Sargonas.com

So on New Years Day I went and bought a Motorola Droid, and switched from AT&T to Verizon. It was fun, I liked it. By the 3rd though I decided that for all Droid did, it wasnt an iPhone, and went back to AT&T.

I called AT&T, reactivated my account, had my iPhone turned back on, and went back to the Verizon store and returned my Droid. All this went smoothly.

Fast-forward to today. I pop into my online control panel for AT&T to see what my billing cycle is (I forgot) and to look at the new reduced price plans. I suddenly see my account flagged as Past Due with a balance of $155. I look into it and this is my early termination fee. WTF! I’m still a customer!

I call AT&T and after having someone research my issue for what seemed like kind of long to do a simple “hmm he canceled, hmm he came back, thats odd” verification they confirmed I was indeed due to be credited that charge. I asked why it was still on my account, and they told me it wasnt, that it shows the credit on their side. The fact it still showed the due amount on my web panel was a mystery to the agent.

After further hold time and investigation she told me that I need to pay the cancelation fee, even though its credited in their system, then when my Feb bill comes, there will be a $155 credit applied to my account for that month to account for my non-cancelation.

…what?

I laughed and said there would be no way I was doing that, I would prefer to let it just sort itself out in Feb when my new bill came and the credit was applied etc. She told me I could not do this as my account was currently flagged past due and would be deactivated for non payment before that point, and I was required to pay the fee, which would then be credited back to me the next billing cycle. (Please note I have no other due amounts on the account that I am liable for, the ONLY charge is the cancelation fee!)

…what what?

I told her that was a ludicrous request. How can they rightfully suspend my service for non payment of a fee I did not legally incur. (Please note I have no other due amounts on the account that I am liable for, the ONLY charge is the cancelation fee!) They themselves admit its a false fee, and its been credited to my account (for next month, for some silly reason) and they are going to suspend me for not paying it this month? Thats ridiculous!

I politely informed her this kind of service is the very reason why I experimented with leaving AT&T in the first place, and was making me start to second guess the choice to come back. That seemed to strike a chord with them, and after another 15 minute hold she came back to inform me the fee had been entirely removed as of now, which I verified online. Seriously folks, what the fuck?

So I love my iPhone, I really do. I left Verizon after 7 years of happy service, and jumped to AT&Ts world class shitty service when the first gen iPhone launched. That little phone was the first ever to last me more than a year. Until that point I upgraded phones annually, coughing up the full phone price almost every time since I was only upgrade-eligible every 2 years. This summer the 3gS launched, and that little work horse was finally traded in, after 2 years of round the clock abuse, and the 3g has been a strong little phone ever since as well.

I have recently had my hands on the Droid and Droid Eris (henceforth referred to as Eris here) from Verizon, however. With the ever increasing frustration I have been getting from the Bay Area AT&T network, that seems to degrade weekly, I am beginning to have doubts how much longer I will be on the iPhone train. The Android app store now has versions of every iPhone app I can’t do without, plus amazing things like Google Goggles. (until you have used it, like I have, you cant understand how cool it really is!). Also the native support of google voice, something I have but am slow to adopt due to the iphone’s clunky support of it, is a big tipping point for me as well. I now have a bay area phone number on GV, and I would like to use it in tandem with my 502 number on a more regular basis.

At this point I am facing a tough decision. Convert my iphone into a powerful ipod, by deactivating its phone service and using it as my day to day ipod as well as it’s wifi powers to run some apps, and switch over to an Android powered phone or ignore all the hooplah and stick to my Apple love. To be honest it’s not looking good for my ex-girlfriend’s stock options at Apple.

Both the Droid and the Eris are enticing. The Eris’s pebble like shape and size is, in my opinion, superior the the physical design of the iPhone in many ways. At first I felt it lagged behind the Droid due to its using the Android 1.5 OS and not the newer 2.0 and due to the fact it runs the HTC SensUI, however I have now learned Android 2.0 will be available for it in January once HTC is done updating SenseUI for it. Even better, you can turn off SenseUI in the settings and use the base Anndroid OS if you so choose. (Although the SenseUI has a lot of improvements the Android can benefit from). The Droid however has a slightly larger screen (0.4 inches) and a slide out keyboard. Using it though is NOTHING like my keyboard experience from when I owned the Verizon 6700 due to its small size and quirky feedback. Also did I mention the Droid is $199 and the Eris is $99?

After spending time with both.. I am finding it harder and harder to resist the urge to go to the store later this week and jump back to Verizon, $175 AT&T termination fee be damned.