« I am such a blog delinquent! | Main | Help! »
November 23, 2004
Cell Phone Morals
So, have you ever been on your cell phone, and not known that you were roaming, only to find that, when you got your bill, you had spent $300 worth of minutes? Well, that happened to me not long ago. So, being the intelligent girl that I am. I made my way to the Cingular/AT&T store today to switch my plan to a MORE intelligent plan for a girl with a boyfriend in North Carolina. Unbeknownst to me, I should have stayed home, paid more money, and kept my life a LOT simpler. I suppose it will be worth it in the long run. Here's my saga...
I went to the Cingular store, which was formerly the AT&T store, happily, to switch my plan to their GSM plan, no roaming, no long distance charges, and I'll get a spiffy new polyphonic phone...woo hoo! So, all of the nice people are busy helping someone else, so I'm waiting... and waiting... and waiting... for about 20 minutes. Not a problem. I should be at work, but I need this plan switched, so I wait. Finally, someone emerges from the back to help me. This nice man can't find his passcode to log into the computer. He's 'new.' Ok. I smile. No problem. So, I wait some more while he searches for his passcode. He finds it. Good... we're on our way. We choose my plan... 600 anytime minutes with rollover, with unlimited nights and weekends. We choose the phone. A Motorola V180. Nothing fancy. Good, good. All is well. I can keep my old phone number, right? I ask. Yep. Good, good. What is your number? I give it to him. He punches it in the computer. Hmmm.... he says. Uh-oh. This is not a good sign. I can tell. Is this a corporate account? Um... no. Hmmm. Has it ever been a corporate account? No. Hmm. He calls over someone else. They look at the computer screen, puzzled. They punch some keys. Did someone change this to a corporate account? No? Maybe your boyfriend? Uh... no. Hmmm. This goes on for about ten minutes. Finally, they determine they can't help me, and I have to call a toll free number to get my new plan because for some reason, when AT&T merged with Cingular, and they pulled the records together, someone, somewhere, decided that I was a corporation. This must have been because of the $300 phone bill. No one person in their right mind could possibly have had a $300 phone bill. They must be a company.
The saga continues... they call the toll free number, which happens to be the Cingular Business number. I am now on the phone for another 40 minutes, lining up my new service plan with a woman in some other part of the country. She's asking me for all of my information again. I ask her. I can keep my old number, right? Yes... she says. Ok... I'm not holding my breath, but I sure hope she's right. Then, after going through all of the plan information, and we start to talk about the phone. She puts me on hold to find a price for the phone. She comes back and tells me they don't make that phone for Cingular. I tell her I'm looking at the Cingular box right in front of me. I read the model number and everything. She still doesn't believe me, so I give the phone to my nice friend who tried to help me at the store. She won't believe me... I say. He tells her. She won't believe him either. He finally convinces her, about another 10 minutes later. So, at some point, 3 to 5 business days from now, an elf will show up at my door with my new cell phone, all ready to go. Here's hoping.
The moral of this story is... DON'T CHANGE YOUR CELL PLAN! If you do... just do it on-line or something. Or pray that your cell company doesn't merge with another one. There's a moral here somewhre... a good one... I just know it!
Posted by karen at November 23, 2004 06:12 PM