Resistance Is Futile

I tried to not give in; but, alas, I failed.

I now have a white, 16 GB 3G. I'm holding off on making any proclamations about the device at this point. But here's what I found fascinating: When asked why we had to wait in line for the phone to be activated in the store, unlike my last iPhone purchase experience, the Apple sales guy said,

I suspect it has something to do with the fact that about 40% of original iPhone purchases are jail broken and are running today on a different carrier other than AT&T. AT&T probably figures you are less likely to go with a different carrier if you already paid to set up and activate a plan with them and then have to pay a cancelation fee of a couple hundred dollars before putting your phone on your original carrier. The numbers are now stacked in AT&T's favor.

Wow! If I had only known! I've make no secret of my dislike of AT&T. Despite their claims, I find that they have fewer bars in more places--like, my house for example. Verizon knocks their socks off with actual functioning coverage in the places I travel--truly more bars in more places. (I have my laptop wireless broadband service through Verizon and have yet to go someplace I couldn't connect wirelessly on the Verizon wireless network! Unlike my AT&T cell phone coverage...) I suspect that the minute AT&T loses exclusivity of the iPhone, I'll bail.

AT&T charged me to upgrade to the 3G phone, and now charges me for the text messages I was getting for free in my contract that is supposed to last for 2 years. I'm only half way through. In other words, it's OK for AT&T to break the contract with me to make more money. I just can't break it with them without giving them more money. This just seems to me like clever jerks playing the system against the powerless customer base.

Again, no wonder AT&T has no customer loyalty, only customer loathing. In my humble, personal opinion, AT&T is a shining example of corporate greed, a system too big and too fat to innovate quickly enough to respond to the market So they devise ways to rip off their own market share and buy off more market share through purchases like Cingular, so they can rip them off too. And, just how did they get around those anti-trust regulations? Hmmm...