Tag: Life

Categories
Technology

iPhone Upgrade vs Apple Upgrade

So I have been on the iPhone Upgrade program for a long time. Before that everything was carrier subsidized, but I wanted out of that model. And the iPhone Upgrade program was the way to go.

Apple would let you “Finance” a phone for 24 months, using Citizens Bank/Citizens Pay financing and because they know there are people like me who want the new iPhone every year, they let you trade in the phone after 12 months and get the new one. It has worked very well for many years.

This year, they killed the iPhone upgrade program and create the Apple Upgrade program. Expanded it to other product lines and change the financing from Citizens Bank to Klarna.

I have never used Klarna before but am familiar with it. Buy now, pay later (BNPL) services have been around for a while, and this is an expansion on that. Again they let you lease for 24 (or 12) months and then trade in and get a new phone every year.

But!

Klarna doesn’t work for me for some reason. I just changed addresses, that might be it. When I got through the process to upgrade and use Klarna, it gets stuck on address verification. I have tried everything. Changing my address in Klarna to my old one, different variations, even chatted with support. Nothing works.

I could just trade in my current phone but i am 50% through the iPhone upgrade timeline and would have to payoff the loan and then trade in, it would work, so maybe that will be the way.

Apple Pay has installments, but you can’t do that online.

So, from my experience so far the iPhone Upgrade program to the Apple Upgrade program has been poor. Apple is trying, but the Klarna integration is finicky and you get lost in the abyss of screens with no way to resolve it.

Or maybe I will just keep the iPhone 17 pro for another year. Or maybe they will resolve the issues by the time the iPhone Duo is out. Only time will tell!

🙂

Categories
Random

All Over The Place

Ok, today I have been doing some rearranging. Moved my blog here. Changed the site to asp.net 2.0 – redid some web services I had running on here to 2.0, pretty much just changing every all over the place!

Categories
Product Reviews

State Farm Insurance (Jackie Lundstrom)

The other day, I got a call from my insurance company, State Farm Insurance. Jackie Lundstrom runs the office I goto. She called me and said that she would like to just talk to me to see how things were going, and we set up an appointment.
When I got there, it was nice, usually the other times I have been there I have dealt with a different person every time, but she (the person who “owns” this State Farm Office) wanted to talk to me, in her office. We talked and she asked questions on how I was doing, what things I am into, etc. How my job was going, and other things. It was such a good feeling to actually have a company I do business with “care” about me. I had some questions and they were answered.

I have always sworn off insurance as the Devil’s work, but this encounter has swayed my thinking a bit.

I wish every company that I did business with in town treated my like a real person, not just another customer. Kudos to Jackie and State Farm. What do they say? “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there..” – true

If you are in the Central MN area, I would recommend you check their office out. They do more than just insurance, they are a bank too, with good rates. I will probably check into their money market accounts.

State Farm Insurance (Jackie Lundstrom)

Categories
Geeky/Programming

Buffer Overflow

Wow, well I was at training for 6 days. Talk about buffer overload. My head is filled with so much information, it is just crazy. I learned so much, it is just awesome.