customer disservice

So, my trusty, crusty old cell phone crapped out yesterday in the middle of a phone call. That darn thing has been to hell and back. It had seen better days. It has been in a river during a canoe trip. Fallen from great heights. Dropped repeatedly. Stepped on a few times. The battery only held a charge for a few hours. But it was a good phone. I had EVERY # I've ever had in there. That phone was better travelled than most people I knew.

So, reluctantly, I set off for the Sprint store to see if they could repair it. Of course the first thing the CSR does is try to convince me that it would be better to let her hook me up with one of the "free" phones. She tells me that since the phone is so old, and because I don't have insurance on it, there will be a $35 fee to fix or replace this one. Duh! I had insurance on my son's first phone. And when he broke it, there was a $50 "co-pay" to get it replaced under the insurance. Mind you, I'd made an $8.99 "insurance" payment on the phone for 19 months. That's a sum total of $171. The phone was only $79 to start with! Ugh! So, I paid the $50 and cancelled the insurance. At this rate, I could have had 2 new phones! So, then when he broke the second phone, It cost me $79 to get him the new one. When he broke that one, I refused to replace it and he talked one of his friends into letting him have her old phone. Then he broke the screen on that one and he's stuck with it cuz I'm not a money tree!

So, when the CSR looked at me like I had a third eye in the middle of my forehead because I would rather pay $35 for a new phone than to get a "free" phone (with a new 2 year activation which will cost you $250 to get out of if and WHEN the phone service turns to crap and you want out of your contract - come on August!) I just laughed and told her that yes, I would like to pay the fee, try and fix the phone and if it can't be fixed, give me a new one.

After about 45 minutes the service girl comes out of the back, tells me she couldn't access anything on my old phone and was the fee explained to me? I said yes, it was and yes, I agree to it and she shows me my new pone and tells me she will bring it back up when she gets it all programmed and that I would need to see the cashier to pay. No problem. $37 and change and I'm ready to start collecting phone # and learn how to use this new phone. Off I go to Panera to steal some interwebs.

I start loading up phone #s and notice I have a voice mail. I try to retrieve it and I get this error message. So, I call the Customer Disservice # and they tell me the phone has to be activated. I say, okay, so activate it. They tell me I have to have another phone I can call them on so they can activate it remotely. Apparently, with all the frikken technology we have, we can't activate phones while they are in use. My only other option is to go to a store and have them activate it there. UGH! I WAS THERE! FOR OVER 1 1/2 HOURS!!!!

Frikkkkkkkkkk........

So, send me an email or give me a call with your new #s. I won't be able to use them, though, til the store opens up tomorrow....grrrrrrrr........