the wait is almost over

The plan is to go to an AT&T store first thing in the morning. I suspect many people will go this route over the Apple Store as in order to get the price that has been broadcast, you need to be a current customer, eligible for an upgrade. Guess who becomes eligible for an upgrade on July 11, 2008? Not me. My phone is from the stone age at this point. Of course it is B.

That boy is very lucky when it comes to cell phones. He once left one in a taxi in New York City (after leaving his laptop at a gas station), and got it back before we could get through to customer service to report it lost (he also got his laptop back). But I think his previous best luck occurred when we were leaving Austin.

In packing up his stuff he found the receipt for his old phone. He had paid extra for the extended warranty. It literally had hours left on it. The phone had a broken antennae, which of course, wasn't covered, but he headed to BestBuy with me in tow as a break from packing. The sales person explained that the antennae wasn't covered, but asked him what else was wrong with the phone. B rattled off a couple of more issues and the sales guy was all 'let's get you a new phone'.

It gets better. Even back then cell phones changed more quickly than fashion. So of course the model he had was no longer available. The new model was not only on sale, but came with a rebate! So B walked out the door with a brand new phone and the form he needed to fill out to get money back. I think it was $25. Not bad for a few minutes work.

Hopefully things won't be too crazy tomorrow. I have heard that people started lining up days ago. Why?

We still both have Chicago phone numbers and don't plan on changing them. I suspect that may makes things interesting, but we are going to a real AT&T Store, and no a reseller. Reportedly the resellers don't have them anyway.

B doesn't like to wait. He is not good at it at all. And I suspect there are going to unhappy people who aren't as lucky as B and who are going to be told that they need to fork over a lot more money than they expected, if they want to walk out the door with a new phone.

I spent part of the day trying to sync my paper address book with my Mac Address Book. I didn't come close, but I tried. There were some entries on my current phone that I could not place so I deleted them. I also deleted the dead people and the businesses I no longer patronize. I also soaked my feet.

Stay tuned.

on the night stand :: The Art of Wall.E