Or: Why it pays to do some basic research before bitching about stuff.
Yesterday I vented my feelings about how while I very much want an iPhone 3G, I won’t be getting one. The big reason basically boils down to the cost of the family plan. The Death Star lists their family plans starting at $129/mo for 2 lines with 700 shared minutes. I was under the impression that that was one 3G iPhone and one regular phone. I also thought that there was no plan with fewer minutes, as my and Nicky’s combined anytime usage averages less than 100 minutes/mo. Add the whole texting thing and I was looking at a huge bill, which I am just not willing to pay.
So guess what I did today?
After shopping at the local Victoria’s Secret (yum!), we walked over to the Apple store so I could chat with one of the retail goons. The goon I caught pointed out to my surprise that the listed family plans assume two 3G iPhones. I’m not sure of everyone else in the world caught that or not, but if I don’t know it, its news to me. So come the questions about going from my plan to a family plan and switching phones between two people and I confused the hell out of the goon, who was as clueless about AT&T’s policies as I. (I should point out that this guy was actually very polite and helpful; I just call all retail people goons. It’s how I felt when I was a retail goon).
Anyway, now that my interest was piqued, I headed over to the closest AT&T store to get some more info. And of course, here’s where the problems begin. It seems as if I can use the lower plan, add a line and switch the phones, but only if one or the other of us gives up a number and the 2G iPhone loses its plan.
Sigh.
This isn’t what I’ve heard from other sources, including official Death Star communications, so I get to figure out what to do. I think that I’ll combine our numbers into a family plan first, then upgrade myself to the 3G and hand down the 2G to Nicky later. Perhaps splitting all the complex BS into steps will lessen my pain, but in any case, my resolve has gone from “Not gonna happen” to “Wait and see.” That’s much better.
I’m also going to see how well MobileMe works in the wild. That calendar sync and idisk will be damned useful to the two of us, but I want to see how well it integrates with the various Google services I use before I plunk some cash down.