IPhone on Pay As You Go!!!

Well, let me start by saying, in my opinion, the IPhone is the most impressive piece of technology that has ever been made. It is simply that great.

I have my email synced, my calendar synced, I have a crap load of free games on it, I have a bunch of utilities on it, oh and by the way, it is a phone.

I will talk about how great the IPhone is later (and trust me, it is GREAT)....but I wanted to tell my story of buying the IPhone and putting it on Pay As You Go and the features that you get and dont get.....

Step 1 -I bought my IPhone from a dude off of Kijiji. He had paid $699 6 months ago and bought the phone outright so he had no contract. He switched to a BlackBerry Storm. I paid $260 for the Iphone itself (came with charger, all manuals, original box, screen protector, and not a scratch on it....it was in MINT shape)

Step 2 - Went to Futureshop and bought a Rogers Sim card....It was $40 which felt like a ripoff but not much I could do. (I hear you can buy a brand new Rogers Sim card on ebay for about $15 but I couldnt wait to start using my IPhone....therefore I paid the $40 to Futureshop to get the SIM in my hands right then!)

Step 3 - Went online to Rogers Wireless and activated my SIM card on Rogers Pay As You Go. I choose the $20 a month option which gets you a 31 cent a minute rate (I think) and text messages are 15 cents a text message. Your unused minutes (or $ depending how you look at it) rolls over to the NEXT month.
HERES A GOOD THING TO KNOW - If you ever want to switch to a NON Pay As You Go plan, your PAYG Balance will be a CREDIT on your monthly bill. You can switch between a PAYG and a monthly plan at any time and you can switch back and forth as much as you want or need to.

OK so now I have a WORKING IPhone for $300 total and I am NOT locked to any Rogers Plan for ANY length of time. This is freekin sweet and exactly what I wanted.

I honestly do NOT see any reason why I (the key word here is I, meaning ME) am going to need a data plan, and I see NO reason for myself to switch from Pay As You Go. I basically have FREE WIRELESS everywhere (home, work, etc) therefore I can download apps, browse the internet, get sports scores, use google maps and the GPS, etc etc where ever I am by "piggybacking" on those FREE WIFI spots. It works SUPER!!!!

The drawback of Pay As You Go is that:
1) IPhone GPS will NOT work unless you are on a WIFI network (because you have no dataplan). Technically you can have the MAP loaded to where you are going from and to and that works great. But your GPS will not show you EXACTLY where you are. For me that is fine.....If I really need a GPS I will buy a Tom Tom for $150 instead of adding $25 to my cell bill month after month. Or, alternatively, if I know I am going to Vegas in a few months I could change my cell plan and put the data option for my plan for that month, then change back to Pay As You Go.

2) Visual Voicemail does NOT work on Pay As You Go....honestly I dont know what Visual Voicemail is, so I am not heartbroken that I dont get it.

3) No Data Plan means NO Internet unless connected to WIFI - this could be a killer for some people....I myself never used to use the browser on my phone, therefore again, this is no big deal to me.

Please keep in mind I am NOT at all a Hardcore phone user.....That is why Pay As You Go works just freekin sweet for me. Many people already think I am retarded for doing this, but honestly it works for me and that is all that matters.

Couple of things I should mention with Pay As You Go
-your unused minutes ($) gets rolled over to the next month
-you get free number display (and if that person is in your contacts it will bring up their name obiously that is the Phone doing that part)
-you have the option of putting voicemail on your line (for free)
-they do have a variety of Pay As You Go plans that you should check out if you are interested in doing this

Anyway that is my story of the IPhone on Pay As You Go....It works for me....and I am in LOVE with my IPhone.....Theres probably an app for that :-)

D-Out

Buying an Iphone on your own terms.....Its NOT EASY!!!

So yesterday on my lunch hour I decided I would test my options of purchasing a NEW Iphone direct from Rogers....In a nutshell I wasted my 30 min lunch (not like I eat anything anyway) and it was a very frustrating 30 minutes.

I knew Rogers Wireless Customer Service was "not good", but let me tell you...it is HORRIBLE.

I phoned the Wireless Inquiries phone # and let them know that I am looking to buy an Iphone 3G or 3GS OUTRIGHT and I wanted to get pricing from them....They told me I had the wrong department but they would transfer me...ok great. They transferred me to some dude, again I explained my question, he told me "Sorry Sir, I cant help you, I work for Rogers Cable (aka TV)"...Interesting....Can you transfer me to the RIGHT person...He says sure, but before he let me go he had to ask me if I am happy with my current cable company....Uh ya....It is just fuc%en great, that is not what I am phoning about (of course I didnt SAY thought....But let me tell ya I thought it!!!)....So I get transferred again....Now I end up with someone wanting to Top Up my bloody minutes....I nicely and sternly told them can you PLEASE PLEASE get this straight...Here is my question.....Now transfer me to the RIGHT FREEKIN PERSON....About 10 minutes later I am talking to the RIGHT PERSON.....YIPPPEEEE

So here we go again, I am looking to buy an Iphone 3G or 3GS OUTRIGHT, could you please give me the costs. "Oh well sir I am not sure if we sell them without a contract", I say "um yip I am pretty sure you do, and I kinda thought you would know that since you work there".....She says she is going to check for me....Oh hold....holding.....She comes back on the line...Oh yes sir you are correct we do.....BUT....before I give you that information here are the zillion reasons why you should not do that "insert lame ass reasons here".........and now let me tell you about our great Voice and Data Plans........."insert a bunch of $hit here"...........Ok now I am seriously starting to get frustrated (and that kinda takes alot....but this has been an f'in lot!!!).........So............

I finally cut her off and said, look I have no interest in your plans and I have no interest in why you think I should NOT do this....I know what I want to do can you just please give me the prices...ok sure.....

I have the prices written down, but I think they were something like
Iphone 3G 8 GB - $599
Iphone 3G 16 GB - $699
Iphone 3GS 16 GB - $799
Iphone 3GS 32 GB - $899

Ok that is what I wanted....Then she gave me an interesting tip....You can get a "almost new" Iphone 3G 16GB for (i think) $499. It was used guaranteed less then 30 days and is now a refurb but it would save you a couple hundred dollars.....hmmm ok...good tip. She told me I would have to phone my local Rogers dealer (aka Airsource) to buy one of these....ok I will do that....

So I phone 4 Airsource locations in Saskatoon....They tell me they dont know what Rogers is talking about...They do NOT sell refurbed Iphones....Yip thats fuc%in splendid!!!!!

SALES QUESTION - I dont understand Rogers thinking....They will seemingly do anything and everything they can to NOT sell me an Iphone that I wont commit to a 3 year contract on. BUT - If I were to buy say a 3GS 16GB I will be giving Rogers $799.....and not only that....this phone is LOCKED TO ROGERS....So obiously they are going to be getting SOME money monthly out of me??? WTF??? They are basically forcing me into looking on Ebay for an unlocked phone and then talk to them after about my monthly plan......So didnt you (Rogers) just screw yourself out of $799???? What the hell am I missing here? I dont get their whole hesitation from just letting me buy a dam Iphone?????

On a positive note....Our doggie got a Patriots jersey (see pic below)....Such a smart dog cheering for Randy Moss and the best team ever :-) (ps - Giants suck)

Anyway that is todays bitch fest....Thanks for listening....All comments are appreciated :-)

D-Out

**This is a Scheduled Post for Wednesday at 12:15pm****

Crazy, Brilliant (I think?) Iphone Idea!!!!

Ok, so I am fully aware that I am going to made fun of and called probably either dumb, or more likely CHEAP......well you got one thing right, I am CHEAP :-) LOL

Anyway I have been toying with the idea of getting an Iphone. They are absolutely the coolest mobile device that you can get!!! (cell phone, gps, camera, millions of add on apps, etc etc etc)

My problem is that in Canada if I were to buy an Iphone it is going to cost me $100 (for the Iphone 3G 8GB) or $199 (Iphone 3GS)....that I can live with. The part that I cant choke down is that Rogers locks you in to a 3 YEAR contract which is about $60 a month after taxes. Ok so that means my Iphone would cost me $100 + ($60 x 36 months) = $2260. Ya, I am WAY too cheap for that!!!

So what are my options you ask? I want an Iphone but I am too cheap to buy one.....What am I going to do? Well I did a bunch of research and reading the other night and here is the plan....

I can get an unlocked Iphone 3G on Ebay for approx $400. Now that it is unlocked I can just slap in a Rogers Sim and activate it. Since I purchased an UNLOCKED phone I do NOT have to sign any 3 year contracts with Rogers and I most definitely do NOT need the $60 a month plan!!!

Now before I hit you with the crazy brilliant part of the plan, you must know something about me. I do NOT talk on my cell phone. I use it for about 30 min a month on a crazy chatty month. I send about 20 text messages a month. That is about all.

Crazy Brilliant Part
I plan on activating my new UNLOCKED Iphone on Rogers Pay As You Go. (ya thats right, you read that right).
If you "Top Up" with $20 per month that will go into your "Pay As You Go" balance
Calls on the Iphone will cost $0.31 per minute on Weekdays UP TO 6pm
Calls on the Iphone will cost $0.01 per minute (ya a penny) on Weekdays AFTER 6pm
Calls on the Iphone will cost $.01 per minute (a penny again) on Weekends anytime
Text Messages are $0.10 (10 cents) per Text sent
Webpages viewed are $0.05 (a nickel) per Page - (or alternatively you can pay $7 per month on the Pay As You Go package and have unlimited mobile internet....that may come in handy)
I know people are going to look at this and call me stupid to have an Iphone on a Pay As You Go....but you know what....the hard truth is that it works for me. Like I said I rarely talk on my phone or text and I dont plan on using the mobile internet unless I am connected to my wireless network at home. As far as the GPS goes I can get the Tom Tom GPS for about $100 CAD and all the maps are already loaded on the phone (no need for internet).

So if I go this route, lets look at the 3 year cost - $400 + ($20 x 36 months) = $720. This is ONE THIRD the cost of the way Rogers would "like you to do things".

Right now I am paying $17 a month on my current cell phone, so essentially the only difference in cost to me is the initial Iphone purchase. My monthly cost will hardly change (may like $5 per month more)

I have checked this out and believe it or not their are other people that are cheap like me that use Iphones on Pay As You Go. Apparently everything functions just like normal (gps included) and it is working great for them.

A person at my work has an Iphone and I am interested to know if they spot any wholes in my plan?

**The only thing I need to research further is how apps are installed? Can you download them onto your computer and THEN install them to the Iphone? Because if I decide to buy the Tom Tom GPS App and have to download that 2 or 3 GB direct to the Iphone that could be a costly "Pay As You Go" data usuage. I would assume you could download on your PC (Windows PC that is) and install it on the Iphone somehow??**

Well there it is.....That is the big plan!!!
I will wait for some feedback on this first....then I might be onto step one - getting an UNLOCKED Iphone (which appears to be pretty easy to do!)