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To the Phones
Oct. 18th, 2013 12:33 pmYesterday morning when I got into the office, I realized that my mobile phone was missing from its holster. I retraced my steps to my van, then went back to the hotel. No luck. I know I had it when I left Truckee because I put it on to recharge when I left there after lunch on Wednesday. I checked other places I'd been, and also with the hotel and with lost and found at my building at work. Nothing. Oh, well, there we go again, and only a couple of months after it happened the first time. I checked my account and unlike last time, nobody seemed to have gone on a phone calling spree. Calling the phone went straight to voice-mail, so it's out of contact or turned off. Possibly the best thing that might have happened was that it fell out somewhere along the way and was destroyed.
So once again I needed a new phone. I went to the Verizon store in Mountain View yesterday evening, and they told me that they could not sell me a new phone because it had been too soon since I bought one from them. They could only sell me that relatively cheap phone at full price, which they said was $250. They did say that if I brought them a phone, they could connect it to the existing account. They also said they could sell me one of the cheap phones with a new phone number, but not the existing one. I've had that number for more than ten years and do not want to change it. So I went over to Best Buy and found the exact same Verizon phone for $20 and bought it with no service plan. By then the Verizon store was closed for the night, so this morning, I went back in, handed them the $20 phone that their system could only sell me for $250, and asked them to activate it on my existing number. This took longer than you might think. Around twenty minutes later, they figured out how to do this, and amazingly they didn't even charge me a new connection fee. The only reason I had to spend any money at all was that I bought a new holster for the phone. I think the old one was simply so worn out that the phones kept slipping out. Here's hoping I don't have to go through this again anytime soon.
So once again I needed a new phone. I went to the Verizon store in Mountain View yesterday evening, and they told me that they could not sell me a new phone because it had been too soon since I bought one from them. They could only sell me that relatively cheap phone at full price, which they said was $250. They did say that if I brought them a phone, they could connect it to the existing account. They also said they could sell me one of the cheap phones with a new phone number, but not the existing one. I've had that number for more than ten years and do not want to change it. So I went over to Best Buy and found the exact same Verizon phone for $20 and bought it with no service plan. By then the Verizon store was closed for the night, so this morning, I went back in, handed them the $20 phone that their system could only sell me for $250, and asked them to activate it on my existing number. This took longer than you might think. Around twenty minutes later, they figured out how to do this, and amazingly they didn't even charge me a new connection fee. The only reason I had to spend any money at all was that I bought a new holster for the phone. I think the old one was simply so worn out that the phones kept slipping out. Here's hoping I don't have to go through this again anytime soon.
