Replacing an iPhone is expensive, which is why this guy decided to buy a heavily used and damaged one and clean it up himself. You might find the screen replacement side too daunting, but the procedure for turning a dull, scratched case into a glossy smooth one is something pretty much anyone can do. [More]
cellphones
Verizon And T-Mobile Offer Free Calls To Chile
By 3.1.10
If you need to reach someone in Chile this week, try calling on a Verizon or T-Mobile phone. Both carriers have announced that they’re temporarily waiving charges on calls. Verizon says that all calls from the U.S. to Chile will be free until March 6th. I couldn’t find a similar press release from T-Mobile, so you might want to call first to confirm. Just remember that only these two carriers are offering free calls, and they’re only free if you call from the U.S.; you don’t want to end up with an unpleasant surprise like those U.S. soldiers in Haiti last month. [More]
Get Consumerist On Mobile
By 3.1.10
Wanna get Consumerist on your phone? Easy-peasy, by default going to Consumerist.com in your cellphone browser takes you directly to the streamlined mobile version of the site, located at m.consumerist.com. [More]
Email Sprint's Lawyers
By 2.24.10
If for some reason you feel compelled to contact Sprint’s lawyers, here is their email address: office.general.counsel@sprint.com [More]
Verizon Didn't Know Difference Between $.002 and $.00002
By 2.23.10
Who’s in charge, the masters or the machines? You’ll be wondering the same thing after you listen to this iconic gem from The Consumerist archive, the infamous Verizon Can’t Do Math call, which we reposting because the original video got deleted and the posts were kind of scattered. In it, George recorded his attempts to get Verizon to explain why they said they would charge .002 cents/kbfor data roaming, and then billed him for .002 dollars/kb, a difference of about $76. Problem is, no one at Verizon can do math. [More]
Did You Make Calls From Haiti On Verizon? Better Start Saving.
By 2.19.10
Update: Verizon won’t charge the soldiers for the calls in question.
In the weeks immediately following the Haiti earthquake, Verizon and AT&T offered free calls to Haiti as a goodwill gesture to people in the U.S. with family and friends over there. The offers weren’t identical, though, and Verizon was only offering free calls made to Haiti, not the reverse. Spc. James Crawford kept calling his pregnant wife each day from his station in Port-au-Prince, and now they have a phone bill for $1,919.44.
Verizon & Sprint's Sales Tips For Killing iPhone, Circa 2007
By 2.19.10
Let’s step into a time machine and travel through the mists of chronos to an ancient yesteryear. It was a different era, Britney Spears shaved her head, Boris Yeltsin died, and people learned how to print images on toast from the comfort of their own workshops. Oh, and a lil’ thing called an iPhone came out. The year was 2007, and Verizon and Sprint were so scared that they issued these ridiculous sheets to their frontline reps with talking points for discouraging people from buying an iPhone: [More]
After 8 iPhones And 14 SIM Cards, AT&T Still Won't Waive ETF
By 2.15.10
AT&T seems determined to fix Mike’s problem. Only they can’t, apparently, because in the past 9 months he’s gone through 8 iPhones and 14 different SIM cards, and still can’t get a phone that does everything it’s supposed to do. (Like ring when someone calls.) Normally an 8-smartphone customer might sound like someone who’s being too hard to please, and maybe that’s Mike, but let’s face it: this is AT&T and it’s the iPhone, so most of the issues he lists below sounds completely plausible. [More]
What's Wrong With Sprint? 148,000 More People Defect
By 2.10.10
Sprint is always losing customers to Verizon and AT&T. This quarter they lost 148,000 “post-paid” (the opposite of pre-paid) customers. Is it the service? The phones? They don’t seem overpriced. [More]
Google Opens Phone Support For Nexus One Customers
By 2.10.10
Hey look, Google has finally decided to take selling smartphones seriously! After initially trying to treat Nexus One owners like Gmail users who’d locked themselves out of their accounts, the company finally admitted it might be good to have actual people on hand for troubleshooting. If you’ve got a Nexus One problem that T-Mobile can’t solve, call 888-486-3987 (888-48NEXUS). The line is open from 7am-10pm ET. [More]
Huge Nexus One ETF Magically Shrinks As FCC Investigates
By 2.9.10
The Washington Post is reporting that the ridiculously huge ETFs for the Nexus One are magically shrinking as the FCC continues to investigate the fees. Google has shaved $200 of the “equipment recovery fee” it charges if a customer breaks their contract with T-Mobile after a 14-day trial period. [More]
Took Matter Into Own Hands After RoboCaller Spoofed Cell
By 2.5.10
A scammy robocaller had spoofed Rodger’s phone number and angry recipients of the calls were calling him incessantly, but now it’s over. With AT&T’s help, he realized that the autodialer had spoofed his new work number, which was being forwarded to his cellphone. So he disabled the call forwarding, kept his cellphone number, and just had his new work number changed. Victory. [More]
RoboCaller Spoofed My Cell, Now Angry People Call Me Nonstop
By 2.3.10
Rodger is screwed. A telephonic bot is using his cellphone number as the caller ID as it spam calls thousands of people. It’s probably a scam, too, because the message it leaves tells people that if they’ve had their credit card canceled recently, to press “1” and then enter their credit card number. Rodger knows exactly the message that’s left because loads of these people are angrily calling back his cellphone.
UPDATE: Took Matter Into Own Hands After RoboCaller Spoofed Cell
You Can Now Make VOIP Calls On Your iPhone Using 3G
By 1.29.10
I’ll keep this short because it’s Apple-related and we all need a break from that company: Apple has removed its ban on using your iPhone’s 3G “connection” to place VOIP calls, so now you can use an app like Fring to place overseas calls even when you’re not around a Wi-Fi hotspot. Call quality in those moments will naturally depend on AT&T’s ability to provide a good 3G connection, so keep your expectations low, but still it’s good news for any iPhone/AT&T customers looking to save money on calls. [More]
Google Not Done Yet With Direct-To-Consumer Phones, According To Motorola
By 1.28.10
Motorola told its investors today that it’s working on building an Android phone for Google to sell directly to consumers alongside the HTC-built Nexus One. There are no other details yet, other than that it should be released in 2010, according to Motorola’s co-CEO Sanjay Jha. [More]
Google Voice Does End Run Around Apple, Launches New Web App
By 1.26.10
Apple made it clear last year that Google Voice is not welcome on the App Store or your iPhone. “Fine,” said Google. “We’ll go through the browser!” Today the search engine revealed a new mobile web interface that uses some fancy HTML5 magic to provide voicemail, calling, and text message functionality. If you don’t already know, you can turn any page in Mobile Safari into an App icon on your home screen (click the “+” icon in Safari), meaning now you can have a legitimate Google Voice “app.” Below is a video tour. Update: There’s a down side to this: Cy writes in to let us know that this fancy new version actually breaks functionality for iPod Touch owners–the old web-based version let Touch owners make calls, but this one doesn’t. [More]
Verizon Shrinks The List Of Phones Subject To $350 ETF
By 1.20.10
Verizon has dropped 10 phones from its list of models that will trigger the high $350 early termination fee. Cnet wonders whether this is Verizon’s way of trying to make its “advanced devices are expensive to service” argument more palatable to the FCC, as the remaining models are all smartphones. [More]
Check Your Phone Bill For Bogus Charges From OAN
By 1.20.10
Check your phone bills for the past few months for a bogus $14.95 charge (+$.46 tax) from “OAN Ideal Savings Now.” A message on our voicemail hotline tipped us off, and online complaints, like these 188, echo our reader’s grievance. It’s called cramming, and it’s illegal. [More]
