I just left Verizon for an AT&T iPhone

When I first heard that Verizon was getting the iPhone in February, I thought: PERFECT! My 2 year contract with Verizon was up then, and I felt sort of loyal to them after having had Alltel and then Verizon since I got my first cell phone at age 16. After 2 years on a BlackBerry Pearl, I was more than anxious to get a new phone. My BlackBerry Pearl wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great. It didn’t have enough memory to hold more than a few apps. OK, wait, I forgot about the freezing. It WAS awful. In fact, at least 4 times a day, the stupid phone froze and gave me a spinny hourglass on my screen, at which point I’d have to pull out the battery and restart it. Other times it would randomly turn itself to silent, also requiring a reboot to fix the issue. I had come to hate it with every fiber of my being.

When Verizon announced the iPhone, I figured I’d be one of the first in line. Though I was briefly distracted by a BOGO deal on the top Droid phones, thinking that if I could get two Droid phones for $100 bucks, it would be worth it, that deal expired before our 2 year contract. By the time we were eligible for our upgrade, both Droids and iPhone were looking to cost us $200 each, and at that rate, I’d rather have an iPhone, as I’m a longtime Mac user and prefer the way they work.  I even woke up at 3 am to order iPhones for both my husband and me, at which point, I discovered that, although we already had a smartphone family share plan with unlimited texting, unlimited data, and 500 shared minutes, Verizon wanted to switch us to a different plan, offering basically all of the above except no more unlimited data, for $200 a month, or $70 more than we were already paying. Hell to the no. I may have been bleary eyed at 3 am, and caught up in iPhone fever, but I wasn’t going for that.  It felt like they were trying to dupe us into paying more for the same service, just because they had the iPhone.

My husband did some research and found out that we could get a similar plan from AT&T for only about $150 a month. The choice was easy. Goodbye, Verizon. Hello, AT&T. Today we went to an AT&T store and the employees could not have been nicer or more helpful. They were all very curious about why we’d be leaving Verizon just as our wait for them to get the iPhone was finally over. When we told them Verizon was charging $50 more a month for a similar plan, as well as not offering the discount AT&T gave us because of my husband’s workplace, they laughed and said they’d have to thank Verizon for sending us their way.

Now Jon and I are both in possession of shiny iPhone 4’s. I’m taking suggestions for apps, and already playing more Words with Friends games than I can keep up with. After 2 years with my BlackBerry Pearl, I feel rather like a caveman who was just handed a wheel. WHAT IS THIS MIRACULOUS TECHNOLOGY, AND WHAT DO I DO WITH IT? Typing on the touchscreen is definitely an improvement.

I just wanted to share our story amidst all the hype about Verizon getting the iPhone and talk of people fleeing AT&T for a supposedly better network. Despite having been with Verizon for almost a decade, they thought nothing of jacking up our rates, so we thought nothing of leaving them behind for a better deal.

Now, who’s got tips for a new iPhone user?