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I had to have a smart phone. They seem like such a great idea. A gadget that does it all: e-mail, phone, browser, music, contacts, word processing, calculator… The list goes on. I earn my living in Information Technology, using many products, many Microsoft branded so I chose a Windows Mobile smart phone. It was awful. So frustrating to use that it met an untimely demise just a few months into the new cellular contract. I mean seriously - the thing took four or five steps just to dial a contact. It wasn’t intuitive at all.

I asked Cingular to sell me the cheapest replacement handset I could get. I decided to downgrade to dial tone only. Forget the bells and whistles. (plus I couldn’t afford an iPhone which is probably world’s most perfect device in every way) Cingular told me that it would cost nearly $300 to get a new handset. Holy crap. I explained to the customer service rep that I was leaving the store to go on eBay where I planned to buy a used device. I asked his advice on what to look for.

Suddenly, he became sympathetic and helpful. He looked left, then right, scanning the room as if he needed to know who was about to hear the secret he was about to reveal. “Just get a Go Phone.” he said. Slide your undamaged SIM card from the destroyed smart phone into the $19 go phone you can buy at Big Box Mart, and shazzam! I drove one block down the road to Target and did just that. Moments after installing my SIM card into this phone, it was ringing. It was my lovely wife calling to see how my day was going.

The sad part of this story is that the helpful guy at Cingular \ AT&T would probably be reprimanded or worse if he were caught passing this useful information on to customers. It’s suspicious that they don’t sell go phones in the Cingular \ AT&T store - don’t you think?

– steve