Arrgh Cell Phone Woes
Somehow my beloved cheap cell phone got lost or stolen last week. I've since given up hope it will be found, as it could very well be in a wintry parking lot and run over, or, if it was shoplifted off my bag, not in th ehands of someone willing to effect a return. I don't use my cell phone all the time, but I do use it frequently whenever I am out, and it is my only way of long distance calling as I have only the basic local service on my land line.
Well my loss and my bad, I'm willing to choke up to the loss of the hardware, and I had my older lower grade model phone still on hand. So I called up this morning to re-activate it and transfer my 1200 minutes and three months service months to it. And this is where I am getting annoyed.
Apparently I need a new sim card for it, which will take 7-10 days to arrive (not county holiday mail slog) and that is annoying in and of itself. But on top of that, i need to put minutes on the new phone to activate it before they can transfer my account to it. And the smallest amounts of minutes I can add to it, they say, is $30.
So I need to pay $30 for three hundred minutes on top of the 1200 minutes I already have???? I said certainly not! That was a rip off, and they said they can't reimburse me for the cost of the phone lost, and I said I didn't want that, but I I think a virtual ten cents for ONE minute to activate the new phone was in order so I could transfer my considerable account to the new phone. I just dont see any technological reason why they can't take some minutes off my old account and graft them to this new phone.
Well nothing can be done until the new sim card arrives, so I didn't bother 'discussing' thigns with a manager yet. WHatever agreement we made would just be lost likely. So I decided to save my "getting new york on their butt" for when the sim card arrives.
But then I got to thinking, that's still half a month without a cell phone, and no guarrantee they will be able/willing to activate my new phone without buying new minutes. So if I am potentially going to have to spend 30 dollars, wouldn't I just be better off to buy a new phone with better features for the same money and then not even have a wait? And then have the old one to give to a limited income friend who can then activate it and have themselves a cell phone for free? There are some better models that have dropped in price.
But then I know that is what they want! They want to pressure people into making a new purchase, perhaps be tempted by fancier phones. Do I want to be manipulated into choosing this purchase, even though I had been halfway tempted to get a new phone anyhow?
Truth be told I don't want to ditch the company because over all Net Ten is phenomonal and a great value and service. But this little policy really chaps my hide. No matter what I decide to do, I will be calling up the company and yelling in some managers ear.
Well my loss and my bad, I'm willing to choke up to the loss of the hardware, and I had my older lower grade model phone still on hand. So I called up this morning to re-activate it and transfer my 1200 minutes and three months service months to it. And this is where I am getting annoyed.
Apparently I need a new sim card for it, which will take 7-10 days to arrive (not county holiday mail slog) and that is annoying in and of itself. But on top of that, i need to put minutes on the new phone to activate it before they can transfer my account to it. And the smallest amounts of minutes I can add to it, they say, is $30.
So I need to pay $30 for three hundred minutes on top of the 1200 minutes I already have???? I said certainly not! That was a rip off, and they said they can't reimburse me for the cost of the phone lost, and I said I didn't want that, but I I think a virtual ten cents for ONE minute to activate the new phone was in order so I could transfer my considerable account to the new phone. I just dont see any technological reason why they can't take some minutes off my old account and graft them to this new phone.
Well nothing can be done until the new sim card arrives, so I didn't bother 'discussing' thigns with a manager yet. WHatever agreement we made would just be lost likely. So I decided to save my "getting new york on their butt" for when the sim card arrives.
But then I got to thinking, that's still half a month without a cell phone, and no guarrantee they will be able/willing to activate my new phone without buying new minutes. So if I am potentially going to have to spend 30 dollars, wouldn't I just be better off to buy a new phone with better features for the same money and then not even have a wait? And then have the old one to give to a limited income friend who can then activate it and have themselves a cell phone for free? There are some better models that have dropped in price.
But then I know that is what they want! They want to pressure people into making a new purchase, perhaps be tempted by fancier phones. Do I want to be manipulated into choosing this purchase, even though I had been halfway tempted to get a new phone anyhow?
Truth be told I don't want to ditch the company because over all Net Ten is phenomonal and a great value and service. But this little policy really chaps my hide. No matter what I decide to do, I will be calling up the company and yelling in some managers ear.