Unlocked / Unsubsidized Phone 4TW!

So I had the OG Droid for the last two+ years. About 3 weeks ago the touch screen started flaking out and quickly became useless. The only way I could use the phone was to be lucky enough to register a click on the AirDroid icon and then send/receive text messages through a webpage. Even when I received phone calls phantom screen clicks would disconnect the call. Funny how we put so much breakable technology on a product (phone) that when things get realz it no longer serves it's basic purpose.

So its time for a new phone! And I see the new google flagship, the Galaxy Nexus is soon to be released on Verizon. Ok, I tells myself, I can wait a week, get this phone and be movin' on up to the east side to an apartment in the sky. Well, if you're a super nerd you'd know that the Verizon release was delayed and delayed. To be fair, they never officially announced a release data, so technically they never delayed it. But to be real, Verizon knew the sort of Mountain Dew educed nerd-froth this news would stir up. So, with no real release date in site I start looking at alternatives, and one alternative being buying an unlocked phone from Europe and jumping over to a CDMA network (AT&T or T-Mobile). But what are the costs?

Number time:
Galaxy Nexus w/2-year Verizon Contract: $300
Galaxy Nexus CDMA Unlocked: $750

Cheapest Verizon Plan: $80 -- 450 minutes $40, 1000 txt messages $10, 2GB data $30
Comparable T-Mobile No Contract Plan: $60 -- unlimited talk, txt, 2GB data
Walmart (sigh) T-Mobile Special: $30 -- 100 minutes talk, unlimited txt, 5GB data

So wait, what? Walmart Special? You can actually get it from T-Mobile's website as well. But first, lets compare the comparable plans with the assumption you'd use the T-Mobile plan for two years as well.

Verizon: $2,220 = $300 + ( $80 x 24 )
T-Mobile: $2,190 = $750 + ( $60 x 24 )

So no real happy times. Truth be told though, the T-Mobile data rates aren't capped, but thats when the start THROTTLING your bandwidth. There is a $50 a month plan that throttles after 100MB, but would save you $240.

Walmart Special: $1,470 = $750 + ( $30 x 24 )

BOOTS UPSIDE YO HEAD! And actually, it's $1,500. Ok, so to get the plan you need to have a new activation AKA buy a new phone. So I bought the cheapest - a $30 flip phone which my roommate Willis is giving to his parents. Second caveat, you get a new phone number. That said, getting drunk-dialed from Natalie Portman can get old. Sike, it'd never get old. And if you read this Natalie, why don't you return my letters?

So I end up saving a good chunk of change at the expense of having to associate with Walmart, change my number, and going with T-Mobile. And really, my current Verizon bill is $100 a month for unlimited blah blah (which I don't use), and since I'm lazy that's probably what I would have ended up paying had they released the Galaxy Nexus on time, so that would have been $2,700 vs $1,500.

My only gripe with T-Mobile is I live in a rowhome, so no good reception in the house. But GrooVe IP says "That little guy? I wouldn't worry about that little guy"

Amazon Kindle Customer Service -- Best Ever?

Nope not being sarcastic. Over the weekend the top inch of my kindle screen froze. Restarting the kindle did nothing. It was kind of like a burn in. Annoying. So I did some google searches and I surmised that 1. kindle is hosed and 2. kindle support service is the worst thing since trying to converse with Sarah Palin. So, annoyed, I just left it broken.

Here I am a few days later and I figure mneh, might as well call them. First, amazon's kindle support site has a thing where you enter your number and hit a button and then call you right away. Nerd sweet! An automated message comes up - wait time less than a minute. 5 seconds later a dude is like "hey whats up man" and I'm all like "my thing is broke" and he's all like "we'll send a new one, be there tomorrow" and I'm like "nice, its 6pm here". The whole conversation took under 3 minutes, I'll have a new kindle tomorrow, they'll be sending me a return shipping label for my broken one and I have a month to return it.

Best customer service ever? Possibly. Why were all those people complaining? I guess amazon used to suck at customer service or those people are the retards who you get stuck behind the line at subway and they demand their sub to be remade 7 times because it wasn't made right. While they're talking on their phone.

Oh yeah, USAA has awesome customer service too. Comcast does not (thats where the subway sandwich people work).