The Phone Saga
About two weeks ago now, I dropped my cell phone in a puddle. Water damage, they tell me, is irreparable. Naturally, I had had that phone less than one year. My husband, on the other hand, has had his phone for almost two years.
If this accident had happened two months from now, we could have gotten a new phone on a new contract and been done with it. Sure the website says he’d get a $150 credit, but when you’re signing a new contract, the credit is actually closer to $300.
However, we’re not at that point yet. And at one year, his credit is only $75, and they really do mean $75 off their regular retail price of $300+. So not going to happen.
So, we hit eBay. Doing a quick search for auctions ending soon for our cell carrier, we found a great deal- a used BlackBerry for $26. Ordered.
The phone arrived on Saturday- just in time for me to have a phone again before my husband leaves for a week. We don’t have a landline, and his cell phone will be going with him. I logged on to the website to switch my phone number to the new phone. Problem.
Sprint will not allow me to have a BlackBerry phone on their service unless I also have a BlackBerry data plan. That’s right, they won’t let me simply receive calls on a phone if it can also check email. It must do both. Cost of the BlackBerry plan: $30/month.
I paid less than $30 for the phone. It is not in my budget to keep paying $30/month- especially since I don’t want the data plan.
Obviously, we should have done our research before we bought, but we didn’t. So then we did actual research. It turns out that last year, there was a list of phones that Sprint required you have a data plan with. However, more recent reports say that they are trying to force data plans on any smart phone.
So, back on eBay to find a non-smart phone. $18 later, a Motorola flip phone should be in the mail to me this week. They do free expedited shipping, so I’m hoping to have it Wednesday or Thursday.
So, I’ve spent $44 on my new phone. More than I could have spent, but not as much as I was willing to spend. And I’ll have two phones out of it.
I could try re-selling the BlackBerry on eBay. The husband has to re-sell an Xbox 360, anyway, so he could do both. Or I could donate the phone to a women’s shelter or other charity (though I think I’d ask if they’re forced to buy data plans, first.)
In all honesty, dropping my phone in the water is turning out to be not that expensive a mistake, but its still money I wish I didn’t have to spend, especially as its coming out of my spending allowance. But, that’s what I get for not being careful.
Sprint did offer us the option of adding another line and getting a new contract, but we’ve tried that before. It really does cost more in the long run due to taxes and fees and the fact that our current plan is around 8 years old. It would also start a new 2 year contract. We don’t want that.
Right now, I think the plan is to make it through the next 14 months or so needed for both of our contracts to be up, and then switch to a pay as you go plan. The husband rarely uses his phone- 500 minutes could last him 6 months or more. I do use my phone more, but Boost (I think) currently has an unlimited talk/text plan with no contract at $30/month. Even with taxes and fees, that still cuts our current cell phone bill in half each month.
I don't have a cell phone. Once upon a time, I bought a "go phone" (pay as you go). At that time, in order to keep the same phone number you had to refresh the minutes every month – even if you already had minutes that you hadn't spent.That phone was in my purse on the deck of the pontoon boat when my son dipped the front end of the boat accidentally into the lake while we were boating. My phone got very wet and never worked again. My kids phones dried out and worked fine!So, no cell phone for me yet.
You think a $30 plan sucks, you should see what we have to pay up here in Canada where the competition is not as good. That would be the cheapest plan anyone could get. For my phone and internet fees every month I easily pay over 100 bucks and that's after I call and do a one hour negotiation every few months!
My Univeristy Money: Oh, I know $30/month is cheap for a data plan. Certainly most of my friends pay more, but cheap or not, we don't have that $30/month in the budget. We have carefully avoided having data plans, and I just can't let this snafu "force" me in to something I don't want or need.Marie: Neither DH nor I are phone people. We don't have a home phone, and he'd really love it if we could get away with just me having a phone, but occassionally, we need to talk to each other, or his mom falls and she needs to be able to call him, regardless of where we are. So, cells it is.
It's really something how they get you if you need a phone before your contract is up. I've seen this type of scenario happen before to someone, where she dropped her phone in water. It was totaled. She ended up paying full retail to get a new phone, and I'm guessing that must have been quite expensive! I didn't ask for details:)
And the saga continues. New phone arrived – sans sim card. Can't use my old sim card due to compatibility issues. New sim card (another $6) ordered. I might, might have a working phone this weekend.
check virgin mobile when you look at pre-paid – we pay 25/month plus tax for 300 minutes of talk and unlimited data and text – worth checking
[…] wrote in August about my phone saga. What I didn’t know at the time I wrote that post is that the new phone I was getting was a […]