Hacker for Hire

As I’ve said recently, I’ve been looking for cell phones that will be Xetron worthy (a.k.a. non-camera phones) and I’ve found a few that I liked. I liked one so much that I went and bought it off of eBay, the Nokia e60. I chose this one because I really liked the form factor, the features, and because it was selling pretty well (if I hated it, I wouldn’t have a problem chucking it back on eBay). I got my new phone and plugged in my SIM … didn’t work. Crap. So I plugged Sara’s SIM in to it … BAM! Works like a champ. Perplexed, I put mine SIM back in and receive the same nonfunctional results. Time to head off to the Cingular and see what they have to say.

After waiting about an hour in line at the Cingular store, I asked them why my phone wouldn’t work. Their response was that Cingular operates on the 850 MHz band in the Cincinnati area and my phone only supported the STANDARD GSM frequencies of 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz. Thinking this was a load of crap, I did some research and found that Cingular is supposed to operating on the 850 and 1900 bands in Cincinnati. Off we go to Cingular’s customer support then. The guy on the support line says the phone should work and after some initial troubleshooting, he finally calls tech support who’s response is “That’s a packet data phone, it won’t work.” Bullshit. Yes, the phone can do packet data … but that’s not the primary purpose of the phone, it’s not even the top thing that Nokia advertises about the phone. After some more research, I can’t seen to find a non-sucky phone that will work on Cingular’s 850 band and the customer service representative is telling me that they have 1 phone that without a camera in the candy bar form factor that they could maybe get me for free. Unacceptable. I bought a phone that is supposed to operate on their network, it should fscking work! Especially considering that all they should have to do is give me a SIM that says, “Hey dumbass! Use the 1900 MHz towers!” Still the response from the techs is that my phone is unsupported and I have to get a new one.

During Lori’s graduation party, I asked a friend if I could try their T-Mobile SIM, sure enough it worked. They went on to explain how they loved their plan, customer service was great, etc. This confirmed what a few other people had told me about T-Mobile as well. Off to T-Mobile I went, seeking answers. The guy at the desk was awesome, was willing to make sure that my phone worked, said I wouldn’t have any issues about using any GSM phone (especially Nokias) I wanted on their network and on top of that, I could drop about $20 off my monthly bill … and I didn’t have any payments for 2 months so I could spread out my contract cancellation fee. So long Cingular, you might have still had me if your customer support representatives weren’t complete morons and you’d adhere to your licensed spectrum you scruffy looking nerf herders.

On a side note, I really did like my Cingular service, roll-over minutes, free in minutes, and the deal they made me at the time; however, brand dedication will only get you so far anymore.