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We used to love our cell phone company. Love is not too strong
\n a word, considering the emotional attachment we developed to the concept
\n of 24-7 connectivity. We read with an uneasy mix of jealousy and superiority
\n the whines of the hot, wired and in-demand, who complain that they can’t
\n find a moment’s peace between the pages, cell phone calls and wireless
\n emails.<\/p>\n
The Dowbrigade, decidedly less (or is it more?) socially-challenged,
\n has never seen his phone as an intrusion. It is always a joy to hear
\n another live human voice. We never found the "dead spots" others
\n complained of. And the robot voices of the telemarketers seemed to be
\n the exclusive
\n province
\n of our
\n land
\n line.<\/p>\n
We also took a certain pride in our ability to live within our time-plan
\n means, evidence of foresight, self-restraint and fiscal discipline.<\/p>\n
However, as so often happens, our pride preceded a precipice. With
\n the twin motives of securing a SECOND cell phone for Mrs. Dowbrigade
\n and hopefully do away with the costly and telemarketing clogged (despite
\n the no-call list) land line. In addition we hoped to get two new
\n flip-top hand sets to replace the previous clunkier all-in-one model
\n which #2 son had borrowed, lost under a pile of dirty clothes, stepped
\n on while it was ringing in an attempt to locate it, and returned with
\n a cracked and dysfunctional screen. The phone still worked fine,
\n but without a visual interface to access the menus we were reduced to
\n receiving calls and dialing from memory.<\/p>\n
Once in the phone store, we were immediately inundated in cellular
\n hard-sell. We were tempted by the Sidekick, but are holding out for our
\n ideal handheld universal gizmo, and ended up going with the smallest,
\n second-cheapest phones in the store. <\/p>\n
Perhaps over-influenced by Channel 7 Consumer Advocate Hank After much hard bargaining, coy allusions to competitors offerings, The only problem was that my existing contract was not due to expire So for 7 weeks we would have THREE lines, although only using two. The Well, today we dropped in. Now that we were locked in to our contracted The bottom line is that we can now legally take our number with us to Tomorrow we have to go back, because the guy who actually made the promises At times like this we would love to be the kind of person who looks We used to love our cell phone company. Love is not too strong a word, considering the emotional attachment we developed to the concept of 24-7 connectivity. We read with an uneasy mix of jealousy and superiority the whines of … Continue reading
\n Fillippi Ryan’<\/a>s advice about negotiating the best deal, the Dowbrigade
\n sat down to deal as if the phone kiosk were in a Souk rather than on
\n Commonwealth
\n Avenue. Aware of the intense competition between providers in anticipation
\n of the the now-in-effect portable number law, we were determined to
\n get our two new phones for free.<\/p>\n
\n and several aborted walk-outs we were able to work out a combination
\n of credits and mail-in rebates which made the phones, in effect, free. <\/p>\n
\n until December 20, which was almost 7 weeks in the future at that point,
\n and that we wanted to keep that number on our new contract (getting two
\n new contracts allowed us to get the new phones for free, which we wouldn’t
\n have been able to do had we just renewed the old one).<\/p>\n
\n extra $75 for the unused line would be balanced by a $50 mail-in rebate
\n and a $25 credit. And we were able to extract a promise that we could
\n keep our long-time cell number, transferring it to the new contract.
\n Just come in a week or two before the old contract expires and they would
\n cancel the old contract and transfer the number.<\/p>\n
\n the reception was decidedly more frigid. It was absolutely impossible
\n to transfer a number from one account to another, we would have to start
\n using the new number on the 20th. There was no record of the promised
\n credits on the computer or in our contracts, and they had no idea what
\n our sales representative was talking about. Said sales representative
\n was not working today, and the office manager had left at noon.<\/p>\n
\n another company, but not with a new account at the same carrier. Now
\n that we have signed a contract, taking our number to another carrier
\n would involve a $200 early-termination fee for EACH LINE. <\/p>\n
\n and the manager will both be there. We will muster our logic and somewhat
\n worn righteousness, and try to act reasonable and civilized in the face
\n of gross corporate obstinacy and consumer fraud.<\/p>\n
\n forward to confrontations. On the contrary, its usually stress
\n and obsess
\n before
\n the fact and a
\n poor performance and pathetic loss of logic and persuasiveness in the
\n actual
\n encounter. Righteous Indignation is harder and harder to come by.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"