Is there a loophole with Cell Phone contracts?

My sister has been a long time subscriber to VerizonWireless...even back when they were Airtouch (and prior to that LA Cellular). She's had her beloved number for over 10 years...she's been so good at staying away from "local number portability" and trying out other carriers. She wanted the new Treo 700P and since she was not eligible for an upgrade - she didn't want to pay the retail $619 price for a new handset.

My father and I (really big Cingular fans and GSM in general) finally got my sister to switch over to Cingular (and pay the dreaded $175 VerizonWireless Term fee). She really wanted a phone with a keyboard, but didn't want to get the old Treo 650 but also couldn't wait until the Treo 680 became available. So what did she do - she settled for the Motorola iTunes SLVR phone. Since she's a Mac fan - her iTunes and purchased tunes synch'd right over. We even got her iSync hooked up to synch iCal and Addresses.

But she wasn't satisfied - she gets tons of txt messages and her previous VerizonWireless phone was the "V" phone with a qwerty. Needless to say...in the 10 days with the phone - she txt'd once and it was a horrible experience (what do you expect it was a Motorola).

After salivating over everyone else that had a Treo or other qwerty phone (like my Nokia E62 from Cingular), she gave in and decided to go back to VerizonWireless on her old phone...

Meanwhile, VerizonWireless sends her a "we want you back" package (actually a mailed letter) saying we'll do this and that and give you tons of free minutes to get you back (usual customer retention stuff).

For those of you that know me....I saw an opportunity for a "Jimmy Jamm" :-)

Here's the story:

We went to Cingular and said - we weren't satisfied with the phone and the service and just wanted to go back to VerizonWireless. They had no problem at all (even with the UPC code removed from the box to redeem the $50 rebate). They refunded the money and kept the line open so VerizonWireless can "port it back". The process here took about 15 minutes from start to finish.

Next we drove across town to our local VerizonWireless store.

After we showed them the letter...they were more than happy to help.

They allowed her to pick from any phone and any phone plan and basically startup a BRAND NEW 2-year contract and was allowed all the benefits of rebates and deep handset discounts. Sure enough - my sister picked the Ultra - Bad - Ass Treo 700p (Palm - yes, remember she has a Mac and Palm supports Mac out of the box - period). We got all kinds of deals and they also waived the early $175 term fee and waived the $35 new activation fee. Process took under 15 minutes once our time came up on the queue.

Overall my sister got a great deal. She got a new Treo 700P for the new contract price of $299 (and not the retail price of $619) AND she's still getting the $50 rebate from Cingular. The new contract didn't matter to her - she's a "lifer"

So let's do the math:

1) If you do the "normal" way, you would have paid $619 + tax for a new Treo 600p
2) If you did it the "Jimmy Jamm" way, you would have paid $299 + tax - $50 rebate from Cingular bringing that Treo down to $249 before taxes...

Money saved --> $370 before taxes.

NICE!

The first mobile blog from the Nokia

Well...it sure is worth a try...

The Nokia LD-1W Bluetooth GPS Receiver

Okay - so I did it...I finally caved in a bought a GPS receiver from my fresh Nokia E62 smartphone.

The Nokia LD-1W is not that new, but brick and mortar stores are now just starting to carry it (the LD-3W is out with bluetooth 2.0 but a shorter battery life, but essentially the same deal). CompUSA first started with the MSRP of $275 a few months back but started taking it lower and lower to a whopping $94.98(that's a "we no longer plan on carrying this unit" type of pricing).

However - every single CompUSA store within a 50 mile radius was out - including .com.

So after feeling defeated...I stopped by my local Fry's Electronics and saw that they had about 12 on the shelf. Their price - $189.99. I was not going to pay that price. I asked to get price matched but didn't have any printed documentation and they were too busy to call CompUSA to confirm (and they will also confirm availability - if the competing store does not have stock - they will not match the price). I asked them to pull it up on a browser, unfortunately (or fortunately) Fry's blocks all "outside the firewall" access to the net.

I pulled up my trusty E62 and browsed to the CompUSA site and showed the store manage r the great price. I was careful not to scroll to much to the right that would have exposed the fact that there was ZERO stock anywere....

At the end, I got the device for $94.98 before taxes. I would consider this a successful "Jimmy Jamm".

I will right up a review as soon as I get a chance.

So I bought a new phone...actually two phones

Let's talk about the hook up and how it all went down at the Cingular store that allowed my budget to purchase TWO new phones. Since my Cingular contract (and the family cirlce of number attached to the account) is fairly new, I knew that getting an "upgrade" from Cingular would be a stretch.

I called up my local Cingular store and asked about the MOTO SLVR (in Pink) for my Mom's birthday. It was pricey..something like $350 retail and no contract. After I dropoped my jaw...the nice gentleman on the selling side of the phone said..."but I can override that anytime...I'll sell it to you for the new contract price and just reset your contract to 24 month (i.e. he added only about 5 months - not another 24 months). Quicker than I can say thank you, I was out the door.

In addition to the MOTO SLVR...I also picked up the Nokia E62 for myself (hehe).

October's Gadget Wish List...

Phones...

I'd like to get the new Nokia E62 phone with full qwerty keyboard. I played with it at a Cingular store in Carlsbad and it was able to instantly hook it up to my office Exchange Server and get my email, calendar and contacts...all with the regular MediaNet plan (a lot cheaper than than a Blackberry Plan).

But what I would really like to get is the newly announced Nokia N95 phone. This baby has it all: GPS (onboard receiver), quad-band GSM, EDGE (and others we can't use in the U.S.), 5 MEGAPIXEL camera, WiFi, BlueTooth...and all kinds of crazy goodness. Check it out.

If you are not so sure about a 5 MP camera phone. Check out my other blog here that uses a Nokia N70 2 MP camera phone to post directly to my blog...not bad huh!

For now, that's my October Gadget Lust.

Latest on the XBOX360

It's been about 2 months since I last powered up my beloved XBOX 360 game console. Remember, my first one had overheating problems...this one has been very good to me. Well, after getting more time since work has slowed just a bit - I've been able to get more time on the console.

To spice up the excitement, I picked up a new game at GameStop...love those used games (you can return after 7 days). The new game is Test Drive Unlimited from Atari. This racing game is really intense...it uses MOOR technology. Not sure what it stands for but you can drive anywhere - in Oahu!!

This is the first driving game that my wife has finally gotten into...she's helping me map out the island and also pick up new cars.

We've had the game for only a few days and over 24 hours of gaming has already been logged on this bad boy!

Freshman Scrub...

Today was a turning point for my little cousin Isabel. She's 17 and has taken her first step to independence. We helped her move into her dorm at Cal Poly Pomona and met her two other room mates. Observing the social graces of all the freshman scrubs gave me the chuckles...

It's amazing that I moved into my dorm at USC (Birnkrant) back in the fall of 1992.

Whitney Portal and Alabama Hills

It was great...just me and the boys for our 1st Annual Camp Out...

San Juan Capistrano to Palm Dessert to Banning and Back...

The day was supposed to start at 5:15 AM...but we woke up late and left at 9:06 AM instead. We took MINI 3M on a day long 6+ hour trip on California State Highway 74 through San Juan Capistrano to Palm Dessert and then Highway 243 from Banning back to San Juan Capistrano.

It was fun. We shaved off a few more treads on MINI 3M’s summer sport tires as we hopped through some tight hairpins and several switchbacks...

The entire trip was 296.8 miles and 109 songs on the Video iPod with a stop at the Cabazon Premium Outlets...