Here is a total waffle and moan for you all. I expect it is an irritation you all know well. Mobile phone contracts, gggggrrrrrr! I roar!
I am not sure how it happened but with my current phone, I am paying a contract price and a tariff price. I was with Virgin and now O2 has taken over. Somehow now I am paying too much in two payments monthly. They have been separated, though together they are less than £15 its not a big amount but still. I always usually only have a sim only deal, but for some reason, I accepted a deal for a new phone. I remember doing it, I was at a bus stop, my phone was playing up in all kinds of ghostly ways and I was taken in.
Over two years later I am still paying for the thing. It is playing up as they all do after two years, I had believed I had taken it out for two years, I had started to wonder why I am still paying this. Finally I managed to find my online account information and discovered to my shock it is for three years, I still have four months to pay, gggggrrrrrr! How I fell for this I do not know, never do business at a bus stop. I don’t think I have had a mobile that has worked for much longer than two years. I can’t imagine agreeing to this, but well I probably did. I remember feeling very good about it all, like I had a good deal. They had been calling me for a while and I had looked into prices and deals, so it wasn’t on a complete whim, but strangely I picture the bus stop, I should have known better.
Oh well, it was a better handset than I would have bought left to my own devises. I love the idea of nice things and choose my favourites from the TV adverts, The Zflip things last had my eye, great ads and lets face it I am old and miss the little ones. This seemed to have it all but even if I had money to burn, I wouldn’t have bought it, I am too tight and sensible and yes too old. Now we know that these flippy phones were falling apart literally and I can feel vindicated for not falling for them.
I really am waffling, it is night time, after 9pm, I should be asleep, its an early start tomorrow and every day at the moment. I have slept or rested for most of the weekend, my pain is up and its been torture. Now I find myself awake enough to move from bed to this desk and waffle. I can’t form serious thoughts, or can I? Lets see….
No, this is not the time for political debate, I must make time for that soon though. Things are afoot in the world and I think it may be time for us all to think and talk and learn.
Hey ho, back to my contract waffle. Why do they sell 36 month plans for phones that barely make it past 24 months? Just why? Is it a money making scheme? Now that is my joke, of course it is, how I fell into it I do not know. What I should do is ring them and put this to them and point out my phone is now obsolete and failing regularly with a battery that needs charging daily. I am not a big phone user, I speak to few people, message a few more, check emails and that is that. I am not a big enough user and care to little about handsets to get them excited to deal with me. ‘Ooh is there a blue one, ooh no I couldn’t try a different make, I am used to this one.’ I am probably a young salesperson’s worst nightmare, usually I aim to make them feel sorry for me on the off chance that gets me a better deal, it doesn’t, or give up ringing me, they do eventually.
02 have supposedly been ringing me for months, requesting my email, to which I refuse and an argument ensues, I am pretty sure legitimate companies don’t get cross with customers. I assume its a scam so just enjoy myself making up information and pretending to be deaf. I do sometimes wonder how funny it would be to discover 02 have been trying to genuinely get in touch and offer me a good deal. I watch too much Morning Live and Scam Interceptors, it can make you overly cautious, paranoid even. Better that than duped and broke.
It is a biannual comedy, to research and compare phones and sim deals, I know I can pay much less than I do and still never run out of data or minutes. Oh, the games we play in life, there are now social tariffs available with most services, is there one for mobile phones?Mental note, look into that. Virgin pretends to have a low price deal for the vulnerable and poor, yet strangely it is only for very basic connection and doesn’t cover any TV, packages. We would not survive without good telly options, pause and rewind are my favourite features. My argument is that they should provide it with a cheaper deal for better packages. Another gggrrrr roar! One day I will tell them what I think, for all the good it will do. We are all at the mercy of our phones, but after we have made a choice and have a new one, how often do we think about it again, I do not until the next time it will not charge.
I have raised a person and know that Apple is the product she is loyal to, it became a statement of status in school and nothing else would do and she has of course not grown out of that yet, she is no longer waiting for the latest release at least that is something. That is a company that knows how to keep making money. It should be an international scandal, the constant failings of their new devices, but no, the world falls for the hype and that gravy train keeps on running.
Well, (there it is again, sloppy Chris) that’s enough waffling from me, I am finally ready for sleep. I am not sure what any of this was about, so I hope it makes a sense of sorts or no sense at all.
Good night all,
Chris. xx
Living With ME 