Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Husbands and birthdays

In contrast to the lovely homemade card my first-born son gave me on my birthday, my husband offered a different approach. I'll give him credit. Vic gave me something I really wanted - however, he bought it on my actual birthday and there was no element of surprise. There was no fanfare, no joy attached to the gift.

Here's an excerpted transcript of the IM conversation we had on my birthday:

Vic: I'm looking into the iPhone stuffme: ok
Vic: would you believe that if the battery goes bad and is out of warranty, that we would have to take the phone to an Apple store or send it to Apple for replacement?
which costs 1/2 as much as the phone?
me: i guess i would believe that
i haven't heard of anyone having problems with the battery so far
Vic: i'm not real thrilled with a lot of Apple's business practices
me: i know

Vic: but i guess i can look the other way
if the monthly cost is not too high
i'm going to print out our current deal with AT&T so that we can compare the before and after
me: good idea
Vic: do you prefer black or white?
me: white
they don't have any pretty colors?
weird
Vic: black or white
like a Model T
hey, once you drink the Apple Kool-Aid, you get what they want you to get. And you have to like it.
me: wow
don't be a hater
Vic: otherwise, you're not cool
:-)
Vic: by the way, you are going to have to chain this thing to your wrist so that you don't lose it
me: sigh
Vic: the phone itself costs $300 for the 16 GB
$200 for 8 GB
$200 for 16 GB, refurbished
me: ok
Vic: $5 per month for voice dial

I think not (it's optional)
$2 per month for detailed billing
ridiculous!
(this is AT&T, not Apple)
me: wow, this is quite crazy
Vic: data plan is required
$30 per month
me: that's much less than i expected
does that include all internet access?Vic: Data Plan for iPhone 3G includes unlimited data in the U.S. Access rich HTML email and desktop-level web browsing, as well as Visual Voicemail to listen to voicemail messages in any order you choose.
me: cool
Vic: it is done

At the end, Vic also informed me exactly how much the net extra cost per year would be, as opposed to my old phone with its service plan. So romantic!

Happy birthday to me!

4 comments:

Chris said...

See if that had been a conversation between my wife and I, it would have ended after the third line.

Anonymous said...

Be careful Lisa, I might just snatch him up for myself with all that sweet-talk he seems to give you!

Truthfully, a conversation with Jeff would have gone the same way. He was bitter about spending $150 on my LG Chocolate 2 years ago.

Unknown said...

ohmigod. i just READ this. cracked me up!

Brenna said...

Chris, that conversation would never have occurred between you and me, because I just would know never to request an iphone for my birthday...