There's a new Hiptop coming out. New design, different features, better camera, same flippy screen dealie. Still provided only by T-Mobile. I've been kinda on the fence about getting it, since the damn things are expensive ($300 retail) and I've pretty much burned through my fascination with the gadget. My Hiptop has been entirely utilitarian for months: AIM monitoring, quick eBay checks, killing time in waiting rooms, website updates on the road. And the odd phone call. I even stopped carrying around the plug-in camera.
That said, I couldn't live without it. It's too great to have all that functionality immediately available. And I have been using the same black-and-white model that I bought in October '02. I know it's trendy to order replacements because they're chincy and break a lot. I know it's cool to create forum avatars that illustrate the amount of broken Hiptops owned like Japanese flags on the side of an F6F Hellcat. But my Day One model has been a perfect little soldier for almost two years now. So suck it.
Monday I get an email. T-Mobile is proud to announce a limited time offer for loyal Hiptop owners: call this number and trade in your old Hiptop on a new model for only $200. They promise to ship it within a week, which means you get it before it's available in stores. Cool. Offer available while supplies last or until 9/24.
That night I do something I stopped doing years ago: I hit the Hiptop.com forums. I'm not trying to name names here, but the Hiptop forums stopped being useful a long time ago. Somehow, T-Mobile managed to market the Hiptop to the Disaffected Moron Youth population, and they hijacked the message boards like crazy... with incomprehensible messages, your usual internet non-spelling, and incessant requests for IM friends. But I ventured back inside to see the buzz on this offer.
It's legit... but it's trouble. Most folks can't get through. It's rumored that T-Mobile has only 10 operators running it, and they're swamped from sunrise to sunset. People are pissed.
Tuesday I get an email. Thanks for your patience, the response has been unexpected. Please keep trying. I figure I'll wait out the rush and try after a few days. Back to the boards. Some folks are getting in, some orders have been screwed up (Some people placed their trade-in order, and instead received a refurb model of the current Hiptop! Some people are being charged an additional $70 for trading in the old one!) People are still pissed.
Wednesday I get an email. The offer is closed. We're out of Hiptop2s. We will re-open the offer soon. People are really pissed.
That's shitty. The entire supply was blown out in under three days. One thing that's great about the forums is that people will post verbatim conversations with T-Mobile customer service monkeys - filled to the brim with stupidity - and then the few "official" forum mods have to scurry to explain how the monkey screwed up. (Like the classic instances mentioned above: sending out a Hiptop1.5 instead of a Hiptop2, or the extra $70 charge.) I have to agree; those idiots fucked over my T-Mobile service too. When I added a phone for Rhonda and switched over to one of their family plans, they immediately disconnected my Hiptop. And whenever I would visit the T-Mobile store looking for Hiptop accessories, they would never know what I was talking about. Customer care just isn't a priority, because delivering informational memos to a million seasonally-employed high school kids is too large a task.
BUT. Friday I get an email. The offer is back on, and now it's web based. I immediately hit the website, but how's this for lacking confidence: Now you give them your name and phone number, and they promise to call you to finish the deal. Oh, sure. The same company who f-ed up everybody's Monday Hiptop2 order because the system was down and they had to write everything down on paper... yeah, they're going to call my ass back and set up my upgrade order.
T-Mobile sucks. They've got the best goddamn phone gadget out there, but they suck.
So I will wait and see what happens. If it does work and I get a Hiptop2 for $200, that will be phenomenal. If it doesn't, I doubt I'll rush out for a $300 retail edition. There will be an inevitable sale or promo anyway. For crying out loud, for months you could get a Hiptop for free through a New User service plan and a couple combined Amazon.com rebates.
