a new iphone! (yes, again!)

today being day 14 of the ownership of my 8gig iphone, it was the last day to return/exchange it. i’d been planning on trying to exchange it for a black 16 gig, but the at&t stores were usually completely out of all iphones from what i’d heard, and the apple stores were hit or miss. i’d checked the apple website for availability over the last week, but the black 16 gig was usually out in houston (and in most or all of Texas as well).
well, last night the apple site showed the galleria store having 16 gig black iphones in stock, so i did a backup and then a complete reset/wipe of my 8 gig, repacked it and all of the accessories in its box, and went to bed.
i got up this morning and got to the galleria (*sigh*) around 7:50am. there was a line of about maybe 50 to 60 people. a little after 8am the apple folk emerged from their cathedral and began to go through the line preparing and pre-verifying the iphoneless. when one got to me i explained that i wanted to exchange my 8 for a 16, and they told me i shouldn’t have to wait in line for that. *swoon* they pulled me from the line and walked me right into the store. they pulled a black 16 gig for me and a girl named jess started to help me. she looked at the at&t receipt and said “uh…i’m not sure we can exchange this.” (one or more people at at&t…and i think the apple store too…had told me i should be able to return/exchange mine at the apple store.) she asked others, and they said they couldn’t. *sigh* she suggested i see if i could buy the 16 and then return the 8 to the at&t store. but of course i couldn’t because i wasn’t eligible for an upgrade. so…she told me they could hold the 16 for me, and i could return the 8 and then come back and get the 16. it sounded like a plan fraught with perilous scenarios, but i decided to try it. i left the apple store around 8:40am.
the at&t stores don’t open until 10am, so i had some time to kill. i stopped at chick-fil-a for some breakfast. while sitting in chick-fil-a with my chicken biscuit, my wiped iphone rang. (good thing i had put it in my pocket instead of leaving it in the box.) oh yeah…i was supposed to be at home this morning for the pest control guy. he said 9:30am to 10:15am, so i packed up my food and went home.
he showed up around 10am, as did raj’s dad and nephew. his nephew is going to paint the apartment in back. i walked around with the pest control guy and talked to him while he did his work. i also helped redo some rigged electrical cabling he had on his pump sprayer because it wasn’t working right. one note of interest: the two big trees near the street in my front yard have some kind of hard foam filling in gaps that run up the trunks. for a number of months there had been bees living in one (or both). he sprayed powder in them and no bees came out. however, he started spraying the liquid bug killer stuff and roaches started streaming out. lots and lots of them. they were climbing up the limbs and then dropping from the sky. they were all over the place. it was crazy. all different species and sizes. there was even an albino roach. exciting times, i tell you what.
anyway, when he finished and left, i hopped in my pickup and went to the at&t store i’d bought the iphone at. it shouldn’t matter which at&t store, but i wasn’t taking chances. they of course had no 16 gig black iphones, so i told them i wanted to return mine. they refunded my money minus a 10% restocking fee. i asked them if they could verify for sure that my account said i was eligible for an upgrade. (because – and i didn’t say this to them – i’d be pissed if i returned my 8 and then couldn’t get the 16 at the apple store.) she showed me that my account showed that i wasn’t currently in a contract and that i was upgrade eligible, so with the first hurdle passed i left for the apple store.
back to the galleria. (*sigh*) there was a line of about 30 to 40 people for iphones, but i was able to walk up and explain my situation and get right to an employee. my black 16 gig iphone was still being held. second hurdle passed. he checked my at&t account and it said i was upgrade eligible. third hurdle passed. everything worked. my purchase was complete. while in the store, i went ahead and bought another iphone+bluetooth travel adapter (for work), as well as another power adapter and usb cable set. i looked at the cases as i’m thinking a gel or soft plastic case might be much better than this hard plastic one i’ve got, but i didn’t see anything that really excited me, so i decided to check around online instead. there was a line to activate/register the phone in the store, so i told the guy i was buying the accessories from i’d just take it home and register it. he said that was fine, and i was out the door with my black 16 gig iphone.
with my luck holding fairly high, i decided to take some broken bose comfort-fit headphones by the bose store in highland village to see if they would repair or exchange them. i asked, he asked me to bring them in, i did, and he gave me a new pair no questions asked. that was awesome. plus the new headphones don’t have the very flawed design of my old ones that caused both sides to break. i definitely left with a good feeling about bose stores.
i got home and took the shrinkwrap off my iphone box, opened it up, and hooked the new 16 gig up to my computer. i went through the registration process with no problems, then it noted i had synced a different iphone and asked if i wanted to restore that to this one. why yes, yes i do. all apps, text messages, contacts, pics, etc. were put on my new black 16 gig. the only things i noticed i had to re-enter were all of my passwords (wireless, mail, etc.), set up the passcode again, change my default ringtone and text message sound, and my icons were rearranged. not too bad.