This one isn’t a security blog. If you want deep, technical reading this one isn’t it.
A Year Ago…
I was at the park with my son when he fell and got hurt, I called my wife to come and pick us up as that was much faster than walking his bike home. As we were leaving, my Note 20 fell out of my pocket and got ran over. Thankfully I found it some time later. The screen was cracked, but was entirely functional and I actually went to go on to use it for another year.
I had started my contract with Verizon nearly 11 years ago, and in Chicagoland, they were the carrier to have. A few years ago, I moved down to the DFW area and their service just fucking sucks. Anybody I know who comes and visits, on Verizon, experiences the same thing. Now my city is known for trying to keep the area “nice” looking, and they do tend to restrict tower height (much to my dismay as somebody who loves towers, see the Long Lines tower here):
Of course that’s a microwave tower and has nothing to do with modern telecom, but not bad for a 16 year old photo.
Signal Issues
Somebody had made a crowd-sourced coverage map recently, and both Verizon’s site and this one agree that I’m in perfect 5G coverage. I’m not, it sucks.
Leaving on a Jet Plane
I have plans in the near future to travel internationally. That’s not really an issue, of course, but being able to install an eSIM of the international provider is ideal. Sadly, since this phone has been ran over, I thought it might be a good time to get a new one since the latest has the sickest cameras.
So, I hop on the Verizon site, it asks the condition, and it offers me an appraisal of $600, assuming it turns on, and knowing the screen is cracked. So I no longer have custody of my old device, and they send me an email stating that the assumed value is $150, and there is no way to get my device back.
Further, I cannot install an eSIM on my device unless I have it either
- For 60 Days
- or pay it off in full
If I do pay it off in full, I negate my ability to recover any of the funds from the old phone, as they are “credits to each installment” on the phone. If I don’t, I can’t use it internationally. I also cannot get my device back that I had before. “Christopher” from Verizon said the reason is that people would steal the phones, travel internationally and never come back. Despite the fact that I’m an 11-year customer and the international flight costs more than the phone.
Leave a Reply