Tag: Android

Phone Upgrade Headache

A while back, my phone’s screen cracked despite having one of those tempered glass screen protectors on it. I called Verizon and because I had insurance on it I was able to get a replacement. Sadly, the replacement they sent was a refurbished one that really never seemed to perform like the one I had.

Within the last couple months, it has been getting slower and slower. At times it would just turn itself off and reboot. It has a turbo charger on it, but lately that worked only sporadically. We really did not want to increase our cell phone bill any more, but the phone was becoming unreliable.

Knowing I needed to get a new phone, I did something I rarely do. I went online to the Verizon site and ordered a phone without seeing it first. I’m weird that way, I suppose. I want to hold it in my hand. I want to ask questions. I read a bunch of reviews and went off of those.

The phone arrived today and I began to set it up tonight. In the past, I have been able to just log back into my Google account and then restore from a back up. This time around however, we were running into trouble. Because the account was connected with my old phone, the set up wasn’t going like it should and I actually got blocked by my Google for too many attempts to get in.

I was able to go online and “chat” with an “expert” who walked me through countless things to try to get things rolling. Eventually, we were able to finish the set up. I called the phone and it rang. Text messages were coming through. It seems as though all my contacts are in place. The only thing that it didn’t do this time was load the apps that I had. So I had to go into the Play Store and reinstall them. Time consuming, but I got them all back.

The issue I am having now is that there is a notification that keeps popping up on the top of the screen that says, “To finish set up, click here!” If I click on it, it tries to walk me through all the stuff I have already done. I don’t want to do that. I went back and “chatted” with another “expert,” who told me that I’d have to call back and talk to a tier 2 person about this.

Urgh. Such a pain in the behind. You would think that as often as people upgrade their phones, they’d have come up with an easy and hassle-free was to go from old phone to new.

(As sarcastically as I can muster…) I can’t wait to be on hold with someone later today to try to figure this out ….

Side note: My wife has been wanting me to switch to an iPhone for years. She gently joked that if I had one, the transition from phone to phone would have been easier.

I doubt it.

SMASH! CRACK!

I watched it fall like it was in slow motion. My phone slid off the counter and as it fell I could hear myself yelling in slow motion, “Nooooooo!” I could feel myself reaching out, hoping to get my hands on it before it hit the floor, but I never had the chance. It came down and the upper left corner of the phone slammed into the floor.

It seemed to bounce before it fell facedown on the floor. My heart sank, knowing that despite the protection of a screen protector and an Otterbox, the screen had shattered.

I reached down, picked it up and slowly turned the front to face me. Sure enough, the upper corner of my phone was covered in cracks and shards of glass. One crack went from the upper left corner all the way down to the lower right corner. It was not pretty.

This isn’t the first time it has dropped on the ground. Perhaps this time it was just high enough to do damage. The Otterbox and screen protector have done their jobs! It took a few drops before the screen protector cracked and was replaced. The last one held up for well over a year. This drop, however, was a bit different and when I heard it hit the ground, I knew it was going to be bad.

The last few phones I have had were Motorola phones. I have had very good luck with them. For a while there it seemed like I was only getting a year or less out of a phone before I had to send them back to the factory or call about issues. When I switched to Moto phones, those issues stopped. I always got 2-3 years out of them with little or no issues.

Three years ago, when it was time for Sam and I to upgrade, she tried to get me to switch to an iPhone, and despite some very good arguments, I stayed with my Android phone. It continues to work well, and if it wasn’t terribly damaged, I’m sure I wouldn’t even be thinking about an upgrade yet. After the incident today, I opened up my Verizon App and began to explore the option to upgrade.

With both of our phones paid in full, our current bill has come down. I hated the thought of upgrading because that would mean an extra $20 or more on the bill each month. I called Verizon and discussed options on my way to work.

The rep who I spoke with shared some of the upgrade options with me. I had seen something on the app that said if you upgraded one phone, you could get another free. I thought this could be nice for both Sam and I, however, I was told in order to do that, you have to get an entirely new line and new number. We’ve both had our numbers for years, so that was not an option.

They had a deal on a new Samsung phone. The phone would cost $980, but they would give me $800 for my phone. I would only have to pay $180 for the phone over 36 months – $5 a month. This would be something I could work with. I didn’t want to do anything without first discussing with Sam, so I mentioned it to her and I decided that I would go ahead with the upgrade, despite it not being a Motorola phone.

I chatted with another representative when I called back. I told her exactly what I had discussed with the other rep. She proceeded to get things in order and before we finalized things, she told me my new monthly bill would be almost $50 more. I asked how that could be and she started to explain this that and the other. I reminded her that the other rep had given me a quote that was only $5 more a month. She said she was going to try something else.

When she returned to the line the price had come down, but only slightly. I told her that I had been with Verizon for over 20 years and I didn’t want to pay the higher price. She tweaked here and there and it never really came down much more. I reminded myself that the only reason I was gung ho about the new phone was that it was basically an even trade. It was only going to cost $5 a month, so why wouldn’t I take advantage of this?! I told the woman on the phone that I would need to discuss this with my wife before committing to the changes, knowing that I was not going to do it.

So now what? I opened up my app and started to really examine the bill. One of the things I had forgotten about was the fact that I have been paying for insurance on my phone since I got it! Insurance! It had been so long since I have had to file any kind of claim, I had completely forgotten about it.

In the past it seemed like I was forever using the Asurion insurance to replace broken phones, phones that wouldn’t keep a charge, and phone with other issues. I went to their website, typed in my number and filed a claim. I paid my deductible and my new phone (which is the same phone I have now) will arrive tomorrow. Done.

In the end, I saved us a boatload of money. I also will keep the phone I am comfortable with and won’t have to buy new accessories for it. To me, that’s a huge win.

The only thing I am freaked out about is making sure that everything is backed up so that when my phone arrives, everything will transfer to it. Of course, I will have to remember every last dang password for apps, but I suppose I should be back up and running at full power in a matter of days.

Fingers crossed!