This past July when I purchased my iPhone I had the choice of canceling my Verizon Wireless contract which expired this month, or continue it. After reviewing the cost differences, it was about the same cost to keep the plan active until December 2007 instead of paying the cancellation fee.

In order to do this, however, I had to merge my phone in with my wife’s phone and convert both plans to a family plan.

I called Verizon Wireless and told them to change both phones to a single family plan. I made it brutally clear that I did not want either phone’s contract expiration dates to change. After all, my goal was to cancel my old Verizon line this month. I don’t need two phones. If either contract were to be altered, then I did not want to move forward.

The contracts for both my wife’s phone and my phone were due to expire this month.

My plan was to cancel my old Verizon phone when it expired this month, and then transfer my wife’s phone over to AT&T so I wasn’t making two payments to two different carries, and she could reap the benefits of being on the same system as me.

Last weekend I called Verizon Wireless to find out what days the contracts were to end, so I could move ahead with my plan. Much to my surprise, I was told both contracts don’t expire until July 2008! Both contracts were extended by one year! WTF?

I explained to the customer service rep on the phone, who was very helpful, that there was a mistake. I never agreed (verbally or in writing) to this contract extension change. Why would I? The goal was to keep my old Verizon phone active as a backup phone until the contract ended, then I would cancel it without any fees. She looked at my account, apologized for the mis-understanding, and then said she would go ahead and set the cancellation date for both contracts to today, December 12th, even though both contracts were originally to expire later this month. Awesome, right?

I thought everything was going fine until today when I called Verizon Wireless to confirm the contract end dates were, in fact, changed to today. The rep said that they had not been changed, but a supervisor was reviewing the request from the rep I spoke with this past weekend, and it should be done today. I requested that a rep call me when the change was made. She said no problem!

I got a call today at 3PM from Verizon. The rep instructed me that the contract was extended by one year because of the family plan change I had made, and that I had agreed to this change. Excuse me? I whaaat? I explained the situation again to this person, and she flat out refused to change it (again, this is after another rep this past weekend said no problem!) I asked to speak with her supervisor.

I then spoke with a “supervisor” named Sheree at x7414. Again, I explained my problem to her. I got nowhere. She kept on saying that I agreed to the contract change which was necessary due to the plan change I had made. She also kept on stating that Verizon sent a contract change agreement to me in the mail and I had 30 days to contest it. I never received this contract change agreement, otherwise I would have canceled it immediately.

The conversation escalated, my voice got louder, a few expletives escaped, and I demanded to speak with her manager. She refused. Sheree said I had to write a letter. Why? So they could ignore and refuse me by mail? No thanks. I asked for her last name and extension. She refused. I said, “so you have my first and last name, my phone numbers, my address, and probably my credit card information, but you won’t give me your last name or extension?” She finally coughed up her extension (7414) but that was it.

In the end, Verizon flat out lied to me. I asked that this plan change be done as long as the original contract end dates would not change whatsoever. They did change it (two contracts, mind you), and I was not told of this change. Verizon Wireless lost two customers for good, but they don’t seem to care. I have been a long-term customer for over 15 years, but again, they don’t seem to care.

I could cancel both phones, but due to Verizon’s illegal contract end date change, I would have to cough up $150 per phone ($300 total) for the cancellation fee.

I can’t think of any other options, but if anyone knows of someone at Verizon Wireless that can help, please contact me. I was lied to, and I will not sit quietly until this fraudulent behavior is rectified. Needless to say, I will no longer use Verizon for anything and hope this article deters others from using Verizon for any service they may offer.

This week Verizon announced several new phones and one of them is very iPhone-like. Check out this video of this dude demonstrating the new LG Voyager with touch screen, due out next month.

Click To Play

Exactly one week ago I took the plunge and snagged an iPhone at my local Starbucks (what, Apple didn’t tell you that you could buy one at Apple stores, AT&T stores, and now Starbucks?) After the initial excitement of having the coolest gadget in the world wore off, I began to really use the iPhone for my daily mobile phone tasks… calling other humans, reading and writing email, and surfing the web.

I couldn’t put the iPhone down, and every other person I showed it to was in awe of my groovy new Star Trek-looking device. I remember doing the same thing with my Q after I’d put a hot new app on it like Skype or the SlingPlayer. I’d show it to a friend and they would be totally impressed with the technology. The biggest difference that I’ve noticed is that with the Apple iPhone I never have to show someone how to get to the app or how to use it. I’d have to do that with the Q, but not the iPhone. The interface is the iPhone’s biggest breakthrough. Yes, it has shortcomings, but no other mobile device on the planet can touch the iPhone when it comes to its slick, finger-loving touch screen interface.

I don’t miss my Q one bit. In fact, a friend of mine who still has a Q stopped by the other day to play with my iPhone (he too was blown away). While he was thumbing through its awesomeness, I took a look at his Q. Even after a few days, I couldn’t believe how archaic the Q now felt to me. It really felt like I was stepping back in time to the dark ages of mobile phones.

So, with the hype and excitement out of the way, I’ve decided that the Apple iPhone is a keeper. No need to wait 30 days, no need for further testing, this is the phone for me. As for my Verizon contract? I had another 1.5 years on my current contract, so canceling it would have cost me $145 (they pro-rate it from $175). We needed another phone in the family, so I downgraded the mega voice+data plan I had down to an extra $10/mo on our family plan to keep it going with an older Motorola flip phone I had lying around. End result: Verizon lost $90/mo but they can still consider that contract in their mega customer count.

I never thought a phone purchase would make me leave Verizon… until I saw the iPhone. Nice job, Apple. Bad move to pass on the iPhone, Verizon.

BTW, check out this funny video, iPhone Day.

The other night when I went through the AT&T sign-up process, it took all of about 5 minutes (if that) and I was able to start loading my new iPhone up with all sorts of goodies and play with it the first time.

In order to put the iPhone to real world tests I had to use my current VZW phone number, so I opted to transfer my old phone number from my Motorola Q to the iPhone. While I was able to dial out almost instantly from my iPhone, I could not receive calls.

The sign-up process stated it would be at least 6 hours before I would be receiving phone calls to my iPhone via my old VZW number, and that I would receive a text message when the transfer process was complete.

I activated my iPhone on Jul 3, 2007 10:27 PM and received the text message indicating the transfer was complete on Jul 5, 2007 1:30 AM. Not exactly 6 hours, but there was a holiday (Independence Day) here in the U.S. so if you rule out that 24 hour period, then it only took 4 hours…

So as of now MotoQ has been turned off, calls cannot be made or received and EVDO is dead in the water. I’ll call VZW Thursday to find out what the contract cancellation fee might be, or if it just makes sense to re-activate the phone with another number and add the MotoQ onto a family plan with my wife’s phone.

Have a nice rest, MotoQ. Or is it “Goodbye Moto” instead of their popular catch-phrase “Hello Moto” ?

I converged, again.

Now before you start throwing stones at me for turning my back on Windows Mobile and Verizon, allow me to explain!

I have been a loyal Verizon Wireless customer since the days when it was called Airtouch Cellular (I believe VZW acquired Airtouch) and my phone of choice was a brick-sized Panasonic phone. I even had a pager (what’s that?) My last two phones (Treo 700w, Motorola Q) were Windows Mobile 5.0-based and while the convergence of technologies were adequate, they simply did not live up to what I wanted in a phone.

I couldn’t ignore all the hype over the past few months surrounding the new Apple iPhone. It sounded like the perfect device, but was it? The world found out this past Friday, and while it does work as advertised, there are definitely some shortcomings. Over the past 5 days I’ve read every review published on the web, and I visited a nearby Apple store to play with it first-hand. After carefully analyzing how I personally use a “multi-media” phone within regards to the iPhone, I decided to give it a shot. As for the shortcomings, I completely understand… Apple wanted to launch a device that was not bloated with unnecessary apps (WM5 devices come to mind). With the tight integration with iTunes and the momentum behind this product (who has sold over 500,000 phones in 3 days? Nobody until the iPhone!), it doesn’t take an idiot to realize that version 1.0 won’t be version 1.0 for very long. I can easily see Apple updating the firmware on a bi-monthly or quarterly basis with all of the features people are clamoring for.

Could I be one of the many Windows Mobile fans canceling their Verizon plan and switching to another carrier for the iPhone? At this point, I’d say Yes, but the jury is still out.

I bought my iPhone last night at a Starbucks inside a grocery store at 10PM. This, after days of frustration of trying to buy it directly from Apple or AT&T. Numerous daily phone calls and trips to Apple stores (”yes, we have them in stock right now”) only to find out they were sold out by the time I got there. I even went down to an Apple store before it opened the other day only to see a line in front of me and a “sold out” sign on the window. eBay was hopeless… so I turned to CraigsList and by chance found someone in my same town that had one to sell, so 15 minutes later we met at the Starbucks and an iPhone was mine. Yes, I paid a premium… however it wasn’t much more than buying it online at Apple’s store (which is what I had done–but canceled that order last night). My advice for Craigslist buyers: don’t delay, and as soon as you have a hot lead, meet them ASAP before they realize they can get more for the phone. I had many initial leads through CraigsList that fizzled… so strike quickly if you want that phone!

The iPhone is everything it’s cracked up to be. What it has been advertised to do, it does extremely well. What wasn’t advertised is what it doesn’t do. I won’t regurgitate what others have already written, but the short list includes voice dialing, games, immediate 3rd party support, custom ringtones, camera options, video recording, expansion slot, and a delete-all function for email. What has been referred to as the iPhone’s “Achilles’ heel” is the lack of support of 3G networks, and only AT&T’s slow EDGE network is supported. What saves it is the WiFi support, which for me is preferred over 3G for when I am near a WiFi spot. That is something my previous two WM phones did not support and I’m thrilled to see it on the iPhone.

Application-wise, what will I miss most? Really nothing I suppose. I will miss the occasional use of Slingbox to watch TV and Skype mobile, but in reality I probably used those applications perhaps once a month, if that. They are easy to sacrifice. What I used my WM phone for mainly was email and web. WM5 did email well enough, but the web support was crap. A glimpse of hope for WM5 devices was Microsoft’s Deepfish browser, but that is, as far as I’m concerned, vaporware and just experimental (pre-alpha) software. Opera Mini is not really supported, and while I went through the Java hoops to get it running on my Q, it simply looked like complete ass. As a website developer, I’m exhausted from trying to support the many mobile devices. There is hope in our future with iPhone (and a few other devices that are coming out).

So, with my top priorities for a killer fully converged mobile device being email and web, I decided to take the leap of faith and see what Steve Jobs and Apple cooked up, knowing full well they would not launch a half-assed product like so many WM devices with “almost there” applications.

Seems the product has lived up to the hype.

My main concern at this point, like countless others, is the EDGE support. I’ve visited enough websites and configured my four email accounts to know that what I want most out of the phone is unmatched by WM devices. Will EDGE piss me off enough to return the phone and cancel my new AT&T contract before the 30 days is up? We’ll see! Thankfully there is WiFi support, otherwise this phone would probably fail miserably.

For now, expect a barrage of blogging about the iPhone while my Motorola Q sits waiting for its marching orders. I’ll be blogging about the iPhone’s problems that I’ve discovered and found workarounds for, and cool things that I’ve encountered.

Hype update: As of today, July 4th, the iPhone is not only completely sold out on the west coast, but the entire United States, according to Apple’s iPhone availability page. Good luck getting your hands on one, folks! Current estimates are that sales could topple 1 million units by the end of this week, which is unheard of… no mobile device in history has sold so many units, so quickly.