Isn’t it pretty???

I was previously with Telus (although, I still sort of am, for about another half of a month). But my contract is ending (very) soon and I tried calling in and seeing if they had any sort of incentive for me to stay with them (all I really wanted them to do was to be able to price match an advertised student plan that was available through one of their competitors). But instead, after the first (super friendly) customer representative I got, I was passed onto their retention department and the woman I got tried to get me to agree to a more expensive plan than the one I was looking at (from their competitor’s website) or a plan that had the same price, but with a lot less included things. Also, the plan she wanted me to agree to was advertised on the Telus website and was available to all new customers, so there wasn’t really anything ‘special’ about it. I wanted them to be able to match it for me with something equivalent, not make excuses about how their plan is so much better.

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Cell phones and, subsequently, cell phone carriers and customer service reps and, good lord, all the ‘discount’ mobile carriers…

Could you get anymore fucking* confusing?

Option #1 from my previous post – I called them up again. I’d really like to keep my current cell phone number (less hassle, less going around telling people my new number, less trying to remember what accounts need to be updated). But first, the account (which is under my mom’s name, because when I got the cell phone originally, I didn’t have a credit card and plus my parents already said they were going to pay for it, poor students don’t argue with that kind of good deal) needs to be changed into my name as the primary account holder. Guess what? They have a fee for that. Just like they have a fee for transferring the number from one handset to another and to activate the second (new) handset.

I’m pretty damn tempted to just throw in the towel with my current carrier and go completely pay-as-you-go with Option #2. I’m not sure if I’d be able to keep my current phone number, which I would love to do. But if I can’t keep it, I’d still like to change carriers now. I’m all fee’d up (apostrophe is on purpose, of course).

Moving on from cell phones…

Work was good today. And by good, I mean that the weather was godawful and I stayed indoors the entire time and hardly ever left my desk. My legs were unforgiving for that, by the way. Oh well…

I hung out with a group of friends this past weekend, missing a few other birthday parties (it’s not my fault everyone decided to be born around the same time – I blame your parents for that). And I didn’t go to sleep until it was very late (or very early, depending on your point of view). So sluggish on Sunday… Blergh.

And… yeah, I think that’s about it for today… Very sluggish today too, despite work going well and my legs hating me.

* I swear. Someone at work the other day mentioned never hearing me swear before (I said “FFS” out loud, whoops). My defense? I always swear more during the summer and then I spend the school year trying not to swear.

My beloved LG Chocolate is cracking. And by cracking, I mean it’s already been cracked several times over on the keypad portion only. The touch sensitive spots on the front are still great and responsive, I have no issues there or with any other keys, except for the keys for 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 0 and #. I must not use 4 (ghi), 7 (pqrs) or the * (vibrate) keys very often, hehe.

Luckily, my cell phone (which is on a 3 year contract) is coming up for a contract renewal soon (my current contract ends on September 2, 2010). So I have some options!

I don’t talk on the phone much at all – my big thing is texting (last month I may have had 1500+ incoming and 1500+ outgoing) and I’d really like a phone that also comes with separate keys (for the LG Chocolate that I have, the number pad is all one piece with grooves to separate the numbers – not the best thing in the world, but it didn’t really start to die until maybe this year…)

Both phones that I’ve been looking at (that would be at $20 for a 3 year contract and $100 for buying outright) have slide-out QWERTY keyboards. The phone for Option #2 is also touch screen (oooh, ahhh), the phone for Option #1 does not have a touch screen (awww). Both have expandable memory with a miniSD card, both have a music player, camera, video camera, voice recording, alarm clock, calculator/tip calculator, global clock and a lot of other features that my current (beloved, but cracking) Chocolate has.

Phone for Option #1 has up to: 5.5 hours talk time, 12 days standby

Phone for Option #2 has up to: 12 hours talk time, 7 days standby

Option #1 – Stay With Current Provider

• $10 – move current cell number to a new phone
• $35 – “one time” activation fee
• $30 – per month for a plan with unlimited text/picture/video messaging, 150 minutes, evenings & weekends, voice mail (3), unlimited talk on my birthday
• $20 – cell phone, on a 3 year contract

Total cost (for 1 year): $425 (before taxes)
Total cost (for 3 years): $1145 (before taxes)

Caller ID is $8/month and not included above. If I include Caller ID, it would be $96/year and $288/3 years and bring the totals up to $521 and $1433 respectively.

Cons: No Caller ID without additional money. On a contract. What in the fudge is up with this fee to move my number from one phone to the next?? Activation fee?!

Pros: Would for sure be able to keep the same phone number. Picture messaging! Unlimited evenings and weekends – no need to ‘top up’ or worry too much about running out of minutes. Voice mail.

Option #2 – Jump Ship

• $100 – cell phone, no contract
• $20 – per month prepaid plan with unlimited Canada-wide texting, unlimited mobile browsing, unlimited calling from 3pm-6pm, INCLUDES CALLER ID, voice mail is pay-per-use (takes out of whatever prepaid credit I have in my account), I’d also get unlimited talk to people on prepaid with the same company (i.e. my sisters)
• $40 – SIM card
• $100 – for minutes outside of the package listed above in Option #2, at $0.25/minute – 400 minutes spread out over a year (at $100 for ‘top up’, it doesn’t expire until day 365).

Total cost (for 1 year): $480 (before taxes)
Total cost (for 3 years): $1160 (before taxes)

Cons to switching to Option #2 is that I would be unlikely to transfer my number from provider #1 to provider #2 (and I’d then have to go through and change my number on a bunch of accounts – like school, the libraries, bank, etc, etc – not to mention telling everyone about it) – however, if it is possible to move my number from provider #1 to #2, provider #2′s website states that it will do it for free. I’d also have to pay additional $$ for regular minutes (hence the $100 or additional top-up money).

Pros would be… unlimited mobile browsing? I’d get the unlimited texting that I want as well! Also, no contract. Overall, less expensive if I were to add in caller ID for Option #1. No activation fee. Free chatting with my sisters (like they don’t hear me talk enough as it is).

So… Internet, what do you think? Tell me your thoughts on my Option #1 and Option #2!