Phone died
Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 5:16 pm
Cellphone, of course. Exactly 1 day after I bit the bullet (not being able to commit just yet to glorious new expensive plan that comes with Android) & put $50.00, meaning 9+ more hours on it.
Local T-Mobile store is out of loaners. But after I beg they locate one, not far. I will get my free replacement in the mail "in 5 days" they said. After I call customer service, 'cause they can't do that for me. And then, after all that, they notice that my phone is out of warranty by 2 months. So no free replacement. They want $80.00 for a replacement for my $30.00 phone. But the CVS next door has $19.00 phones. Yes, but they're crappy phones. Also, I wanted a phone that worked similarly to what I have, but "this year's model" of my phone, for $50.00, is a drive away at yet another store, Staples (the local Staples kindly made that call for me). T-Mobile had said all I had to do, since my minutes were prepaid, was to buy the new phone & transfer the SIM card.
"Uh-uh" says the driven-to Staples. "We can't even sell you this phone, at the pre-paid-customer sale price we quoted you, without your PIN #." This PIN had been assigned by T-Mobile, not chosen by me, back when I bought the phone. It could be on my original paperwork, back at the house. Staples said they were not allowed to look it up, even though I could prove I was me. So I called the T-Mobile store (on a borrowed landline) & identified myself, & they looked it up.
And after all that, though my contacts are intact, my received text messages are jumbled, my sent messages are gone, my phone call histories are gone & all my photos are gone. Its back to the original T-Mobile store (Staples couldn't do it) to get a techie to try to retrieve the the photos. No can do. They did try. "We've never seen a display like this before" they said. It has to have the standard display, even if it doesn't send or receive calls, for photo retrieval to work.
I had not done anything to it. I'd turned it off, then turned it on again, which sometimes get gets me a signal instead of "searching". What I had gotten when I turned it back on was the weird display with a bunch of "F"s accross the top.
One thing that made me laugh was that the Staples person said, & I quote “We can’t sell you this phone at this price without your PIN #. WalMart would, of course. But we’re not allowed to”. They went on to say that this phone, full price, would be $180.00. At which point I almost dropped it. (When I told T-Mobile, back at their ranch, that they said they never use the PIN #s when doing setups of phones. But they do assign them when they sell the phones. Fortunately for me.)
I also got another price-wise surprise; they taxed me on the full price, even though I paid the pre-paid-customer/sale price. Apparently a new Mass law went into effect about a week ago that says sale items have to be taxed at full price.
Local T-Mobile store is out of loaners. But after I beg they locate one, not far. I will get my free replacement in the mail "in 5 days" they said. After I call customer service, 'cause they can't do that for me. And then, after all that, they notice that my phone is out of warranty by 2 months. So no free replacement. They want $80.00 for a replacement for my $30.00 phone. But the CVS next door has $19.00 phones. Yes, but they're crappy phones. Also, I wanted a phone that worked similarly to what I have, but "this year's model" of my phone, for $50.00, is a drive away at yet another store, Staples (the local Staples kindly made that call for me). T-Mobile had said all I had to do, since my minutes were prepaid, was to buy the new phone & transfer the SIM card.
"Uh-uh" says the driven-to Staples. "We can't even sell you this phone, at the pre-paid-customer sale price we quoted you, without your PIN #." This PIN had been assigned by T-Mobile, not chosen by me, back when I bought the phone. It could be on my original paperwork, back at the house. Staples said they were not allowed to look it up, even though I could prove I was me. So I called the T-Mobile store (on a borrowed landline) & identified myself, & they looked it up.
And after all that, though my contacts are intact, my received text messages are jumbled, my sent messages are gone, my phone call histories are gone & all my photos are gone. Its back to the original T-Mobile store (Staples couldn't do it) to get a techie to try to retrieve the the photos. No can do. They did try. "We've never seen a display like this before" they said. It has to have the standard display, even if it doesn't send or receive calls, for photo retrieval to work.
I had not done anything to it. I'd turned it off, then turned it on again, which sometimes get gets me a signal instead of "searching". What I had gotten when I turned it back on was the weird display with a bunch of "F"s accross the top.
One thing that made me laugh was that the Staples person said, & I quote “We can’t sell you this phone at this price without your PIN #. WalMart would, of course. But we’re not allowed to”. They went on to say that this phone, full price, would be $180.00. At which point I almost dropped it. (When I told T-Mobile, back at their ranch, that they said they never use the PIN #s when doing setups of phones. But they do assign them when they sell the phones. Fortunately for me.)
I also got another price-wise surprise; they taxed me on the full price, even though I paid the pre-paid-customer/sale price. Apparently a new Mass law went into effect about a week ago that says sale items have to be taxed at full price.