iPhone problems/advice needed

[dtr_angel]

DH and I got iPhone 4's almost 2 years ago. We've had AT&T for years. That means our contract is almost up with them. I get a 25% discount through my work and got grandfathered in an a data plan that no longer exists. We pay $125 month for both our phones. We also we'ren't that smart and ended up getting apple care, which I believe was $200/each phone for 2 years. We've never once needed it. DH's phone is fine, but mine is slow a lot of the time. It also will go into voice over mode if you press the home screen 2 or 3 times and it is a nightmare to get off if you've ever had to deal with it. My toddler was alone with my phone for 2 minutes and yep, pressed the home screen and locked it. I've been trying for a half hour to fix it, but it's hard to put in my passcode while in this mode and I keep locking myself out of it. Currently 5 minutes, argh.

Anyway, this is a 2 part rant. I think there is something wrong with my phone. DH's phone does not do this and it is SO annoying. Any way that apple care would replace it (I think there is $50 fee but it's cheaper than buying one) or am I better off trying to buy one somewhere else? If so where? Any recommendations?

I'm also not sure we want to stay with At&T and be stuck in a contract again. I was thinking straight talk, but I have read a lot of reviews online that were negative regarding the iphone & straight talk. Can you take existing phones to straight talk?

 

[dtr_angel]

FINALLY got it off, thank goodness. My husband can do it a lot quicker than me but he's at work all night. Whew. But this is annoying and I'm sick of this particular iphone! I wish I could permanantly disable voice over

 

[MillauFr]

My daughter has an IPhone and we pay $32.85 inclusive of all taxes for unlimited data and texting.

 

[dtr_angel]

My daughter has an IPhone and we pay $32.85 inclusive of all taxes for unlimited data and texting.

wow! who is that through? and how many minutes does that include? Thanks!

 

[Green Tea]

AppleCare+ is about $100 I think for the phone, maybe a tad under. Absolutely, they will replace your phone. The only time the $50 is charged is if you've broken the screen or ran it through the washing machine. Any issues with the function are covered at no charge. They are SO easy to work with.

 

[MillauFr]

wow! who is that through? and how many minutes does that include? Thanks!

Virgin Mobile. 300 minutes. She doesn't use hardly any though, its all texting and data for her.

 

[Kies99]

You can take existing phones to Straight Talk. You get a new sim card based on the carrier the phone was set up for.

You can't do this with Virgin Mobile however. You would have to buy new phones. However, I do recommend Virgin Mobile for service. As a family we've been using VM for years and never had any real problems. Phones have all worked fine and any times I've had to call, the customer service was great.

 

[havaneselover]

I took my sister's old iPhone 4 to straight talk. I pay annually and it's just over $40/month for unlimited minutes and texts plus 2.5 gb of data. I've had it for a year and been very happy with the service and haven't had issues anywhere.

 

[lisaross]

wow that looks like a great plan...i looked on the map my address shows no coverage - but all around green. Does it show your neighborhood in green?

wow! who is that through? and how many minutes does that include? Thanks!

 

[robinb]

Why not call Apple and ask them what Apple Care will cover? It sounds like your phone is broken but only they know what they will do for you.

Be aware that you can only take your AT&T iPhone to a service that works on GSM iPhones. As for an alternative to AT&T: Try Consumer Cellular.

 

[Gracie09]

Do you have an apple store near you? Take it in and show them what happens. I had a problem with the little button on the top of my phone. I figured I did something to it, nope a know defect and I got a new phone ( refinished) phone in a matter of minutes

 

[robinb]

I also wanted to point out an alternative to buying Apple Care. The phone comes with a 1-year warranty. I have used it in the past and it's super easy to just bring the phone to the Apple Store. If you use your American Express card your warranty is *doubled*. The second year is through AMEX so it's probably not as easy to use as the first year but it does cover the same thing and it's free .

 

[pryncess527]

FINALLY got it off, thank goodness. My husband can do it a lot quicker than me but he's at work all night. Whew. But this is annoying and I'm sick of this particular iphone! I wish I could permanantly disable voice over

You can.
Go into Settings --> General --> Accessibility -- then you can turn off Voice Over

That should work, unless something deeper is broken with your iOs

 

[Brewersprts]

Have you updated your phones recently? I ask for two reasons.

#1 If you have not updated your apps, they might not be running as smooth as they can.

#2. If you have updated to the newer iOS then your phone is going to run slow. iPhone 4's just don't have the computing power to run all the new stuff smoothly.

I recently did my upgrade and got the new 5s. I am very happy I did. I don't like being in a contract either but I also was grandfathered into a very nice plan that they no longer offer. Also, if I decided to leave I could sell the phone and still recoup the price of the phone plus the early termination fee.

If you decide not to stick with AT&T I might suggest tmobile. If you buy it at walmart you can get the unlimited everything plan for $35/month.

Also, if you do decide to switch you might look at switching before your contract is up. tmobile is paying people to switch from Att. I can't remember all the details but it might be worth at to check into. And you could unlock your iPhones and use them with tmobile

 

[Brewersprts]

Actually. If you wanted a new iPhone you might be able to upgrade with AT&T and then Have tmobile buy out your early termination fee

 

[mickeyboat]

That happens to DHs phone from time to time. Press the home button three times and it should turn off the voice over. It's almost impossible to fix it in settings on that mode.

 

[Order66]

I don't have an iphone, so I can't help with that, but I have had ATT service for years. Where I work we also get a discount with either ATT or Verizon and since I already had ATT I took my discount to them. Look into their new value share plans. You can switch an existing contract to this plan and when it's up....keep the service and drop the price to $25 per line for unlimited talk/text and whatever data amount you want to share with no contract. My contract is until Sept this year, so my line is $40, but I was able to add my kids (who had phones with prepaid ATT service previously) for only $25 each.

regards

 

[mcraige]

DD's iPhone 4s did this a while back. She took it to the Apple store, and they basically said one of the apps had "wacked out". They reset it to defaults, we restored from back-up, and it worked just fine from then on. If you have a current backup, it's worth a try.

 

[dtr_angel]

I don't have an iphone, so I can't help with that, but I have had ATT service for years. Where I work we also get a discount with either ATT or Verizon and since I already had ATT I took my discount to them. Look into their new value share plans. You can switch an existing contract to this plan and when it's up....keep the service and drop the price to $25 per line for unlimited talk/text and whatever data amount you want to share with no contract. My contract is until Sept this year, so my line is $40, but I was able to add my kids (who had phones with prepaid ATT service previously) for only $25 each.

regards

oh I didn't know about that! Thanks, I just looked into it and I think that is what we are going to do! We can get away with the lowest amount of data (300mb for $20) so that's awesome! So it should be $25 x 2 + $20 = $70 plus taxes and fees?

 

[Order66]

Yep. That's what it will be, plus figure in the work discount.
My bill is
$40 for 1 line under contract
$50 for 2 lines not under contract
$50 for 2G of data
___________
$140 with my small work discount plus taxes. I am new to getting the discount because the company I work for was recently acquired by a new company so only started getting the discount. I was told I only get it off the data portion, but it's more than the no discount I had before I guess. Your discount might be different.

When my contract is up I can keep my current phone and drop all 3 of us to no contract and put my bill down to $130 for 3 lines. But I find I need a new phone about every 2 years because I don't by the insurance on it or fix them and while I take care of them physically, I find the phones just stop working right for me in 2 years.

Oh to add. I'd suggest making sure you make the changes at a corporate owned store. Sometimes the franchise ones charge you for things that ATT doesn't. It did take me about 30 minutes at the store to go over everything and get things changed, but I didn't incur any costs at all, and got $100 credit on my bill for adding the 2 lines.

regards