Last week I switched my cell phone service to AT&T Wireless because AWS was offering a Microsoft SmartPhone from Motorola that no other carrier was offering. You could find it online for about $550 and CompUSA was offering it for $199 after rebates and with a new service agreement. Going to AWS wasn’t a major issue for me, seeing as all of my other phones were GSM based and were unlocked to run OK with AWS SIM’s, and I knew that AWS had decent coverage in Connecticut. Or so I thought – I found three dead zones in one day and T-Mobile (my former and future carrier) had bangin’ coverage there – and now I want out of my contract with AWS. Of course there’s a snafu – I would be Randy if I didn’t have a snafu…

[This is back dated a couple of weeks but AWS’ billing errors went on for three weeks before they got a part of the system back – still seems applicable]

I called AWS last Friday, to see if there was a known dead pocket or if there was another problem. In true wireless carrier fashion, the CSR from AWS told me that I might want to get another phone. Ooooooh-kayyyyy. I just spent $300 on the top of the line phone, but some CSR thinks that it’s not up to par. T-Mobile did the same thing to me, when I complained about their coverage two years ago: they told me that my at-the-time state-of-the-arts SonyEricsson T68 wasn’t up to par because it had an internal antenna and that I should go get a Nokia 5120-something. The year that follow my constant complaining showed constant improvement – they are now at a level where they have coverage almost everywhere in CT and I’ve been happy with them for about the last six months. And I’ll say this for AWS – once I told the CSR that I saw a T-Mobile Nokia 6590i (also internal antenna) with full coverage where they had none, they backed down graciously.

AWS told me that coverage would improve over time. Not when – days, weeks, months, years – or how good it would be in my state – just better – and if I wasn’t happy with the coverage I could cancel within 30 days of when I started. When I asked about the phone that I had bought, AWS told me that that was between me and CompUSA; since I had paid for it already, I could keep the phone. When I looked at the fine print of the CompUSA receipt, it told me that I would miss out on one of the $50 rebates (which was from AWS) but otherwise it was my phone to keep. So for $249, instead of $550, I could get the phone I wanted and keep the service I had.

Sweet! Of course there was another $20 that would have to be spent to get the phone unlocked – thanks to GSM Phone Source – which was painless and fast. This allowed the MPx200 to see my T-Mobile SIM. Also, now that I was on T-Mobile GSM’s network again, I could also use CSD to access the Internet for WAP access. Sorta. There’s some settings I’m missing and trying to find, but that will come as people smarter than me set up their phones on T-Mobile.

So what’s the snafu? AWS’ billing system. You see, I called on Monday afternoon to cancel the account, seeing as I had a limited window of time to cancel it… when I called they told me that they were upgrading their billing system and they couldn’t access my account; I could call back on Monday night. Of course they told me the same thing on Monday night. And Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon. Oh and Tuesday night. Followed by all day and night on Wednesday. By then I finally flipped and demanded another number to call – no one can cancel the account while the system is being upgraded! The entire system is currently fucked. I bet you they’re still able to bill OK though – that system never goes down. Just the one that lets CSR’s manage accounts… Oi what a mess.

It’s not often that I ask this question, but sometimes there’s nothing else to do: why me?!