General / Off-Topic My Cell Phone Died. I Want The US Postal Service Back, And The Old Bell System

[Ralph Vargr]

Just had to go through migrating to a new cell phone.

It's as bad as physically moving your residence.

Almost as bad as a computer migration.

Worst of all, the highly touted replacement failed three times in three days.

So, I'm having to do it again.

The phone store staff were good, efficient, and knowledgeable. Their company charged an outrageous restocking fee, even though the manager confirmed that I had a legitimate reason to ask for an exchange or refund.

That *hurt*. And *burned*. Sell me a bad phone, and make me pay again? Sadly, I learned this was common, as people abused the return privileges. In my day, the local manager could have waived that fee.

Not anymore. No trust, or honor.

My business depends on that phone. It is *definitely* going on my tax return....

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Migrating phones, within the same ecosystem (Android, Apple, etc) is easy.

When I got my new android phone, I just logged in to my Gmail, it asked if I wanted to start fresh, or use a backup.

I chose backup, it then downloaded all my settings, apps, passwords.

Done.

What kind of phone is it? You should never be charged for returning a faulty item.

 

[Robin of Spiritwood]

The restocking fee loss incurred should definitely be considered a business expense.

Hopefully your new one will last a longer time. I'm not in that rat race, and use this old piece of junk:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_SGH-X480

 

[Slange Lands]

I am one of the very fortunate who does not need nor want a cell phone. However, I do have a tablet and I am already feeling that I use it too much....

 

[SpacialKatana]

My 'cell phone' (we call 'em Mobiles where I come from) is about 7 years old....

I fear I am not normal [noob]

 

[Iskariot]

Just had to go through migrating to a new cell phone.

It's as bad as physically moving your residence.

Almost as bad as a computer migration.

Worst of all, the highly touted replacement failed three times in three days.

So, I'm having to do it again.

The phone store staff were good, efficient, and knowledgeable. Their company charged an outrageous restocking fee, even though the manager confirmed that I had a legitimate reason to ask for an exchange or refund.

That *hurt*. And *burned*. Sell me a bad phone, and make me pay again? Sadly, I learned this was common, as people abused the return privileges. In my day, the local manager could have waived that fee.

Not anymore. No trust, or honor.

My business depends on that phone. It is *definitely* going on my tax return....

For me not having a mobile phone solves a lot of the technical problems. All of them to be precise .

 

[Ralph Vargr]

For me not having a mobile phone solves a lot of the technical problems. All of them to be precise .

If I didn't have customers, I would joyously dump mine...

Tablets make for nice browsing, email, media, and game terminals. Unfortunately, when things break, they do not wait for a delayed response. Mr-Fix-It is who they call on the cell phone.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

Since Android 5, there are backups on google cloud... and it was ages ago. Do yourself a favour and invest in a proper device next time? I have all my contacts on google cloud in case my phone gets stolen. Also you can do backups since forever, and when you want absolute reliability you can root the device and do nandroid backups - they are what Norton Ghost was back in the day - a complete working snapshot of your phone. You can drown your old device in the toilet, buy a second one of the same type and just restore the backup on it, no problems...

So again, what phone did you lost?

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Since Android 5, there are backups on google cloud... and it was ages ago. Do yourself a favour and invest in a proper device next time? I have all my contacts on google cloud in case my phone gets stolen. Also you can do backups since forever, and when you want absolute reliability you can root the device and do nandroid backups - they are what Norton Ghost was back in the day - a complete working snapshot of your phone. You can drown your old device in the toilet, buy a second one of the same type and just restore the backup on it, no problems...

So again, what phone did you lost?

All the data *was* backed up. Google, One Drive, etc. I have been burned by data loss before. Not like I have four decades of experience at complex electronics and Murphy's Law. Always blame the old man for not knowing every thing the cool kids do.

You still have to spend the week or so in shock getting used to the new monster. It's like learning a new aircraft. Or car, or boat.

Getting the data back was no problem. The books were there in the Rubbermaid tubs. Getting the *furniture* (bookshelves) right in the new place, however...

The old old dead ex-phone was a Samsung Galaxy S6 Active. The first replacement was a Samsung Galaxy Express Prime 3. As I later learned, it has *lots* of issues. An LG replaced *it* (no more Samsung bloat).

The LG has Oreo 8.1 for it's OS, which should last a while. It's not like going back to KitKat. It also has Chrome for it's native browser, saving lots of CPU over Samsung's horrible browser. There's 2 GB RAM, 16 GB internal storage, and a 64 GB SD card for moving the music to. Also, the sound and screen are superior. Keyboard is better, too. 3000 ma battery vs 2300 ma battery. It's a prepaid phone, so there are no worries about contracts. Yes, it's not the phone that everyone wants *now*. But, I don't have to spend hundreds more to have a marginal advantage in streaming, etc. All I want is signal, sound, and reliability.

No rooting for me, sorry (double pun).

You did learn Morse Code for when the grid goes down, didn't you? I will still have a radio that reaches other continents. You will have a brick, after your battery goes. Mine run marine vessels.

Also, I have these weird things called "books" and "friends".

It's when the plumbing goes, not the power. No indoor plumbing is *far* worse than no beepbeepboop toys. You may want to remember that...

Enjoy your brave new world. Some of us remember when we ran the machines, before they ran us...

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Note (evil Statler and Waldorf chuckle): The sales rep had never heard of vacuum tubes (Brit: thermionic valves), and did not know what a Faraday Cage was, and how buildings acted like them for cell reception...

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

My 'cell phone' (we call 'em Mobiles where I come from) is about 7 years old....

I fear I am not normal [noob]

My previous phone was 5 years old.
Don't worry, we're the clever ones!

I laugh at the sheeple who queue for the latest iSpoon every 6 months.
I don't get their thinking...

"I must be almost, but not quite, the first to use this overpriced mediocre device!"

 

[Patrick_68000]

My 'cell phone' (we call 'em Mobiles where I come from) is about 7 years old....

I fear I am not normal [noob]

Mine is 13 years old.

It is on a shelf to consult one or two sms per month.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

Sorry, I was not being sarcastic. For the moment I simply feared that was something from the gingerbread era... Or even Symbian...

Then I don't understand even more. If it was an Android 6.0 phone, you could just try to reload google cloud backup - it would install all your previous apps for you. Sorry, I don't get that elaborate moving metaphor. I recently switched from a custom 7.1 rom LG G2 to Oneplus 6, no problems whatsoever, and it took under fifteen minutes, most of it spent on downloading stuff. I even retained my call history and SMS (mainly as practice for moving my wife over to her Op6) but for that I used an app provided by Oneplus.

Samsung phones are cool, but only the costly (flagship) ones. The rest is a mass produced cheap crap. And Chrome is not so good either - it gobbles all the RAM it can find

The part where you see what the new device is capable of (which apparently you call "getting used to the new monster") is actually the fun part of the process, for me. It's full of "it can do WHAT? HEY THAT'S AWESOME!" or "at last I can set these damn charging sounds off" moments.

In the end, it really depends on how do you use your phone. My wife learned the hard way that cheap smartphones are usually very annoying to use. And for me, the "phone" function is the least used one ;-) I use it as a networked content consumption device, so to speak, also gps nav, payment, flashlight, work time tracker... lots of stuff. And it's good if the smartphone can do all these things fast.

To all who are "proud" of having a few year old brick - unless you live in a place where cellular network data is unavailable or stupidly expensive, try something modern for a change. You might be surprised how the world has moved on

PS: as for iDevices, they're something my ex boss used to call "the allure of high margin products". Personally, I will never ever willingly buy anything Apple related. Sorry Mac CMDRs. Surely you will understand ;P But other flagships are fun.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Sorry, I was not being sarcastic. For the moment I simply feared that was something from the gingerbread era... Or even Symbian...

Then I don't understand even more. If it was an Android 6.0 phone, you could just try to reload google cloud backup - it would install all your previous apps for you. Sorry, I don't get that elaborate moving metaphor. I recently switched from a custom 7.1 rom LG G2 to Oneplus 6, no problems whatsoever, and it took under fifteen minutes, most of it spent on downloading stuff. I even retained my call history and SMS (mainly as practice for moving my wife over to her Op6) but for that I used an app provided by Oneplus.

Samsung phones are cool, but only the costly (flagship) ones. The rest is a mass produced cheap crap. And Chrome is not so good either - it gobbles all the RAM it can find

The part where you see what the new device is capable of (which apparently you call "getting used to the new monster") is actually the fun part of the process, for me. It's full of "it can do WHAT? HEY THAT'S AWESOME!" or "at last I can set these damn charging sounds off" moments.

In the end, it really depends on how do you use your phone. My wife learned the hard way that cheap smartphones are usually very annoying to use. And for me, the "phone" function is the least used one ;-) I use it as a networked content consumption device, so to speak, also gps nav, payment, flashlight, work time tracker... lots of stuff. And it's good if the smartphone can do all these things fast.

To all who are "proud" of having a few year old brick - unless you live in a place where cellular network data is unavailable or stupidly expensive, try something modern for a change. You might be surprised how the world has moved on

PS: as for iDevices, they're something my ex boss used to call "the allure of high margin products". Personally, I will never ever willingly buy anything Apple related. Sorry Mac CMDRs. Surely you will understand ;P But other flagships are fun.

The part you enjoy is the part that I do not. Ah, well.

I agree completely about Apple, though.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

The new new phone seems to be holding up. I am now discovering that there are old games that I used to play available for it. At least I will have not spent $1,000 USD+ on a full-size computer, just to play a single game.