Yesterday we went into town to add a line to our cell phone plan for a family member (NOT a child). That was all we intended to do. We had to check on an issue with my phone not working in the same said town, and we thought we would ask about these new "plans" our company offers because it is said they are so much cheaper than our current plans.
Be very, very careful walking into the phone retailers these days.
Before I even knew what was happening, we were getting Iphone 5s. Seriously, before I even knew what was happening. I was still trying to wrap my mind around what happened 3 hours later when we were on our way home.
What happened was this: You aren't on a contract anymore, and you pay for your phone in installments, which are added to your cell phone bill. You do indeed pay less for your plan (apparently), but its the fact that the cell phone is figured into that rate that makes that happen. Without that, you pay "more".
Hindsight: We don't EVER buy the newest version of anything. We have never spent more than .99 on any of our phones previous to this. And we aren't paying 600$ for a phone, not all at once anyway. But when all is said and done, we are going to be. And because of that I feel as if I've been completely taken in.
This girl, whoever she was, was GOOD at what she does. I'll bet she's a top earner in her position, probably on the fast track to management or something. She had us running laps with broken legs.
It worked out okay I suppose. I don't think that we will be in trouble with out bill, I think it is pretty similar to what we were paying, even with the phone. And we do get the 100$ credit for adding a line. But it makes me feel frustrated, because I had someone basically walk up to me, shove my head under the water, and hold it there for a good 3 or 4 hours. By the time I came up for air, it was too late. I realize now that this push to give you this "inexpensive" phone plan system is a way to ensure that people get the latest and greatest cost phones, at the benefit of the company alone, not the customer. DUH. Apparently, too many people were doing what we were doing: buying the older version of the phone for .99 and not buying the newest phone for 600$.
I don't blame the company, I understand they are there to make money, and I do like that I am paying less per month and we have 3.3 X as much data as we used to and unlimited talk to anybody, which we didn't have before (we had 550 minutes or something). So we are getting more for less, as far as the plan is concerned. But it comes at the price of 1200$ for 2 brand new phones. The "good news" is that I am planning on sitting on these new phones for quite a while. Hopefully they will last that long. Next time we will try to do what we had been doing; buying previous versions and using them or something. Hopefully they won't take away the option to buy older versions.
The result of all this is the feeling of completely overwhelmed mind. My head was spinning. I couldn't decide what to eat for dinner. I couldn't keep up with my mile-a-minute talking son. I couldn't keep up with my daughter. Without help, I may have very well have lost the phone somewhere because I would have forgotten it somewhere. Or I would have forgotten something else because of it. My mind was completely consumed. You know sometimes on a computer how you cannot open any other programs or applications while it is doing certain things? That's my brain. I could not load any other thought processes because I was still trying to process what happened with our phones.
This morning I feel better, but last night I was completely exhausted. This can't happen again. I should have told her to walk away for a minute that one time I thought about it. I should have told her to just back off a minute and let us talk about it. Wow. I can't believe it.
