iPhone Trade In

I did something I never thought I’d have to do.

I traded in my iPhone 5 and signed up for Verizon EDGE and got an iPhone 6.

That means: I’m making payments on my phone.

It might not sound bad to some, and I totally get the idea behind it. It serves a purpose, and I think I discovered one of those purposes. Let me explain.

Up until yesterday, I had a white iPhone 5. It served its purpose. It didn’t have the largest capacity nor was it perfect on the outside. It worked and it worked well… most of the time. On occasion, it would play battery tricks on me that I didn’t appreciate.

For example: I’m using my phone and going about my business when I look at my battery level to see it’s at 50%. No big deal, that’ll last me a few hours at my current pace. A couple minutes later, I look at my screen and am informed I am at 10%. That’s odd, I was at 50% just a few minutes ago.

Lo and behold, I’m actually at 4%. Depending on the scenario, my butt might be puckering a bit at this point. As I find a charger and plug it in, my phone tells me I have 50% remaining once more. Unplugging my phone in confusion, my battery stays at 50%.

What did I just experience? Am I in the twilight zone or is the phone hardware just not doing its job reporting remaining charge anymore?

It’s likely the second. In cases where my charge drops dramatically, it will stay there until the likely real charge passes that level, in which case it resumes recording depletion. I had it run on 7% for two hours.

Fun, eh?

I couldn’t handle that drama, anymore. I called Verizon and asked them what it would take to buy out the rest of my contract so I could re-sign and get a new phone. Turns out, it would take a cancellation of my line. Well… that blows.

Oh but wait! Haley, the customer service person on the other end says I’m eligible for a “promotion” that involves signing up for Verizon EDGE so long as I turn in my old phone. Hmm. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about making monthly payments on a phone, paying full price for it in the end, and still being in a contract, but I didn’t care at the time, and $31 a month isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

So in a nutshell, I caved and signed up for what I never thought I would do. On the plus side, I have a sexy new phone that really does kick a lot of @$$. On the neutral side, my next bill will be  $140 larger than normal (they bill you for sales tax).

Weeeee!

P.S.: The cat photo has nothing to do with anything I just wrote. I like cats.