So, the drama of my personal cell phone continues. The AT&T phone that became an AT*T Cingular phone has now apparently become a SunCom phone.

Bother.

I have the Nokia 3650. The phone hardware completely rocks. The camera is clear and rather impressionist during certain lighting conditions. It sends photos to Flickr for me. The Bluetooth is awesome and lets syncs with my Mac using iSync flawlessly. I even use the Bluetooth functionality as a modem with my Mac laptop using the AT&T MMode service. What’s not to like?

Originally, I got my phone from Carrie when she moved to Montana. I figured, it was cool hardware and AT&T does not work reliably in Montana. The phone shows 390-1045-boingo-splat instead of the AT&T banner or something like that when I am out there. So, I was planning on going month to month with the service past contract term (Oct 2005) unless I got a wild hair to upgrade he hardware to new hotness or something.

For perspective, I get less than 5 personal calls on this phone in a given month. I’m just that popular.

In reality, most people call my work cell phone which is a Verizon tri-band due to the nature of work being in rural America.

Anyway.

Well, the the AT&T Cingular thing happened. Ok. But everything still worked. Moving right along…

Now, SunCom has purchased the NC market. Gah. They sent a notice that my phone will go dark on July 1. Doh!

If I want to continue service I have to get a new phone since the phone I have from AT&T was not “properly transferred hardware”. So, I called and asked what they would replace it with since they won’t just send a SIM card that I would use to be part of the Borg Collective SunCom.

The nice lady from SunCom said that they would not send a Bluetooth phone with a camera but I would be sent a plain camera phone.

What? The letter was clear that they would send an “equivalent feature” phone.

Ma’am, the Nokia 3650 does indeed have Bluetooth.

I’m sorry sir but the Nokia 3650 does not have Bluetooth.

What?

So, I read from the AT&T original package (yeah, I keep this kinda stuff) and the manuals and the guides detailing how to use the Bluetooth features on the phone.

She said, again, that the Nokia 3650 does not have Bluetooth.

Yes, it does.

No, it doesn’t.

Yes, it does.

I’m sorry, no, it doesn’t. You need a Bluetooth headset for that.

Yes, it does. I’ve been using it. What does a headset have to do with this?

Sir, please hold.

[wait for roughly 20 minutes on hold]

She comes back finally and says that SunCom will be sending me a Motorola V505. It has Bluetooth. I would have asked about the smaller Nokia they carry at the high end but the reviews were mixed on it. Eh.

She repeats that this new hardware will not extend my contract past the term (Oct 2005) and that I will be out of contract and month to month at that time.

Send it. I’ve got a few months to evaluate it with no strings. Cool.

So, this was about an hour of my Saturday that I won’t get back. Not cool.

Oh, and having the on hold terror that is Harry Connick Jr. telling me over and over how wonderful and customer focused they are at SunCom is just plain bunk. Crazy hold times. Oh, and Harry… your acting/pitch skills are more watered down than your latest pop albums. Yeah, that was nasty, but he’s the spokesman now. Harry is far too talented for SunCom and pop albums.

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