Calling all angels...and cell phone companies
I remembered what disturbed me so much at Target yesterday: They had musical instruments on sale. Oh, shudder. I hate to think of a parent with a new band student buying one of those thinking it would be okay for the kid to play. It's not. Just trust me on this one. And know that if you take it to a musical instrument repairman, he will laugh at you.
I was also surprised to see gift cards for e-books there as well, with the gift cards for iTunes. Interesting concept. It's $10 for one e-book, basically a downloadable audiobook. Hmm. I may have to tell my boss about that. Not that I think we'll go out of business, but because he's into audiobooks. He'll probably stick with the library, but he may check it out at least.
This afternoon, after I got home from work, I decided to call and have my phone number and minutes transferred from my old analog phone to my new digital phone. That was 46 minutes of sheer joy. It's not like the girl on the other end of the line was evil or anything, but it's clear that the company has the same technology as *my* company, i.e. crappy, as her system was very (check that: verrrrrrrrrrrrrry) slow. Combine that with the equally ancient technology of my old phone, which did not like to do more than a few codes at a time, and that probably took up half the phone call. Plus, it was hard to hear her most of the time (not the most reassuring thing when you're calling about your phone). She must have been in a large room full of people all talking to each other and maybe a few other customers, as I heard many voices in the background. I could also tell when she was talking with other people, too--at least two others. One must have been a supervisor talking her through it. I highly doubt they get many calls of one person changing from one phone to another. But eventually it sort of happened, and I am keeping my old phone number, which is reassuring to me--not that anyone besides my parents has it. I doubt that will change. The only issue is that the phone is not up and running as of yet. She said it may take up to 24 business hours for it to work; crap, what does that mean on a holiday weekend? I've tried to make test calls to my home phone but they haven't gone through. And I can't set up my voice mail until the test calls work, not that I'm expecting to use it often. What's good: I got ten minutes just for buying the phone, all of my old minutes transferred, *and* I got six extra minutes to boot. I had 494 units on the old phone; they must not have been able to transfer non-round digits, so they rounded me up to 500. That was cool. And the phone is good to go until November. I didn't have to use the new phone card I bought. Very cool. Now all I need is the phone to actually work. Cross those fingers.
I was also surprised to see gift cards for e-books there as well, with the gift cards for iTunes. Interesting concept. It's $10 for one e-book, basically a downloadable audiobook. Hmm. I may have to tell my boss about that. Not that I think we'll go out of business, but because he's into audiobooks. He'll probably stick with the library, but he may check it out at least.
This afternoon, after I got home from work, I decided to call and have my phone number and minutes transferred from my old analog phone to my new digital phone. That was 46 minutes of sheer joy. It's not like the girl on the other end of the line was evil or anything, but it's clear that the company has the same technology as *my* company, i.e. crappy, as her system was very (check that: verrrrrrrrrrrrrry) slow. Combine that with the equally ancient technology of my old phone, which did not like to do more than a few codes at a time, and that probably took up half the phone call. Plus, it was hard to hear her most of the time (not the most reassuring thing when you're calling about your phone). She must have been in a large room full of people all talking to each other and maybe a few other customers, as I heard many voices in the background. I could also tell when she was talking with other people, too--at least two others. One must have been a supervisor talking her through it. I highly doubt they get many calls of one person changing from one phone to another. But eventually it sort of happened, and I am keeping my old phone number, which is reassuring to me--not that anyone besides my parents has it. I doubt that will change. The only issue is that the phone is not up and running as of yet. She said it may take up to 24 business hours for it to work; crap, what does that mean on a holiday weekend? I've tried to make test calls to my home phone but they haven't gone through. And I can't set up my voice mail until the test calls work, not that I'm expecting to use it often. What's good: I got ten minutes just for buying the phone, all of my old minutes transferred, *and* I got six extra minutes to boot. I had 494 units on the old phone; they must not have been able to transfer non-round digits, so they rounded me up to 500. That was cool. And the phone is good to go until November. I didn't have to use the new phone card I bought. Very cool. Now all I need is the phone to actually work. Cross those fingers.