Really, it has taken me this long to write this post because I haven't been able to stop laughing about it even after driving the 25 miles home with my new iPhone. It's a funny story that I will describe and it also might help someone getting ready to upgrade their phone.
I knew when I saw these two leaves hanging in midair that my day was going to be an interesting one. I just didn't realize at the time, the $1 iPhone was going to be the answer to the weirdness today.
Before I get started on the phone story, I'll narrate our late afternoon walk but it is still 90° as I write this at 7:10pm. We finished this walk about 10-15 minutes ago.
I am seeing more and more new purple flowers blooming throughout the field. They are everywhere. I have no idea what they are but they look nice.
Sadie and Stella didn't care about the flowers or the heat, all they knew, was they were on their daily walk and that was all that mattered.
While I was taking photos of flowers and the leaves that had turned colors, both of them ran pretty far away from me. They were happy to be outside today after I left them in the house for a little over 3 hours while I was at Best Buy picking up an iPhone.
For some reason today, Stella decided she would join us without any veering away from us nor hanging way back, ignoring my calls. That is always a good walk when that happens.
Lots of new spots for Sadie to check out ... nice fresh, some sort of natural organic nutrition. That's as far as I will go on what they were eating.
Stella trots along the back edge of the field, near both of us.
But she has that "I'm hot" look on her face, so I was pretty sure she would be following me all the way back to the house today.
Stella was the same way ... not many stops on the way home.
For those that read my post Sunday (yesterday) I spoke of the deal with Verizon and Best Buy for the iPhone 5SE ... $1 as long as you signed up for a 24 month commitment. Other options showed you would be paying a monthly installment of somewhere around $16 per month for 24 months for the cost of the phone.
I'm not as dumb as I look ... so the difference between those two options for the same brand new phone just didn't add up in my old brain .. circuits were evidently missing as I am trying to process this information over the weekend. I kept asking myself why is that iPhone only $1 ??
To make sure I was "clear" on how I understood the two options I called customer service at Verizon and Best Buy ... and spoke to real people on each call, not a robot.
I find out today at the store at the time of purchase I was REALLY CONFUSED !!!!
The monthly charges were going to be for the data plan, one smart phone fee, a one time activation fee and the $1 phone.
NEITHER CUSTOMER SERVICE REP that I had called, told me that $1 was NOT the cost of the phone ... even after I told both of them "I just can't believe you are selling an new iPhone 5SE for ONE DOLLAR !!!!
So after a lot of research over the weekend, I was pretty sure I wanted the smaller size iPhone (4"), the same size as my 5S I sold last November. Luckily due to one of the regular Best Buy phone service reps leaving for lunch, someone that did not work in that department started my purchase.
Why was that lucky?
As I was bombarding her with more questions, she called the "Verizon/iPhone EXPERT" to help her with the purchasing process and answer the questions I had.
He had moved from the 5S to the 6S last year and had a lot of knowledge about the few differences between the two phones that I was not able to see when reading about them online. As I put the 6S in one hand and the 5SE in my other hand ... I was starting to change my mind. The slightly larger screen was easy on my eyes and it didn't feel that much bigger in my hand.
Long time blog readers know that I ALWAYS change my mind before the final purchase is done, no matter what I am buying ... RVs, computer, cars, trucks, etc.
As I told him ... "It's almost too hard to pass up a ONE DOLLAR iPhone 5SE for the larger 6S" ... he stopped ... he stared at me ... he had a shocked look on his face .... he started stuttering but the words would not come out !!!!!
And then .................. I was told ..... "it doesn't cost just a dollar ..... didn't they tell you about the $40 per month fee added for 24 months to pay for the phone ?????
I looked back through my hand written, notes ... I didn't see that fee listed.
So there was the REAL COST of the phone.
The interesting thing is, for some strange reason I could pick up the 6S model for $13 less per month and NO 24 month commitment, then after I added another $4 per month my 16Gb iPhone was bumped up to a 64Gb iPhone ... still under that $40 per month fee no one knows about for the ADVERTISED $1 iPhone.
It's only been a couple of hours playing around with it as I been going through the process of setting it and checking all of the settings that comes with it. I've also been downloading free apps that I had before on my other phone, all of this before our daily hound walk ... but after a short time, I can say that I am very very happy to have a smart phone back in my life.
I don't watch movies, nor ballgames and I don't play games on the phone ... but I love the camera, the Notes program (basically my memory), the Maps that I can use as my GPS, and the free apps that help me track my diet/fat/calories and monitor my activity along with other uses.
Getting phone calls are just secondary ... I bought it for all the things it does besides being a phone.
So ... I hope you didn't spill anything while lauging about how stupid I must be to let the world know that there is a $1 iPhone available. ... it really is a good laugh and one that I enjoyed, even though the joke was on me. LOL
All is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.