Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.
~Gertrude Stein
"We're the phone company. We don't care. We don't have to."
~Lily Tomlin
One of my earliest blogs (see "Desperately Seeking Solitude", January 2012) was about my aversion to the newer technology that makes us each instantly available to one another, and accountable to our workplace at times when we can't be actually at our workplace. I fought for years the battle against Blackberry emailing.
Oddly, I find retirement has produced exactly the opposite feeling-- I find I need to communicate more with people, and am enjoying the ability to stop what I'm doing and look something up online. I have watched others use their smart phones in unique and very cool ways, and found myself wanting one.
My husband had feelings that matched mine on being instantly accessible, and was a listening ear to my rantings on the subject. He has been a little befuddled by my turn-about. It took me a little time to convince him that we really could use smart phones and enjoy them. The cameras have improved so much! The apps! The GPS! He finally caved in and agreed that yes, we could invest in smart phones. The ones we have now are wearing out (the batteries don't hold a charge very long any more) and since we need to get new phones anyway...
About three weeks ago we set off on a bright, sunny spring afternoon, to the AT&T store. We decided we wanted Apple iPhones, and AT&T is the only company to use them. We also have our cell phone contract through AT&T. We had been listening to all the marketing advertisements about iPhones and AT&T plans for using them for months. We had saved our money for purchasing the new phones-- one for each of us.
We got to the store and were greeted by a very charming "hostess" who put us on a waiting list to chat with a sales rep. There was a big TV screen up on the wall that had a list of those waiting in the order they would be served (it reminded me of taking a number at the BMV...) We were #3. We were invited to look at the iPhone display models while we waited. I eagerly started working with the newest model, just to get a feel for how they worked. Lanny grabbed another one and tried it out too.
Finally our number came up and a very friendly sales rep came over to us. We told her what we were interested in, and she went to get some information. She reviewed all the various features and asked us a bit about how we were going to use the phones, what other kinds of technology did we use (lap top computer? iPad?), etc. She had the perfect plan for us... so off we went to the cash register to purchase both the phones and the upgraded data plan.
She got into the computer system and started frowning. Unbelievably, it seems AT&T will not sell us the phones we wanted or the data plan we had chosen because we were not DUE for an upgrade until May. Wait... what? Well, she explained that our plan was for 2 years and while Lanny could upgrade as the plan holder, the others on the plan could not until the full 2 years expired. So, Lanny could get the phone if he wanted but I couldn't.
I was speechless. Seriously, it has taken me 3 weeks to wrap my head around this... AT&T and Apple have spent millions of dollars marketing this product to me. I had not wanted it, but had finally succumbed to the idea that instant accessibility to other people and facts online was a good idea. I had the money and was ready to buy. And they won't allow me to buy it?
What kind of idiot business plan is that???
I am still undecided about whether I will go back in May and purchase the iPhone and data plan. I still want one. I still see and listen to all the ads telling me I want one. But I am averse to doing business with bizarre snobbish corporations who think I am not worthy of their products. A part of me longs for those simpler times when all this technology was science fiction. And another part of me still thinks the iPhone is about the coolest little device ever...
Verizon does carry the iphone, as well! Just a thought.
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