Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Cell Phone Pain

age-memory-loss Almost a year ago October 5, 2010, I posted an article saying that digital devices undermined our ability to think and/or remember.  That theory was proved once again this past weekend.

Honey’s cell phone was lost – most probably stolen by a rotten little kid – on Saturday.

We had been getting emails from AT&T for months saying we were eligible of free upgrades, so Monday morning we headed to the nearest AT&T store. 

What a fiasco! 

We got there only to be told that the free upgrades were only available on line and the only “free” phone in the store required that we buy it and send in a card for a mail-in rebate.  The clerk advised us that we would be better off replacing the phone at Wal-Mart. 

The closest Wal-Mart was closed due to an overnight power failure, but we were finally able to get a free phone at Best Buy – totally free, set up and working in the store, and out the door without paying a cent.  Why couldn't the carrier’s own store have done that?

Totally painless once we went to the right place, except that Honey had dozens of phone numbers stored in her phone, and with no SIM card, they each had to be entered manually into the new device.  That’s a big PITA, but do-able except that many of those numbers  were not available anywhere else!

She sent emails out to friends and family members and is programming numbers as they arrive, but we’re sure that some of those numbers are lost forever.

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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2011 at 12:19 PM

    As iffy as Verizon is, they do at least have an online backup plan that can reprogram your phone numbers or just be used to enter and edit information on a full sized keyboard. This has been valuable on more than one occasion.

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  2. CherylSeptember 22, 2011 at 9:34 AM

    another possibility (not sure if ATT does it, but Verizon does & it's worth finding out) - you and she likely had many numbers in common. if she doesn't want to enter them all manually (& hasn't already done it) you should contact that "horrible" ATT store and see if they can copy & transfer the numbers from your phone to hers. when gene's phone quit working & we had to get a new one his #s weren't backed up on a SIM card, but the provider hooked his phone up to mine and all the numbers/contact info (even emails) transferred to his new phone in a couple of minutes. good luck.

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