And now for something completely different!
So the other day I got fed up with my stupid little cell phone and decided that this was the most obvious time to buy a new one...however not really needing a new phone, I couldn't justify actually buying one, so I set my sights at checking the AT&T sight daily for a sweet deal.
Aha!
One day this deal presented itself, and I found a $160 phone at my fingertips for free! Not wanting to pass this up, since it was the phone I really wanted anyway, but could not justify buying (see above price!), I jumped at the chance to upgrade. In my defense, however, for some that think there is no reason I needed a new phone (yeah, you're probably right, I didn't really), I did want to upgrade my anytime minutes, and why just get more anytime minutes when you can get a kickass phone as a bonus??
Anyway.
So after ordering said phone, ordering said plan, getting said phone in the mail everything was running smoothly. And then the problems began!
So I open up the phone, plug it in, and head off to class to start learning the ins and outs of the phone later. When I get back, I'm admiring its beauty (it's so little and cute and pretty and has colors and ooooooh!), and beginning to start learning basic things (how do I pick my ring tone? damn this thing's loud - how do I turn the volume down? etc). Later that evening after work, I follow the instructions for how to activate said phone. I call the number that they tell me to, and the person on the other end says I've called the wrong number, she can't find my account on the network, and I should call back the next day to this other number, because my phone should be activated anyway. Whatever.
So the next days comes and I once again call AT&T and after being transferred to three different departments (which makes no sense, since to activate my phone, I was instructed to call one number...whatever) and spending about 15 minutes on hold, I finally was able to switch over from phone A (Nokia) to phone B (Samsung). Finally! My phone is now activated and new and yay! It works. They told me to wait for approximately an hour and I should be able to use my phone with no problems. Hooray!
So however long passes (I think I went out to lunch or to class during this time), and my phone is now switched over from phone A to phone B...with just one little problem: It's now ROAMING. Well, thinking there may be something wrong with the service, I wait until the next day so I can use someone else's phone for calling AT&T (since lord knows I don't want to get charged like a million dollars for the 20 minutes or so I'm going to need to spend on the phone waiting for them to figure out what's wrong with my phone now), but in the meantime peruse the AT&T website to see if my account will provide any insight as to why my phone is so messed up. Upon perusal of the website, I notice the culprit: Instead of billing me for the 450 Anytime/Unlimited Nights & Weekends/Unlimited Mobile-to-Mobile NATIONAL plan (hey, everyone, get AT&T so I can talk to you), they have signed me up for the 600 Anytime/Unlimited Nights & Weekends/Unlimited Mobile-to-Mobile LOCAL plan, which, it looks like to me, does not really work in Ripon.
So back to the customer care line I go, and they solve my problem (after switching again, to three different departments and waiting for 15 minutes on hold)...all is well, I'm off to lunch, and it's still ROAMING.
ARGUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
So instead of haggling over customer care on the phone, I'm starting to think it's my phone that's doing it. For what I can see, there is no difference in the 350 Anytime minute and 450 Anytime minute (well, except for price, but whatever) plans, since they're both national plans (ooh, but the 350 anytime minutes plan doesn't have unlimited mobile-to-mobile - like that's going to do me any good since i'm in friggin' ROAMING). So my next step is I'm going to go to the damn AT&T store in either Oshkosh or Appleton with both phone A and phone B in hand and ask them why the hell my phone is in roaming 24/7 now.
In the meantime, the moral of the story is if you wanna talk to me on the phone, call my room!


So, changing the subject, today in my Immigration & Ethnic History class, we were talking about immigrants today, and how we feel that in some aspects people still tended to hold on to the old traditions, the old language, etc...
I was going to tell them about my weird neighbor who is from Italy, but I figured that nobody else would believe that such a person actually exists. :)
- posted by L. @ 6:10 PM