life, the universe, and donna

Everybody keeps asking, so I figured I’d put all of the details in one place. But first, for the tl;dr people: Send me a text message so that I can add you into my phone. Whenever I get a new phone, I do a number purge to get rid of old numbers. Make it easy on me and put yourself in! But please, INCLUDE YOUR NAME! I can’t add you into my contacts if I don’t have your name…

Which means:

The 250 number who only gets one text a day? Send me an email and tell me who you are. I can make a couple of guesses, but there are a few different 250 numbers it could be…

And the 778 number who just sent “iPhone 4 ftw” … yeah, I have no idea who you are. Help a sister out.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way:

I have an iPhone 4! It’s ever so pretty. I have named it Steven. I think I love Steven. (Sorry, Nick.)

Nick & I originally wanted to get a pair on launch day. It seemed perfect! We were going to have the day off anyway, as we were heading out to ToA later in the day, but … then I realized that no, this would end up being a WHOLE DAY thing that would likely end in tears and no iPhone, and we wanted to be out in Chilliwack before 3pm. Right, forget it. We can wait. Annoying, as Nick currently has NO phone, since his 3G bricked itself a few weeks ago, and rather than pay $100 to fix the old phone, he may as well wait a few weeks and pay $160 to get a new one. And yet, I have a new phone, and Nick still has none…

But that’s partially because apparently I’m nuts.

So, it’s actually quite convenient for Nick to pop through Pacific Centre to see the Apple Store on his way to work and see how long the line is. When we got there yesterday, well, it was pretty long when we got there at about 9:30am. But, I was already late for work (having let them know ahead of time that I was going to be in late for iPhone goodness) so I decided to stick it out. And stick it out, and stick it out.

They took down my name shortly after the store opened (10:30am) and I was one of the last people to get my name down for a 16gb. Cool. What I didn’t realize is that it was still going to take FOR-FREAKING-EVER to get through the few hundred people in front of me.

Once you’ve been waiting for a couple of hours… it’s surprisingly hard to leave, because who wants to waste that much time?

Now add a few more hours on… and a few more… and then some more. I waited for seven hours. My back was aching, my knees hurt, I was hungry and tired, and I had read the entirety of “Exit Strategy” by Kelley Armstrong, finished off the last few chapters of “The Red Queen” by Philippa Gregory, and gotten started on “Her Fearful Symmetry” by Audrey Niffenegger. Thank god for my Kindle.

Ok, now admittedly, if I had known when I got there that I was going to wait for SEVEN FREAKING HOURS to get my iPhone, I would have bailed right away. With Nick, who is evidently smarter than me. But I never would have predicted that — there were only a few hundred people in front of me! Right, except… they’ve got maybe a dozen Apple people activating phones, and each one takes 30-40 minutes. Longer, if it’s complicated. Mine was about 45 minutes, as I was doing a number port from Bell, a new activation on Telus, and wanted to pay by debit (which meant first I had to buy a gift card in the amount that I wanted, as they actually only take credit card & cash & gift cards for the iPhone directly.)

So. Yeah. I lined up at 9:30. I got into the store at 4:30. I walked out with my shiny new iPhone at 5:15 for the not-so-bad cost of $170-something. Let’s not think about the lost wages for missing the ENTIRE DAY OF WORK (I still stopped in and managed to clock half an hour in so that I could keep my customers updated at least). Or the $200 contract buyout I’ll have to pay to Bell.

And lemme say a little thing about cell phone companies, because I’m tired of “omg, you’re going to Telus? Telus sucks!” Seriously? C’mon, you know better. They ALL suck. Every one of them. I’ve BEEN with all of the major providers, and THEY ALL SUCK. This will be round 2 with Telus (I used to work there, I got discounts), I’m perfectly familiar with them and their network, and everybody sucks just as much, but in different ways. I have personal horror stories from every provider. I can list a hundred other horror stories for every provider that I’ve heard from other people. I went with Telus because their plan fit my needs the best, and worked out to slightly cheaper for me. (For the record, I’ll be paying $65/m+tax.) Also, because I couldn’t stay with Bell, I wasn’t eligible for a phone upgrade, and even with paying out my contract, it’s still cheaper for me to go to a new provider.

Are you paying attention, Bell? Don’t make it THAT EASY for me to leave you. Because as we all know, ALL CELL PHONE PROVIDERS SUCK. Convenience & price is the only thing that sways me anymore. Being an existing customer, you had me on convenience. But the price difference was enough to make me run straight to hide behind Telus’s voluminous skirts and tell them you were mean to me.

Oh, and as for why I chose the Apple Store: Because they’re the only place getting regular shipments. The Oakridge Apple Store might have been a better choice, but I’m told the lines are just as bad there, too. I’ve called around here & there, and the answers have all been the same: No idea. The Apple Stores are at least getting daily shipments in.

So there it is. The saga of an iPhone. Worth waiting seven hours? Not even remotely, but whatever. What’s done is done, and now Steven & I can be happy together forever la la la…