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My name is Sponge Freddie, and I'm an Electronic Crackaholic.
I used to scoff at everyone madly texting with electronic devices. "I'm so glad I'm not a slave to that ridiculous electronic crack," I would contentedly remind myself, every time I witnessed the compulsive obsession a passerby or acquaintance would be experiencing with his or her device. I only consented to a cell phone because when I got married, I reasoned that my wife might need to get a hold of me for some reason, so I should probably have one. Once I made that decision, I purposely opted for the most primitive phone possible at the time. I had absolutely zero interest in the latest and greatest electronic waste of my attention. After quite some time, my wife and I started texting little messages here and there when we were apart. We discovered that even though we both found the whole "texting" thing irritating and objectionable, lo and behold, we had fun texting each other. A lesson was learned, in terms of the actual usefulness of the device versus the perceived usefulness. This texting activity culminated the day when my wife happened to find an allegedly "amazing deal" on two matching cell phones with slide-out keyboards that we could acquire for free, just for making a small adjustment to our already existing cell phone plan. So, another lesson learned; I found that I loved the many features of the new phone, such as big, colored characters, a nice screen I could put a picture of my wife on, and easily adjustable font size in the text window. But then, something happened, which caused a string of events, making me realize that cell phone companies are not just companies making money, but evil. I accidentally placed my cell phone into a ceramic cup of soda pop. After the prescribed attempt to revive my phone (taking battery out, rinsing phone with water, blowing out with air, drying out for several days in a container of dry rice), I resigned myself to buying another phone. I had a very unpleasant surprise waiting for me, however. First, I found out the model my wife picked out for us has been discontinued; no more green, now it's "Charcoal Gray" or "Charcoal Yellow." But, I can live with a cosmetic difference. Then we went shopping. At T-Mobile, the Samsung Gravity Txt phone was $139.99. At Target, where my wife initially bought our phones, the same phone was $224.99. However, the most insidious development was yet to come. Observe carefully the following page: T-Mobile Samsung Gravity Txt Eventually, when the phone is discontinued, the pricing and interactive portion of the web page will most likely be disabled, so here are the particulars of their pricing scam, in terms of how much the actual phone will cost the customer: A New T-Mobile Customer with an Individual Plan: $0.00. A New T-Mobile Customer with a Family Plan: $9.99. An Existing T-Mobile Customer to upgrade phone with new contract (Individual Plan): $0.00. An Existing T-Mobile Customer to upgrade phone with new contract (Family Plan): $0.00. And now, drum roll please... An Existing T-Mobile Customer to replace phone without new contract: $249.99. So what does this mean? It means that cell phone service providers are more like drug pushers than legitimate businesses earning an honest living. How does a business normally treat its loyal customers? Not like that. We are existing customers of T-Mobile, and are already paying $2,280.00 over two years, via the mutually agreed-upon contract we signed when we received the phones. If you are a new customer, the cost of the requisite 2-year plans far exceeds the cost of the $250 phone you got for $9.99, so in effect, no matter how you slice it, the cell phone company is going to screw you in the wallet every time. A drug pusher will always let you taste the wares "for free." It's the hook that drags you into an extended buyer-supplier relationship that typically leaves the buyer penniless, sick, dead, or if he or she is "lucky," a recovering addict. While the cell phone user may not end up as tragically as the drug abuser, the fact remains that once you have been suckered into the culture of being "plugged in," it is only the most extraordinary individual who can rise above that artificial encumbrance. Does a company deserve remuneration for products and services provided? Absolutely. Does a customer deserve price fixing and horrendously overblown charges? Absolutely not. What was my solution to my particular problem? I went back to using my relatively featureless old cell phone. I'm not paying $140 to $250 for a cell phone that could have just as easily been sold at cost by the Cell Phone Pushers, er, I mean Cell Phone Companies, especially since we're already on a 2 year plan and now we don't even have one of the two phones we were enticed with to sign up in the first place! |