A few days ago, as mentioned in a previous blog, I dropped my Palm Pre in the hottub. It was out of warranty so I had to get a new phone. I got on the Sprint website, found the new EVO phone at a good price and waited 2 days for shipping.
It arrived today and I couldn't have been happier. I quickly called up Sprint to activate it and they told me they will add a $10 premium data charge to my bill EVERY MONTH. What? I asked why and they stated they are doing that on ALL smart phone that have been added after January 30th.
So I asked what if I bought an old Palm Pre from ebay and added the phone and they stated it would still have an extra $10 charge. Why? I would be switching out a Palm Pre for the same Palm Pre, how can that add a fee to my bill?
So I did some thinking, "Do I REALLY need a smart phone" and thought back on how much I actually use the web and email function and how much was for personal and how much for business use. I realized in fact I did not need the smart phone after all. After doing some refiguring on my bill I found if I downgraded my phone to a non smart phone (like a Rant or Seek) then I could actually save $65 A MONTH on my cell phone bill. That's $780 a year!!!!
I was instantly sold, and after telling my wife she also was onboard with downgrading her phone so we could take advantage of downgrading off the data plan as well. We got on the internet, found the phone we wanted and now are ready to get the "brand new" downgraded phone tomorrow. But then it hits me... I am going to really miss using my phone.
A part of me wants to downgrade to save the $780 a year and show Sprint where to stick it. I mean I am basically doing this because of them initially trying to charge me the $10 more a month. For every customer that does what I am thinking of doing Sprint would have to have 7 people on board with the $10 upgraded fee to make up for it. However, the other part of me wonders how I am going to get through without being able to check my email on my phone when I'm away from the house, or check the sports scores for my favorite team.
Am I really that addicted to my phone now that makes it almost impossible to regress back? Have we gone so far in our technology that having a smart phone is the norm? 10 years ago I barely even owned a cell phone and here I am now acting as though I will be living out of a paper bag without one that has internet.
Maybe this is just the beginning of reevaluating what is necessary and what is not needed in my life. Perhaps others will soon follow suit and realize they too are spending way too much on gadgets that they have been tricked into believing were necessities.
All I know is tomorrow I am going to downgrade my phone. Whether the world will end because of it is all up to the universe.
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