You are looking at the bane of my existance.
Okay, to be pefectly accurate, you’re looking at a picture of the same model phone (an HTC Mogul from Sprint) that is the bane of my existance. In all the years I’ve had a cell phone, I have never owned a bigger pile of steaming yak droppings as is this phone. I have never dealt with a bigger bunch of lying rat bastards than the ones that sell and service this phone. And I will never make the same mistake again. Allow me to explain…I’m a propellerhead. I love gadgets. I live, eat, sleep, and dream technology. So when technology advanced to the point where I could stop carrying a Palm PDA and a phone, and instead carry one device, I jumped at the chance. As I am (or soon to be WAS) a “Windows guy,” I wanted a Windows phone. At the time, all Sprint (who I’ve been a loyal customer with for over 10 years) had was a Palm Treo 750. So I got it. It was…okay. A complete bust in the web browsing department, but an adequate contact manager/phone. But I yearned for something easier, faster, and with a better form factor. Then HTC announced Windows Mobile phones.
I was sold. A slide-out keyboard, built-in WiFi, Bluetooth, a microSD slot, and blazing-fast EVDO speeds? I’m there! But then, reality set in, and as they say, reality is a cruel mistress.
It’s been said that Microsoft let’s end-users beta-test their software, while version 1.0 is internally refered to as “version one point uh-oh.” I figured that since this phone came with Windows Mobile ver. 5, it was safe to assume that the bugs had been worked out. Um…not as such. A host of major problems soon reared their ugly heads.
First, Microsoft decided that it was a problemt that apps took a relatively long time to load. They figured that most phone users were too stupid/ignorant/unschooled in the ways of software to keep apps in memory instead of terminating them, thus speeding up switching. So they changed the function of the “X” button – you know…the one that is supposed to close apps. Only on Windows Mobile, it didn’t. It switched them into “background mode.” So if you checked your calendar, your contact list, made a call, and ran a couple of third-party apps, all of a sudden, your phone was out of memory. And a Windows Mobile phone out of memory is every bit as unstable as a Hollywood Poptart after a dozen brandy Alexanders.
The next problem was battery management. Mine has none. And when I say “none,” I mean that even with WiFi and Bluetooth turned off, my phone sucks power faster than a Dyson vacuum sucks dirt.
If I want to use some service that requires either WiFi or the web-via-cell phone, I literally have to reboot the phone, if I don’t want to see the battery drain to zero within about two hours – even if I manually kill the app in question, using a third-party tool.
My wife’s phone’s battery seems to be okay, but when she syncs with her Windows Vista laptop (“Vista” being the Swahili word for “crapalicious”), the phone frequently, spontanously resets itself to a factory-fresh state, which is to say, sans contacts list, calendar appointments, or any other useful data.
Did I mention that Microsoft, seeing a host of problems, has come out with Windows Mobile v. 6? Nice, but even though WM5 did not work as advertised, Microsoft won’t upgrade the HTC Mogul phones for free. And Sprint won’t pay Microsoft for the upgrade – thus leaving users in the limbo of a “half-grade” – where Microsoft’s and Sprint’s lawyers decided which features in the WM6 package would be included in a service patch. Nice.
Of course, living in Amarillo, forget high-speed anything. We don’t have EVDO here – just what my phone laughingly refers to as “1X” speed. Think “two tin cans and a piece of string,” and you get the idea. We’re supposed to get EVDO rev A “Really Soon Now.” Uh huh. A Sprint rep told me (confidentially, of course) that they’ll light up EVDO only when their competitors bring high-speed service to the Panhandle. So we wait. And wait. And wait…
My wife took the plunge on the half-grade, by the way. Didn’t help. But at least she can sync her phone, to back up her data. I’m not so lucky. My phone won’t sync to my desktop OR my laptop. Oh, joy. And there’s seemingly no way short of pencil and paper to back up the data contained on the phone.
The technicians are completely clueless when it comes to why we’re both having (different) problems on the phone. They were nice enough to give me a spare battery – but the battery can ONLY be charged when it’s in the phone, so it’s not the solution you might think. HTC has moved on to other phone designs, leaving the Mogul as a “we’d rather forget we built this” kind of thing.
Of course, even if everything worked, Windows Mobile is still a lame excuse for an operating system. In order to make a call, you must press the power button, two soft buttons to unlock the display, the phone button, and THEN dial your number. Assuming you looked up a number in the contact manager, you’ll have to close the contact, the contact manager, and the phone app, just to get back to the “Today” screen, where you can then lock the display. (God help you if you don’t – the phone will randomly start up apps or dial numbers, as you walk on, blissfully unaware of your dwindling battery.) It’s as if the OS was designed by programmers that never met a usability study nor have a clue as to how people really USE these things.
So between Sprint’s inability to deliver a reliable phone and Microsoft’s unwillingness to build a working OS, what’s a customer to do?
Bolt. That’s what.
As soon as we can afford it, we’re getting away from Sprint and from Windows Mobile. Forever. Sprint will lose our account, and the three phones that are on it. We’ll jump to iPhones, I suspect – with a user interface that is at the very least intuitive.
Just in case you think I’m being a bit judgemental and unforgiving, allow me to mention the letter I emailed to the CEO of Sprint. You know – the guy who gave out his email address on the commercials, so people could tell him how he’s doing? Yeah, well, I wrote a three-page letter telling him exactly what I thought was wrong with Sprint, and how he could fix it, and in the process, stop the rapid loss of customers. I received one reply. From customer service. Asking me if I was happy with my Sprint service.
Now if I had a customer to write a three-page letter, I would have bloody well made sure the CEO got it, or at the very least, had some PR flack answer me, point by point. I’ve been a customer FOR OVER TEN YEARS. Yet, that seems to be a non-starter with the folks from Sprint.
So I sit here, waiting for the new iPhones, plotting ways I can get out from under my indentured servitude to Sprint. And hoping the grass really is greener over on the AT&T side of the meadow.
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