# Anyone have the new Verizon Phone?



## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

I just ordered the new Samsung a950 from Verizon Wireless. It has a camera, video camera, mp3 player, etc.

Just wanting to get some feedback on how people liked it.

Thanks,
John


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

Guess Not


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Getting mixed reviews, John. I'm sure you can read them in a Google search.

What surprised me was the proprietary nature of the phone's extras. I think I would grow tired of that limitation quickly as some of the reviewers have.


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## rcbridge (Oct 31, 2002)

Try phonescoop.com.


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

John, AFTER you buy something is not the time to start asking for opinions.


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## DJ Rob (Jul 24, 2003)

Bogy said:


> John, AFTER you buy something is not the time to start asking for opinions.


Unless they have a 30 day return policy


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

Bogy said:


> John, AFTER you buy something is not the time to start asking for opinions.


No...I just wanted to know more while I was waiting for it.


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

DJ Rob said:


> Unless they have a 30 day return policy


15 Day


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

> Originally *Posted by Bogy*
> _John, AFTER you buy something is not the time to start asking for opinions._


Someone who asks for opinions _after_ they make a purchase is really seeking reaffirmation and approval from others, not just information. I've seen it many times.


> _"I just bought the Dyn-O-matic model BHT-1 Butt Hair Trimmer to keep my boyfriend happy. Does anyone here have one and how do you like it?"_


I should have been a shrink!


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

I think it's human nature Nick. People do it all the time and I'm a worst case offender although I'm getting better as I get older. The last several cars I have bought I just had to drive around the car lots checking prices looking for affirmation that I didn't get screwed. Even when I buy a big ticket item at Best Buy or somewhere I check the weekly circulars to see if the price any so I can get my rebate.

Sometimes it's hard to know everything about a product until you buy it and use it. You can only get so much mileage out of tech articles and consumer reviews. I've always wondered if certain businesses don't hire trolls to post positive reviews of products and negative reviews of competitor's products.

BTW John, sounds like a really cool phone.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

You need to change the order of your shopping activity.

Instead of buy first shop second learn last.

Learn first, shop second and buy last. 

I think you'll be a much happier person!


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Don, that makes too much sense (not scents), and the OCs out there can't hear you.


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

Nick, I don't live in OC and I don't even watch The OC. :lol: 
But still, I shop and compare and yet find find myself tossing and turning over anything that costs more than five hundred dollars or so. My wife on the other hand gets mad at me and says just buy the damn thing. She doesn't want to spend half a Saturday comparing dvd players or tv's. She says her time is worth more and I say only if you spend it with me, love.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

It's simply how to avoid buyer's remorse.

By the time you purchase, you are confident you made the right decision. Then you spend your time enjoying your purchase and not letting it sit on the shelf while you continue to seek reassurance you made the right decision. 

But, I learned this the hard way, unfortunately I don't follow it 100% either.

Big mistakes I've made were when I:
1. failed to Define my exact needs, wants, and luxury choices in that priority.
2. Failed to get my best price by accepting the first sell offer made.
3. Purchased an item too soon, before I was ready for it and/or before the product was ready.

The last mistake led me to learn that one should never buy tomorrow's technology with today's dollars. That is, don't buy something on the promise that the company will have a fix in 60 days or something you don't need now.

The biggest offenders of this are software purchases. I have wasted more money buying software that doesn't work as claimed than anything else. I firmly believe that software makers are the biggest liars on the planet. But I need to work with it so I try to force myself not to buy into software on the cutting edge. 

HDTV has been my biggest weakness. I bought so much HDTV recording junk that didn't work it makes me sick. But when it came to my business, I held off for 3 years, waiting for the right mix of features for my first HD camcorder and finally bought one. I did enough work with it this year that it's paid for now! Even then it has some gotchas that were well kept secrets until you owned it.

Now if only I could muster the discipline to practice what I know, all the time, I'd be doing much better. Maybe I need to put a little note of my rules in my wallet so I'm reminded before I spend.


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

Don, you're dead on about software. I venture to guess we've all spent hundreds if not thousands on software that either we don't use, doesn't work or has so many features we'll never figure it out. I know I have.


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

DonLandis said:


> ................Now if only I could muster the discipline to practice what I know, all the time, I'd be doing much better. Maybe I need to put a little note of my rules in my wallet so I'm reminded before I spend.


Maybe those credit card scanners/touch screens at the stores could help out. Before you digitally sign they could pop up a list of questions you have to check off.

1. Do you really need this?
2. Are you sure it will work as advertised?
3. Can you REALLY afford this?
4. Abort transaction now?


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

ntexasdude said:


> Maybe those credit card scanners/touch screens at the stores could help out. Before you digitally sign they could pop up a list of questions you have to check off.
> 
> 1. Do you really need this?
> 2. Are you sure it will work as advertised?
> ...


Sounds like a Surgeon General's warning but done by the chairman of the FTC. 

But with all the credit card guarantees of satisfaction guaranteed for the consumer, we may indeed see something like this show up as a disclaimer for a purchase in the future.


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

ntexasdude said:


> Nick, I don't live in OC and I don't even watch The OC. :lol:
> But still, I shop and compare and yet find find myself tossing and turning over anything that costs more than five hundred dollars or so. My wife on the other hand gets mad at me and says just buy the damn thing. She doesn't want to spend half a Saturday comparing dvd players or tv's. She says her time is worth more and I say only if you spend it with me, love.


You and I must have the same wife. 
What she still doesn't get, after 29 years of marriage, is that I really enjoy "the hunt". Finding the product with just the right features, at just the right price.  Like your wife, she gets mad at me and thinks I'm wasting time. (Well, I am, is it my fault if I'd rather comparison shop than work on the honey-do list she has for me?  ) I have learned I have to be very careful about telling her what I think I want because she will go ahead and get it for me, so I won't look anymore. It may or may not be what I really wanted, but I have to be appropriately grateful. :sure: It's almost Christmas time, so I have to be very careful about now. Although I think I will be ordering my present this week, a new car that I have been researching for months.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Bogy- My wife and I came to an agreement long ago that works for us both. She doesn't buy me tech stuff! She only buys me stuff that I, otherwise, wouldn't buy myself because while it would be nice to have, I'm forever deliberating, researching, on the hunt so to speak, for the next tech gadget and just don't bother with the other stuff. SO, at gift time I get something from her like annual passes for us both to Disney or 15 certificates for car washes etc. Her hobby is sewing and while she would probably buy less than what she wanted, I would make sure she got the best that she would only dream about if I recognized the value of those additional features which I usually do. Even a car, she won't buy that without my approval anymore. Once she did, bought a 100LS Audi because it looked impressive (to her). She wanted to pick it out all on her own and buy it on her own without my input. We were only married 6 or 7 years at the time. Well surprise surprise she had when she got in the audi to drive it off the lot and couldn't. Why? She never realized that the floor shifter was not automatic. Hey, I kept my mouth shut like she begged me to so she could pick it out without my input. I figured she knew and wanted to learn to drive stick. The salesman was a good salesman and didn't try to insult her by telling her this was a stick shift car since that would be like explaining that a car has a steering wheel and 2 doors which should be obvious, right?  Well we all (except my wife) got a big laugh out of that as I drove her Audi off the lot for her. I assured her in 3 weeks she would be driving the stick like a real pro. Indeed she was. But she cursed and cursed everytime she had to drive into the city. What a chore for her to do all that work shifting!  Bogy, that was the last time she ever tried to buy technology without my input. She sticks to stuff she is much better at than I. She buys our family health insurance and does the stock purchases and other passive investments. She has a knack for that. I have a knack for the tech stuff. Going on a strong marriage for 37 years!


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

Sounds like a good woman Don. :biggthump 

A few years my wife needed a new vehicle. We needed one that would tow our ski boat and I made a few suggestions on what would work. So she goes down to a local Chevy dealer, negotiates a deal with a salesman she knows and trusts (he is one of her patients), trades in her old one and drives a new one home. I had nothing to do with any of it. All I had to do was sign a few papers for the loan.


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