I upgraded to a 13 pro from a SE 2020 I am happy with the upgrade.
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2022 6:53 PM To: [email protected] Subject: my upgrade experience This message may run a bit long, but I’m not really asking any questions here. Rather, I’m just making several observations about the process of upgrading my iPhones. My reason for upgrading: I believe I mentioned before that, while I did indeed have some newer iPhones, I was using my older first generation iPhone SE and my iPhone 7 as my primary phones, intending to run them to see just how long they would last before their batteries finally died. However, when the Walmart delivery from store came to my area, including delivering perishable groceries, I was very pleased. Thus, when Walmart had their Black Friday promotion where they offered the E-gift cards if one upgraded their phone, I jumped at the chance to do so. True, one had to sign on with a carrier and choose one of their unlimited data plans and pay a $30 upgrade fee per line, but I already was on an unlimited plan with AT&T, anyway, so that wasn’t a problem for me. And while I had to enter into the installment agreement, the AT&T terms and conditions did say that I could pay off the installment agreement at any time. The upgrade process: it was actually pretty straightforward. I started my purchase in the Walmart iPhone app, but then was directed to the Walmart website to finish things after I selected the phone and carrier I wanted. There were several screens of terms and conditions I had to go through, and then the phone got added to my cart and I could check out. I actually ordered one phone on November 22, and then I ordered the second one on November 25 right after I received the first phone. Yes, believe it or not, FedEx actually delivered that phone to me on Thanksgiving Day. Activating the phones: I was told when I ordered the phones that they would be coming with a SIM card, but since I didn’t recognize the type of SIM card they mentioned, I wasn’t sure if the phones were coming with an E-sim or regular one. But when I tried to activate one of the phones and was told that it needed a SIM card in order to be activated, I took the SIM out of one of the phones I was then using and put it in the new phone and activated it, and then I did the same thing when activating the other phone. And wouldn’t you know it, it was only after both phones were activated that I thought to take one more look in the box. And, sure enough, I found a SIM card for each phone in its respective box. Since one of the conditions for getting the gift cards was that the phones be activated, I wanted to make sure that they were activated with their correct SIM cards. This was especially true when I checked in the settings for one of my new phones and there was no 5G option, which didn’t really surprise me as this SIM card came with the AT&T iPhone 6S plus I purchased from Apple in 2015. So I went online and was able to activate the SIM card for one of the phones, the one that originally had the old 2015 SIM in it. However, I had put a SIM card in the other phone that I had obtained in August of 2019, and I’m guessing since it already showed the 5G when put in the new phone, that’s why I was told the phone was already activated. Thus, I had to call AT&T to get the phone to work properly with the new SIM card, as it just said cellular no signal when I put that new card in the phone until I called. Transferring the data from my old phones: that actually went well using the quick start feature or whatever it is called and just transferring from one iPhone to the other. You might recall, though, that my only internet here is provided by my cell phones, thus I quickly learned that I couldn’t use the hotspot feature on the phone which I was transferring the data from to get it to the new phone, so I had to remove the SIM from one older phone and put it in another older phone to get the process to work. No home button and Face ID: as of right now, I think I am better with the gestures that replaced the home button than I am with Face ID. Also, to me right now, using the home button just seems so much faster than using the Face ID. In the daytime, though, Face ID does seem to work for me about 80% of the time, while it works much less than that at night when I’m in bed and reach for my phone. Using the internet and personal hotspot: this does seem a lot faster to me. I couldn’t believe how fast apps downloaded from the app store, for example. Web pages seem to load faster as well. And I just love being able to back up my phone using cellular data as well as being able to update the iOS without having to put my SIM in an Android phone to do it. I did run into some issues using personal hotspot though. First, although the hotspot feature works just fine with my computer, I did have to turn on the maximize compatibility setting in the personal hotspot settings to get it to connect. Second, although I’m not quite sure of why, but the personal hotspot feature now no longer works with my Braille Sense U2 Mini on these new phones. The U2 sees the phone, but it shows the encryption type as WEP rather than WPA2PSK and just doesn’t connect. However, if I remove the SIM from the new phone and put it in my iPhone 7, then the hotspot works with my U2 without a problem. But since, the one time I did this, I couldn’t seem to get my iMessages to then work properly on the 7, I’ve just kept the SIM card in the newer phones. A couple of side effects from no longer being able to get my email on the U2 Mini: it forces me to learn much more about getting email other ways like with my iPhone and with the Outlook included in my Microsoft 365 subscription or with the mail app included with Windows 10. And second, grin, since I’m no longer using an outdated U2 to get my email, I’m saved from having to reset my U2 most every time I receive an email from Richard T when coming from this list. Of course, other than the word I said to myself as I pressed that reset button on the U2, I didn’t complain since I was the one using the older equipment, but I never could figure out why I had problems with his messages on this list but not usually with messages he sent to other lists. Obtaining my gift cards: that turned out to be kind of a process. I admit I was a little concerned when there was nothing in the body of the message about the gift card for my order on November 22, but there was for my order on November 25. I finally did receive one E-gift card on December 18, but I had no idea for which phone. And when I called Walmart customer service on December 23 to ask about the matter, I was told that the gift card was for my first order, the iPhone 13 Mini, as there was a picture of the phone with a gift card beside it in my delivery confirmation email, but there was no such picture with the delivery confirmation email for the iPhone 13 I ordered on November 25. When I pressed the issue and told him the body of that second order specifically said I would get a e-gift card within 25 days of the phone being shipped, he finally said he would forward my inquiry to the gift card department and to call back if I hadn’t heard in 48 hours. When it had been a week and I had heard nothing back, I called Walmart customer service again, and they gave me the gift card department phone number. And I was finally told by that department that the gift card issued was for the iPhone 13 and not the iPhone 13 Mini and to contact Walmart.com or my carrier to find out the issue. I then called AT&T and was told things were fine with my account, and not wanting to deal with customer service again, I looked on Google and found an email address for Walmart and sent an email to them explaining my issue. Then I got back an email saying that the email address to which I sent my message was no longer being used, was given a website to use for future, but was told they would forward my inquiry to Walmart customer service. And believe it or not, just two days later, I got the other E-gift card, got the email and they also put the card in my account this time. I can’t tell you just how pleased I was to receive that other gift card. Sure, I would have survived without it, but it was also the principle involved, meaning only having 14 days to return the phone but having to wait 20-25 days for a gift card and then be told it wasn’t coming without explaining why. So I was really impressed and ecstatic to get the thing. The iPhones I have now: my main phones are now the iPhone 13 Mini and the iPhone 13, as those are the two I purchased and was required to activate them and enter into the installment agreement and unlimited data plan with AT&T to get the $300 e-gift card for each. Walmart actually had a limit of three, but I just have the two phone lines and don’t want any more. My two backup phones that I keep updated and ready to go are the SE 2020 and the iPhone XR. As for my first generation SE and my iPhone 7, I’ll figure out something to do with them. And as for my iPhone 12 Mini, the one I ordered on the first day I could and never even took out of its shipping box, seeing as I now have the 13 Mini and I hadn’t given my sister-in-law an iPhone in a while, she now has that phone for a few minor considerations, as I just couldn’t completely give it away, what with it never being used before and having AppleCare and all. Actually, I originally thought to just try the iPhone 13 to confirm it was too big for me and then give that to her. However, what with the 13 not being quite as big as the 8 Plus that I didn’t like, the longer battery life in the iPhone 13, and it’s a little fuller sound, not to mention my problems with getting the gift card, I decided to keep the 13 for myself and continue with its installment agreement for now. And I didn’t offer her the XR as I didn’t figure it would be much of an upgrade from the 8 Plus, and I didn’t want to part with the SE 2020 as I may want to use touch ID from time to time. The 13 Mini is generally the one I carry in my purse with me and take most calls on, while the 13 is used more for YouTube and the AT&T DIRECTV app and the like. All in all, I’m quite happy with how things turned out. I have my new iPhones that no longer require me to have an Android phone to update them or back them up, my iPhone 12 Mini has a new home, although I guess she will have some adjustments going from the 8 Plus to the 12 Mini although I did ask her several times to make sure she wanted to do this, and I have my two $300 E-gift cards in my Walmart account so I can do some shopping without having to get into my bank account. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> . Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> . To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/022301d8080f%249179cd40%24b46d67c0%24%40gmail.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/022301d8080f%249179cd40%24b46d67c0%24%40gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> . -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: [email protected]. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/00ed01d808c7%2435ca8ad0%24a15fa070%24%40gmail.com.
