iPhone upgrade saga
So, in mid-December I broke down and ordered a new iPhone online. I still have the first generation iPhone and I decided it was time to have an iPhone 4.
FedEx made its first of three (sic) delivery attempts on a Monday, and I stayed home from work on Tuesday in order to eliminate any risk of missing them. They did not attempt on Tuesday, of course, so I signed the appropriate releases and left them on the door. On Wednesday, FedEx saw fit to deliver another package I had ordered but not the phone, and then I got an email saying FedEx had made three delivery attempts and I now had three business days to pick up the phone from FedEx (naturally, nowhere near my house) or the phone would be returned to Apple. I called FedEx and explained what had happened, and the woman I spoke with more or less called me a liar for saying that I had stayed home on the Tuesday (one of their drivers had input that he had made a delivery attempt on all three days, without success). You can imagine how impressed I was with being called a liar, so FedEx and I parted ways and after eight (not three) business days they did indeed return the phone to Apple. Who is the liar now? Don't give me the ability to track my package online if you don't want me to see how slow you really are.
Anyway, it took several epochs for Apple to credit me with the cost of the phone, and then I was traveling and such so that it took until today for me to go to an Apple store to try this in person, sans FedEx. As you can probably guess, that left it to AT&T to be the villain this time. I was now no longer eligible for a phone upgrade because I had just bought a new phone last month. The Apple genius(es) who helped me guided me through how to call AT&T and explain all this, and AT&T immediately agreed that the phone had been returned and therefore I should now be eligible for an upgrade, but there was no way to correct the system's belief that I had just used my upgrade. Apple confirmed that they query AT&T's system and could not accept the AT&T person's say-so that they should allow me an upgrade, and AT&T agreed to file a grievance on my behalf that I really ought to have an upgrade since, as you will remember, I don't actually have a new phone. Both Apple's and AT&T's employees readily agreed that there was no way I could possibly be the first person to have their phone returned by FedEx and that it was something of a mystery that there was no extant process for automatically (or at least, on demand) fixing my upgrade eligibility status.
At this point, I would like to hear what people think of the Droid. It is clear that Apple, AT&T, and FedEx don't want me to upgrade, and I don't want to wait in line for a Verizon iPhone in February. (And don't tell me pre-ordering will let me avoid lines; we already know that FedEx won't deliver to my address so lines are pretty much inevitable.)
I'm a very sad panda today.
FedEx made its first of three (sic) delivery attempts on a Monday, and I stayed home from work on Tuesday in order to eliminate any risk of missing them. They did not attempt on Tuesday, of course, so I signed the appropriate releases and left them on the door. On Wednesday, FedEx saw fit to deliver another package I had ordered but not the phone, and then I got an email saying FedEx had made three delivery attempts and I now had three business days to pick up the phone from FedEx (naturally, nowhere near my house) or the phone would be returned to Apple. I called FedEx and explained what had happened, and the woman I spoke with more or less called me a liar for saying that I had stayed home on the Tuesday (one of their drivers had input that he had made a delivery attempt on all three days, without success). You can imagine how impressed I was with being called a liar, so FedEx and I parted ways and after eight (not three) business days they did indeed return the phone to Apple. Who is the liar now? Don't give me the ability to track my package online if you don't want me to see how slow you really are.
Anyway, it took several epochs for Apple to credit me with the cost of the phone, and then I was traveling and such so that it took until today for me to go to an Apple store to try this in person, sans FedEx. As you can probably guess, that left it to AT&T to be the villain this time. I was now no longer eligible for a phone upgrade because I had just bought a new phone last month. The Apple genius(es) who helped me guided me through how to call AT&T and explain all this, and AT&T immediately agreed that the phone had been returned and therefore I should now be eligible for an upgrade, but there was no way to correct the system's belief that I had just used my upgrade. Apple confirmed that they query AT&T's system and could not accept the AT&T person's say-so that they should allow me an upgrade, and AT&T agreed to file a grievance on my behalf that I really ought to have an upgrade since, as you will remember, I don't actually have a new phone. Both Apple's and AT&T's employees readily agreed that there was no way I could possibly be the first person to have their phone returned by FedEx and that it was something of a mystery that there was no extant process for automatically (or at least, on demand) fixing my upgrade eligibility status.
At this point, I would like to hear what people think of the Droid. It is clear that Apple, AT&T, and FedEx don't want me to upgrade, and I don't want to wait in line for a Verizon iPhone in February. (And don't tell me pre-ordering will let me avoid lines; we already know that FedEx won't deliver to my address so lines are pretty much inevitable.)
I'm a very sad panda today.