As some of you may or may not know, I’m a (mostly) regular contributer to www.renerd.com, a site dedicated to reviews and commentary on entertainment for the coming zombie apocalypse (movies, TV, video games). I’ve just posted a review of Cube Runner, a game I’ve been playing on my iPhone.
Check it out here.
~ Jason
I just thought I’d try out posting from my iPhone. A new WordPress app for the iPhone has just been released. I can tell you one thing… I’m going to get a lot better at typing on this thing… that’s for sure.
A big thanks to these folks.
~ Jason
I’ll admit that I got lucky. I walked in to the Rogers store up the street to ask them some more questions about switching from Fido… and they had one in stock and it was available.
A dude came in behind me… like 3 seconds behind me, and he offered me money to let him take the iPhone. I felt kind of bad but I turned him down… And, now I have an iPhone.
Switch from Rogers has been not so good, though, and it’s all my fault. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but, I’m still waiting for my phone number to switch over to the iPhone (so I now have to carry around the iPhone and my old phone). And, through a series of bad decisions by me and some unlucky messing around with Jenny’s phone to allow her to use it on the Rogers network, I managed to wipe out her phone’s memory. All her pictures and her phone numbers are lost forever… sweety, I’m sorry.
It’s a bitter-sweet triumph. Every time I use it, I know that Jenny paid a price for me to use this wonderful piece of technology. I’ll make it up to her, somehow.
I do like the iPhone, and now I’m pretty much connected everywhere I go, except when I’m on the subway. Go ahead, send me a message… bet you I get it right away.
~ Jason
Friday started off with me getting up at 4am, taking a shower, walking down to Tim Hortons for a coffee and getting on a TTC overnight bus. I headed down to get an iPhone on launch day.
I’ve never done this before. I’ve never, ever gotten in line for the release of anything other than a movie. I got down to the Eaton Center at Yonge and Queen at about 4:45am and I had to mill about in the dark and the rain until 6 when the Eaton Center’s doors opened.
There were few people at the food court tables across from the Fido store and after a few minutes, we all got in line. I was 8th. I rather enjoyed being in line with these people. They were friendly and it was nice to be around other technophiles. I have a few techie-friends but none as hardcore as these fine people.
We waited in line until about 9:30am when they opened the doors and let the first group of ten people in. Since I was 8th, I was in that group. The staff was friendly and helpful and understandably nervous about a new process. They’ve never done this stuff before either.
My case was a little different than the people around me. I’m currently on a couples plan with Jenny and I had to get out of that contract in order to sign a new contract required to get an iPhone. I went down there in the hopes that they would offer the ability to buy the phone outright so that an additional contract wouldn’t be required. They hadn’t announced that option as of Thursday night but I had hopes.
This was not an option. So, my next option was to get out of my contract. To do that, I have to pay an ECF, an Early Cancellation Fee. This is $20 a month left in the contract to a maximum of $400. Since we have 2 years left on the contract, that’s $400. As you can well imagine, I was not liking the sound of that. My intention was to talk the rep on the phone to wave some if not all of that fee.
So, at 8:37am, the sales rep called the Fido phone support line and asked me to stay on hold until someone answered. I stayed on hold until shortly after 1pm. During this time, their sales system went down and the activation system for the iPhone through iTunes went down. For a few hours there, nobody was getting an iPhone.
There were three occasions where I almost walked out of the store. I went from understanding for servers going down (which is why their sales system went down), to pissed off, to determination. At about 1, I decided to try and call the Fido customer service line from my cell phone. I got somebody within two minutes. The service rep (Wei, Employee No. 642664) was extremely helpful and informed.
His suggestion was instead of canceling my contract, I switch to Rogers. Since I’m on a couples plan, I can switch to rogers and have my Fido contract canceled without penalty. I could then sign a new contract, get an iPhone and be on my merry way.
This is actually good because all my other services (home phone, internet and tv) are with Rogers. Adding wireless, would mean that I get an additional 15% discount because of the combination.
So, I thanked Wei, got off the phone, thanked Mike the sales rep in the Fido store and walked out. I was very disappointed in spending so much time and effort getting 8th in line and waiting around so long but I’m also proud of myself for walking out of the store without spending $400 in cancellation fees.
I also made some lucky son-of-a-bitch, a very happy person. There were very few 16GB phones available and I got one of the last ones being 8th in line. Because I walked away from it, somebody else being 30th or 40th gets to have my phone.
Now… now I wait. I wait for a Rogers store to get iPhones in stock… I wait for a time that both Jenny and I can go down to this store to sign up for a couples plan… I wait… without an iPhone…
sigh…
~ Jason
Fido (actually Rogers) just announced that they’re offering an ‘Early Bird Special’ data plan for people who purchase the iPhone before August 31st. They’re offering 6gig of data for $30. Now, I’m unsure if that means they’re giving away that much data for the duration of the three year contract or if you only get that much data until August 31st.
I haven’t been able to calm down enough to actually read the press release.
I do know that I will be getting up super-early on Friday morning to head down to the Eaton Centre to see what I can get.
Wish me luck.
~ Jason
[Update: 1:27pm] I just found a news release on the Fido Website click the link to view a pdf copy
