Some people lineup to be among the first to own the newest smartphone. Not me. I wait as long as possible to replace mine.

Technology usually forces the change. My phone slows down or lacks the oomph for updated apps. When I’m frustrated enough, I contact my service provider for a new phone.

I’ve dropped my current phone about 10,000 times. Other than a small chip in the screen, the Otter case has prevented further harm. Or so I thought. Turns out, the case now keeps the back from falling off the phone.

Eons ago, I switched to Sprint for a free phone and a monthly rate half of what I’d been paying Verizon. My monthly bill dropped to $22. My current phone came from Sprint with no finance charges and payments added to my monthly bill for two years.

I’ve bought at least two phones that way. Yeah, I probably paid too much. Even so, my monthly bill was less than $70. I paid off the iPhone 12 Pro Max I have now a couple of years ago and have been paying $22 a month ever since.

Fearing my phone could crash at any time, I headed to the T-Mobile store. (Somewhere along the way, T-Mobile bought Sprint.) The goal was to leave with a new phone, all set up and ready to go–however long it took.

A delightful young woman brought up my account. She frowned as she studied the screen. Somehow, my account was in a system that no longer existed–or something. My $22 rate was only supposed to last twelve months.

Oops!

Any changes to my account–like adding an interest-free phone payment–would trigger a significant rate hike. She gave me a great deal of advice about how to move forward on my own–some of which I actually understood.

She had no accent or speech impediment. I just had no idea what the hell she was talking about. Buy a phone, blah blah blah, bring it back if I have trouble and she’ll make it work with T-Mobile.

I did some pre-purchase research. “Unlocked” means the phone will work with any carrier. “Renewed” is a fancy way of saying refurbished. Then I went on Amazon, selected “next day delivery” to narrow my search, and ended up buying a renewed iPhone 14 Pro.

That was Wednesday. Within a few hours, the delivery date changed from 11/21 to arriving between 11/26 and 11/29. I clicked on Amazon’s customer service link for a text version of phone-tree hell. My issue did not compute.

Argh!

Buying the phone was supposed to be the easy part. To be continued when the transition is complete. As always, thanks for stopping by.