I tried not to. Really. The morning of June 29, I dropped my Treo 650 into the toilet. Despite what you may have heard, this really was an accident. Not to mention the fact that it's also a clear sign that I am way too attached to my phone. Or that back pockets are not where I should place my valuables. And don't worry, I didn't compose this post on the toilet. But I have emailed my boss from there several times over the years. It's a quiet kind of revolt, I guess. Or maybe it's just revolting. But anyways, back to the splashdown. When I heard the noise, I thought I was either suffering from some form of tropical dissentary, or that really was my $600 unlocked GSM BFF hitting the water. If you know me, you'll know I preferred it be the former. Sad, But true. With my cat-like reflexes, I rescued it from the water immediately, but it was too late. I took it apart and laid it out on paper towels on the sink. No matter how much I shook the main body, there was still water sloshing around in the screen. Ick. So I went to the T-Mobile store down the street to get a loaner to tide me over while I decided what to do. Now, on this particular day, when the entire world was focusing on the release of iPhone, you would think the salespeople at the T-Mobile store would have been especially nice to me. I was the ONLY customer in the store when I walked in, and it took the 2 people behind the counter 11 minutes to acknowledge my presence. One of them was on the phone with some other employee, probably a manager, explaining that the woman who had just walked headlong into their glass window wasn't "that badly hurt, just bleeding a lot."
The other employee in the store was deeply enthralled with some laminated pages in what looked like a training notebook. Sigh. he finally came over to me and I explained my situation. "Sorry, we don't have any more loaners", he said without even checking, and went back to texting someone on his cellphone. I said, "Ummm, can you call another store and see if..."
He held up his index finger and took a personal call on his cellphone.
I waited.
And waited.
The other girl was still on the phone, assuring whoever was on the other end that they would "not be at fault".
Finally my helper called another store. He came back over to me and said, "Nope. they don't have one either."
"What should I do?" I asked.
"Uhhh, I don't know", he said as he answered yet another personal call on his cellphone.
AAARGH. I walked out, careful to avoid smashing in to the glass wall, because clearly I'd get no sympathy if I did, and walked across the street to the AT&T store.
I was greeted promptly, with a smile, by a clean-cut looking girl. I explained what had just happened and said I wanted to switch to AT&T. My salesperson sprung into action. I said I just wanted a new Treo (which T-Mobile didn't sell anyways). He showed me the options. I considered them. He said, "We've also got the iPhone". I thought that was charming considering I'd have to be living under a rock not to know that. I pointed to the ever-growing line outside the door and said I simply couldn't stand in line for the next 6 hours. I bought my new Treo, and he had my number ported over, AND sold me a cheaper plan within 15 minutes. Amazing. When will companies learn just how far a little customer service actually goes? T-Mobile totally blew it that day. And I had ZERO complaints about my phone service. Loved it, in fact.
OK, fast-forward 2 weeks. After wrestling with my new Treo's bluetooth car integration, I finally scoured internet forums and discovered that I had, in fact, bought the single-worst phone I could have for bluetooth integration with my car. I couldn't even make calls from my car the old-fashioned way (you know, holding it up to my ear) because the integration was so faulty, the phone itself would lock up while I was in the car. And yes, the forums made it clear that the iPhone was one of 2 phones that WOULD work perfectly with my car's bluetooth. The other one was a Crackberry 8000-something. Sorry. Can't go there.
So yes, I bought one. And OMG, I love it. I do feel like a jackass carrying it around, but a lot less of a jackass than I would have felt like, had I stayed with the abusive folks at T-Mobile.
