Spell “Impulse Buy”

I had dropped my Nokia 2730 Classic thrice already. One day it started acting up. It refused to charge its battery despite being hooked up to the charger. Then it started charging after I disconnected it from the charger. It didn’t ring the alarm despite it being set the night before.

It was time to declare it dead.

At first I just wanted to change my phone, but then D asked me, “What is your postpaid plan? How much on the average do you spend monthly on your phone?”

Without much thinking, I guessed, “On the average I think I pay about Php1,700 a month.”

“Then up grade your plan,” D said. “There are plans that come with free phones.”

So I checked the Globe site, saw their Best Ever MySuperPlan, and checked out their 1799 Plan. According to the site, the only phone available for free that appealed to me was the iPhone 4S. While disappointed it wasn’t the latest iPhone, I nevertheless was okay with the 4S. As you can glean from my Nokia 2730 Classic, I was never really much of a phone techie junkie. Give me basic SMS and calls and I’m a happy camper.

Instead of applying online, I decided to call their hotline.

The service representative was gracious, capable, and talked fast the way someone who’s said the same spiel so many times it’s etched at the tip of their tongue. Everything was going well until we got to the subject of the free phone.

“Sir, for plan 1799 we have an iPhone 5 available,” he said.

“No,” I replied. “In your site, only an iPhone 4S is available for free.”

“Wait, let me check sir,” he said, and put me on hold.

In my mind I was going, Weh, na-check ko na yung site ninyo twice, walang iPhone 5 na libre. May cash-out. Kung may 5 eh di yun dapat ang pinili ko. Naku ha, mas marunong ka pa sa websi—

“Sir,” the representative interrupted my mental rant, “we have iPhone 5 available. Do you want it in white or in black?”

“BLACK!”

And all of a sudden, I became pa-hip.