DUDE!!!

What is the largest Caterpillar on the planet? This is what I found…

This morning, I was the first to pre-order the Motorola Droid at my local Best Buy. Not really surprised since I think I’m the only one to be excited about this phone. Currently, it appears that a lot of people are oblivious to Android coming to Verizon. I think its a big deal considering the fact that Verizon is very picky on what platforms are on its shelves. This phone has everything I want. Easy customization, native Google services, nimble, digital Compass, okay App selection, and most importantly the QWERTY (hardware) keyboard. To be true to myself, I don’t know what got me to purchase the Palm Pre. I believe the hype over that phone clouded my judgment. Sure, I was happy with it, but then reality started to become clear. The phone lacked a lot of things that I look for in a smart phone. I believe the only thing I like about the Palm Pre is its ability to “synergize” your contacts, whatever that means.

I hope the Motorola Droid will not be a disappointment. I’m tired of going through phones. I want one that I can be happy with for the next two years. Assurance that there will be updates and improvements via firmware/software updates would be great. That is why I think this phone is the one.

Best Buy better not disappoint me neither…I want that phone on the Droid launch date or else. >:(

Sprint has redeemed themselves from my list of worst customer support. In the past, I was not very fond of Sprint because of what I’ve experienced as their customer. I was once a loyal customer because they were the only provider that didn’t have me front money to open an account. They didn’t ask for $300 down like Verizon and AT&T did. I was happy to be with sprint. In the city of Portland, coverage was awesome. Call quality was crystal clear and I could make calls inside concrete buildings. After moving from Portland to Visalia, that is where the mishaps occurred with my carrier and I.

I’ve had one drop call after another, and answering a call inside a room was impossible. I’ve called numerous times to customer service only to have my call dropped because of the coverage. I would travel Mooney just to be able to tell them how spotty the coverage was. Since friends and relatives recommended Verizon, I knew that I’d have to make the switch because I couldn’t take important calls without getting dropped. However, I was tied to a 2 year contract that was over for another 16 months. Thinking this was a fair reason to end service without the $250 early termination fee. I was denied and was told that I would have to pay this. Money was tight, I couldn’t be losing that. This was my motive to fight back.

Even though their coverage map shows that I was in “good” zone, I was having dropped calls like crazy, even going on the balcony didn’t solve the problem. First they told me to log a ticket every time I had a dropped call, and I did. I probably logged about seventeen dropped calls in a day one time. I got tired of that real fast. Desperately, I even tried the whole “you raised the prices of text messaging” tactic to get out of my contract without the ETF. With over four hours of debating with them what an “adverse effect” meant, I got tired and gave up. My last attempt which I wished I did in the beginning was to use the excuse that my billing address (which was my sister’s house address where my stuff gets mailed to) was located in a “No coverage” area. Faxing them my check stub showing the address finally made them cut my line without the ETF. All this work, I get to keep that $250.

The year is now 2009 and I got the Palm Pre. I believe I got this phone because it was faster than the phone I had at the time (Black Berry Storm). Event with my past experiences I still ended up signing up with them again. They have cheap service plans plus a decent phone, this was the bait. After signing up, I noticed that the coverage hadn’t changed at all. The Sprint reps at the Visalia store are retarded, the one that helped me. I can rant about that one later…

Anyway, to cut to the reason why I am posting this, my first good experience with Sprint (can you believe it?). Today in the afternoon, I called Sprint to ask how much the ETF would be if I was to cancel my service. The lady I got at first sounded Indian, but then I realized she just had a weird accent and lived in North Carolina. She was nice and asked me if I was thinking about switching providers. I explained to her that I am considering it since I didn’t have a good coverage where I worked (even though the coverage map said I was in the best area), which was kind of an exaggeration. I’ve only had a couple of dropped calls with Sprint with my Palm Pre. I asked how much the ETF this is what she said, “The early termination will be $190 because it is pro-rated, but I have waived the ETF because of the inconveniences you’ve experienced, I’m sorry that you are dissatisfied with your service…“. I interrupted her before she finished (I know, I’m rude), I had to ask her to repeat that, and my ears weren’t lying to me. Also I mentioned that I had to fax stuff just to get my ETF waived the last time, and she said she doesn’t need it. I asked her to confirm that my ETF was waived, and to comment that on my account. I told her she was awesome and that was the end of the call.

So, what do you think? Do you think Sprint’s disconnection department is easing off of people because the past lawsuits they’ve had, or am I just lucky?

To:Motorola Droid,

I own you soon.

-Chan

Many things have changed, happened, since my last post in September. One big thing, I’ve moved in with my sister. I share a room with my nephew who once looked up to me. Now, he is just a typical teenager who is going through his junior year of high school. The house is always empty, it seems as though everyone who lives at that house has a life. Every weekend its only me and my sister’s cat, Kitty. Luckily for her there is someone to refill her water bowl daily instead of every week.

After living at my uncle/brother-in-law’s house, I realize that I am a quiet person by nature. I enjoy being away from yelling, screaming, and 4am kitchen noise that house was always full of. Something that I’ve grown use to over the past years. Still, there are some things I do miss…which are… err, … I’ll list those when I remember.

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My sister has an AOL email address. I’ve been whining to her about how AOL isn’t worth that $9.99 she is paying monthly for. Now that I live at her house, I can finally show her all the wonderful things you can do for free. Also she now has high-speed internet (because of me), but she can’t really enjoy it since her AOL stuff is throttling her bandwidth. It actually throttles her down about 70% (I did a speed test, and downloaded misc files to test my theory out). AOL is ghey…

And now that she has high speed internet, I’ve taken back my air card.

This is what she has been using after moving up from dial-up. Don’t you guys feel sorry? Like I mentioned early, even having faster internet now doesn’t mean much when using AOL. omg…

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I’m currently looking for .5 acre land for farming. A couple of weeks ago, I had a dream where I had multiple crops (tomatoes, peppers, melons?) yield a whole bunch of fruit/vegetables. This has somehow got me into this Harvest Moon escapade of wanting to grow stuff. I don’t know how far I’m going to get with this, but I’ve already ordered seeds of the crops I want to grow. I’ll post some more about when I find land.