings. No emotions. Just dealing with some flakes!

 islander wrote:  Yeah, that's frustrating. If I wanted to haggle with a car salesman, I'd go buy a car. I don't need the extra aggravation.

 BlueHeronDruid wrote: 
Maybe they had a sale contest that week for selling iPhones? I do get the feeling that everything on all these offers is flexible with enough negotiation.

 islander wrote: 

 islander wrote:  snerk...

 oldslabsides wrote: 
You Mac people do that all the time.

 ptooey wrote: 
Oh, I know.  I was just being stereotypical.

 islander wrote: 
Huh. Never got pressure when we bought our Samsung Galaxy phones. Even lowered our plan to under $95/month when we upgraded (from about $130). Maybe as long-time customers we get some perks. I don't know. Then again, we paid a hefty amount for the phones rather than go through a reseller, where we'd have had to take a 700-minute plan (MUCH bigger than we have), yet pay little for the phones. But paying up front is saving us about $400 over the life of the contract. I did a lot of math, crunched a lot of numbers, and AT&T was still the cheapest way for us to go.
 
Please understand I'm not trying to sell AT&T. Just saying that it's always seemed to be the best game in town for us, and we've never had problems with reception, either.

 cc_rider wrote: 
i've heard windows 8 is even less suckage

 BlueHeronDruid wrote: 
They were really trying to sell us iPhones. I kept explaining that we have already developed andriod apps, so we'll be sticking with andriod, but the guy wouldn't relent ("sure you'll want an iPhone for yourself right?"). Their coverage is good, their phones okay, but their pricing wasn't really competitive. Sprint and Verizon will also provide us with Micro cells for the couple of people who have bad coverage at home - basically a personal cell tower that drops traffic to the IP network directly.  They also were pushing to have us bundle our land line services to get a better deal, but the whole pitch was just missing the mark. 

Like I said they all have issues of some kind. It's picking the set that work for your circumstances.

 cc_rider wrote: 
I wanted to keep mine, but the battery finally failed and I was told that you couldn't get that particular style of battery anymore! It was probably a lie to get me to buy a new phone and they had no idea I would be getting BluEyes' hand me down!