I’m really going to have to check my horoscope for this month and find out whether or not I’m susceptible to technology problems. I’ve had nothing but technology issues lately.
First, there was the debacle with Sprint and my Treo. I bitched and moaned so much about the sub-par service that I got released from my contract 9 months early, gratis. I’ve been shopping for new carriers, but there were problems with each of them:
1. T-Mobile has a good reputation, but a shitty selection of phones. They have no licensing with Treo, and I was convinced that I wanted to keep the Treo.
2. Verizon – I don’t like them for shady reasons. Whenever I call any of my friends who have Verizon, I can always tell when they’re on the other line because of the way it rings, which is a ring with a beep on the end. That ring reminds me of our phones in college. I don’t like for people who call me to know that I’m blatantly ignoring them. Even though I might be. But it’s my little secret.
3. U.S. Cellular – wasn’t ever a consideration, for some reason. I don’t know anyone who has it, but I peeped at their website and again, wasn’t happy with the phone selection.
4. AT&T – the frontrunner. Has a nice selection of phones. My blackberry is with AT&T, so I figured that I could bundle my services and save some cash. I’d never been on hold for more than 5 minutes for customer service. They have Treos. Good deal, right?
The decision was nearly made, until . . . .
My Blackberry crapped out on me over the weekend. I rebooted it and it never worked again. There was a menacing white screen with a tiny error message in the center. My Blackberry was essentially giving me the finger.
A visit to the AT&T store was fruitless. They put me on the phone w/tech support, who said they would send me an e-mail with links to a fix. I didn’t completely understand why, while standing in an AT&T store, I was relegated to going to my office and checking my e-mail to get assistance, but I went along with it anyway.
Very long story short(er) – on Monday, I had to enlist the help of our tech support guru. This is no small feat, as she is generally fairly dry, and typically thinks that I’ve been using the Berry as a Frisbee in Millenium Park. She also has a habit of “filling me in” on her sex life, which is more of a visual than I can stand. But, she can usually fix anything.
After commandeering my computer, while subsequently explaining the perils of her gynecological issues, she handed me back my Blackberry with a sour look and told me that it couldn’t be fixed.
Great. I knew all about her vagina, but still couldn’t download an e-mail to save my life.
Called AT&T, thinking that perhaps I would take the opportunity to get a new Berry and transport my personal number.
I was told that I was out of luck. Here are the mitigating factors:
1. My warranty was expired as of July 8
2. I wasn’t eligible for an upgrade w/rebate until December
3. They don’t insure PDAs
Well . . . fuck.
So, my choices were either to pay $400+ for a new Berry (only $200 of which my company would reimburse), or buy out of my contract and switch providers. And since AT&T had pissed me off, I opted for the latter. And I got a good deal.
Suffice it to say that I’m now a T-Mobile customer and have decided to combine my personal and business phone (bye-bye Treo, hello Blackberry 8800), and let my company pick up my entire phone bill.
We’ll see how this works.
