GSM

Treo 650 Is Ordered, No Its On Backorder

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The day finally came and I ordered my Treo 650 this morning.  Now it is on back-order for 1-2 weeks.  Or in Palmone speak whenever the hell they dam well feel like shipping me something.  Why take orders for something that won’t ship for weeks?  Why don’t they start taking orders for a product when they have them in stock and ready to ship?  The small things I wonder out loud about.

Now I have to prepare my old Treo for sale.  I also need to begin getting all the applications I plan on installing ready.  Many of my current apps won’t work on the new Treo, yet.  I mentioned that last week.  Now I need to do some verification on what will be installed.  I love that I need to verify what get installed on my phone.  Sometimes I think the old days were good.  Pick up phone, have dial tone.  Simple!!!

Treo 650 Rumors

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The rumor mill is filled with buzz about the PalmOne Treo 650 GSM version coming out within a week or so. All I have to say is “took it long enough, but WoHoo!”. I will most likely pay for the full priced unlocked version. I am so far basically happy with T-Mobile. I also do not want to be forced into a 2 year deal with Cingular. They can kiss my ass over having to pay full price for any phone unless I sign a 2 year deal. So if I don’t get a subsidized phone, why do I have to sign a 1 year deal? Don’t start telling me that a 2 year deal is needed to make up the price of the phone subsidy. They do that after 1 year. Cingular is trying to lock people in since now people can move to a new carrier with their cell number by making a simple phone call. Let me give you a bit of advise Cingular. T-Mobile has kept me as a customer by NOT being pricks about their contracts. This is from a user who has had issues with them as recent as last week. I also am not happy with their data speeds of GPRS, but I don’t want to move to another carrier and get screwed with a long term contract or a company that blatantly doesn’t care about their customers choices.

To anyone that says the non-customized version of the Treo won’t work well with T-Mobile I have to say give it up. I had an unbranded Treo 270. It worked just fine on AT&T and T-Mobile. I don’t need to wait for T-Mobile to do some GPRS tweaks and stick their logo on the phone. Unbranded and unlocked versions should work fine.

Of course I bash Cingular, but I ever do want/need higher data speeds I will be using them since T-Mobile’s higher speed data network seems years away. Dam mobile providers. None of them has just what I need/want:(

T-Mobile Woes Continue

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Called T-Mobile twice today about my phone(s) still not working. The first time I called the CSR put me in touch with the data group because to level 1 support people any problem with a phone like the Treo 600 means that the data group has to get involved. I tried to explain that I had 2 phones and the other one (non-data phone) was also not working right. the did something on the back-end to my account and had me restart the phone.

Then a few hours later I had to call back because the issue was still happening. This time I was told that there was in fact 3 cell sites in my area that were messed up. I asked what they said by my area and they said Manhattan. I was like dude Manhattan is kind of big and there are like millions of cell users on the dam island. Just because 3 sites are down on that island does not mean that I am affected. of course I truly believe that the problem I am having is related to their network, but this guys logic was retarded.

I don’t like talking to so called experts about technology that I am only have a passing (as a hobby) knowledge of, and yet I know more about it than the people I talk to. This genius first tried to tell me that if I didn’t turn my phone off every day that it could cause my problems. I was like that was nice info, but I had rebooted the dam phone like 4 times today and it still does not work right.

T-Mobile’s contract policies are great, but if this technical issues continue I will be looking elsewhere. This is not the first time they have had issues like this.

&*%^@# Cell Phones

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I read something yesterday that said the majority of cell phone owners were unsatisfied with their service. That has been traditionally true for me. But I thought hey recently I have not had issues. I should not have spoken. Last night and today I have had huge issues making and receiving calls on my Treo. I think it is T-Mobile. I have had problems like this before, and it was not the phone. I am in an area with great signal and I still don’t get calls. voice mail goes off like an hour after the call was made. That is not good when people are trying to call you to tell you websites are f–ked up. Then I try to place calls and I hit send and the phone does nothing. I do that like 5-10 times before it works.

Thankfully I had the VOIP phone for outbound calls. Maybe I am thinking of switching to Cingular if they get the Treo 650 before T-Mobile. I just am not sure if their customer service is as good as T-Mobile. I like the fact that T-Mobile does not force me into a contract if I make changes to my account since I have been a customer for 3+ years now. Still debating…

Pocket PC Vs. Treo 650

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Gus is trying to convince me that I should be looking at the new Pocket PC on sale from Cingular. It is branded the Siemens SX66, but it is basically the same PPC phone that HTC is making for several vendors. Gizmodo had a comparison of Audiovox’s variant of the phone for use on Sprint’s network. I am not impressed. The Treo 650 is smaller and from this review still better than the PPC. I am going to wait. Gus on the other hand may actually go buy that beast and use it. To me it looks too close in size to the HP Pocket PC that AJ got from T-Mobile a few months ago.

Patiently waiting for the Treo 650 for T-Mobile…

UPDATE: Gus got the SX66. He wants me to goto the Cingular store and check it out. I am going to go, but I think I will still wait for the 650.

Saw The Razr Today

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Wednesday Jayson and I went to the Cingular store to check out the new Motorola Razr. It was really cool. Super slim, and all metal. The screen was almost as big as my Treo’s. The downside, it was $500 with a contract. I have been pondering moving to Cingular, but that price was way too much for me right now. Without a contract it was $600. If the price came down to $300 maybe I would check it out. I wasn’t going to buy a plane old phone that is more than what I paid for my PDA/Phone. that is just crazy.

Gus was upset that I didn’t wait to goto the store with him. He seemed jealous that I went with Jayson. I told him if he was a good boy I would goto the store with him too!!!

The new HP iPaq GSM Phone

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I checked out the new HP iPaq h6315 GSM Pocket PC mobile phone on friday. I was walking by a T-Mobile store and decided to see if the had it. I was able to get a side by side feel from the new iPaq and my Palmone Treo 600. I didn’t get any pictures but my original assessment seems accurate. The iPaq is allot bigger. It is more the size of the old Treo 270, but a bit taller. It is just as wide. That was what made the 270 not comfortable to hold when talking. The screen was big and nice, but I have doubts about the removable keyboard. I will probably wait for the new Treo to come out. Whenever that may be. My luck it will be another 6 months before it is for T-Mobile. Of course since there is no official release date, it is anyone’s guess how long it will be before the new Treo’s hit the stores.

AJ will be getting the new HP iPaq phone this week, so I will check it out in detail later this week. Hopefully I will get a picture of it with my Treo. It will remind me why I won’t spend $600 (I already have T-Mobile service so it will be more than a new activation) on a larger pone.

More T-Mobile Stuff

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It is ironic that I wrote good things about T-Mobile customer service the other day. Gizmodo wrote very negative things about the same group of T-Mobile Customer Service people. I read that site all the time, and I can totally see what he wrote about happening. I have had bad experiences with plenty of companies. It just goes to show you that two people can have totally different experiences with the same company. It is and will always be the people that make a company good or bad.

I for one had a billing problem for 3 months early this year. After several calls they finally fixed the issue. Twice T-Mobile said it was fixed, and then was not. To my credit I keep dates, customer service rep id #’s and one line summaries of what we discuss. I know it sounds like over kill, but at work I have had problems I was working through and if I didn’t have data like that I would have been screwed. I take that lesson learned and have applied it for personal use. it has worked for me. But even then it took months to fix the problem. The difference was the problem I had was in fact fixed, and during the period of time the billing issue went on, I got credits each month for the mistake.

T-Mobile Customer Service Is Great (Today)

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I called to unlock my Sony Ericsson T-610 today. They took down some information and are emailing me the unlock instructions. No questions asked. I have been a customer on and off since Sept 2000. I have had my current account since early 2002. You would expect them to treat you right if you have been around for a while? Other carriers I have had for years didn’t, but so far T-Mobile treats me well.

If you have had an account for several months they will unlock the phone if you ask and have a good reason (for me potential travel to somewhere that I will want to put a local SIM card into my phone). Hey, I own the dam phone. They get their money back from the subsidy if I stay with them for a year, or pay the early termination fee. So why then does AT&T Wireless and Cingular not do the same thing? AT&T does not unlock for any reason. Cingular I am not so sure about.

T-Mobile also doesn’t make me extend or setup a contract for changes to my account. I have been running without a contract for over a 1 1/2. I don’t plan on changing carriers, but I would think twice about staying with T-Mobile if I called and asked to change something and they did make me sign a contract. It is the point of the matter that they (Cell phone companies) lock me in for making changes. Verizon, and AT&T were terrible about that. T-Mobile has been good so far.

To sum this post up: If you are a T-Mobile executive, don’t change your relaxed customer service approach. Customers actually do appreciate it. I for one am a loyal customer not because I am locked into a contract (i have paid $175 to break out of other companies contracts because of draconian rules, etc.), but because T-Mobile can keep me without making me sign a contract.

Honestly T-Mobile may not have the best network in NYC, but they make up for it in all the ways I stated above. Verizon in my experience (and I have tried all carriers in NYC except for Cingular) has the best coverage and network. They do, I tell people that when they ask my advice. The problem is they cannot make up for the shitty customer service, and restrictions with good voice quality. They still suck even if they have the best signal strength, because support just sucks.

HBH-65 Update

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The headset is good so far. The phone I am using with it (Sony Ericsson T610) right now sucks. You don’t really know how good or bad a phone is until you use another one in the exact same places and get totally different results. This time I used the T610 on my trip up from NYC to Kingston. On the train my Treo normally backs out allot, so did my verizon phone. In the cab from the train station I am usually able to make calls, and sometimes have spotty service. With the T610 I had almost no coverage at all on the entire trip. In the cab from the train I had no signal until I was 5 minutes from the office, and our office has a T-Mobile tower in the same building complex.

The headset worked well when I had good cell signal. No complaints from people about voice quality. I probably wont use the headset that much since the phone sucks. I am sticking with my Treo 600 for now. It actually gets a signal. Palmone, please put bluetooth on the Treo!!!