On the advice of a Verizon Customer Service Rep, I could purchase a Verizon Smartphone and be able to use it as an ordinary cell phone but NOT activate, use or pay for "data services," i. e. internet, e-mail, IM, etc. I purchased a used Treo 600 and now find they don't want to activate the phone without signing up for a new plan at 2 1/2 times what I am now paying for the simplest cell phone servce. They claim I "need" the data services to receive automatic "updates" to the phone. They are unable to tell me how often these occur, what the MBs might be, how necessary they are, etc.
Am I being scammed? Are there really updates? Isn't all the system, including all the phone software, in ROM and unchangeable? Can't the updates come by e-mail to my PC and be installed by me? Why can't they give me any scenario of what might happen if I leave the device's wireless connection off for days, even weeks at a time, as I now do with my cell phone?
David K. Wheeler
