Handspring Treo 600 PDA Phone (Cingular)

Rating:
Summary: Great phone - get it from Cingular though, not Verizon
Review: Well, as an early adapter, I guess I should be used to taking it hard. I bought Verizon's PalmOne Treo 600 the first day it came out - over a year after Cingular released it. My plan is 400 anytime minutes, unlimited in-network calling, unlimited nights and weekend, and $5 for Internet access a month. Unless I go over, it should cost me $49.95 a month. I just got my first bill.

$1,641.66.

It turns out that the connection to the Internet doesn't shut off - even if you chose "Disconnect" from the web browser's menu. Even if you turn off the unit. It continues to ping the Internet looking for data every six minutes. Hence my bill show some 1023-minute calls.

Steve in Verizon's data division said they've received a lot of calls on this issue and isn't sure why they even offer the $5 web-only feature, when customers need to get the $49.95/month unlimited data transfer or deal with $1,000-plus monthly bills. When I asked if there was a way to stop the pinging every six minutes, I was told no, "it's a data phone first and a cell phone second."

Interesting, as my friends who have the phone with other carriers have never had this problem. Interesting, as I was never told this when I bought it. All I wanted was a freakin' cell/PDA combo, so I don't have to carry both with me, making me look like I'm sporting a chubby in two pockets at once. With Verizon, the cost for doing so is $44.95 plus your calling plan a month, which for me will come to about $100.

After 58 minutes, I was told my bill should be adjusted within 24 to 48 hours.

Also, on Verizon Wireless's PalmOne Treo 600 Smartphone web page it lists a 5 MB transfer for only $24.95. When I asked the technical rep about that option, he said getting it would still cause a Treo 600 owner's bill to be over $1,000 a month. He said it was up there for use with other phones. He had no answer when I said there are no other phones on that page.

Now, I probably could return the Treo 600 - except I already sold my old phone and Palm on eBay.

Of course, if I could just get a free minute for every time I heard "Oh, that's the new phone. I'm not familiar with it" none of this would be an issue.

Buy the phone from Cingular and don't deal with the problems I had with Verizon Wireless. It is a great product for all the reasons listed in the other reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Cingular 600 Treo
Review: Wow, I love my Treo. Of course it's only been 3 weeks but so far so very useful. Primarily, I use it as a phone and a contact manager for my real estate work.