Monday, August 20, 2012

First World Problems

This weekend I got a new phone.

It was long past due. When I first got my Samsung Smiley - I loved it. It was exactly what I needed. Then as time went on... it was time for a new one. Especially when your co-workers who are in their 60s are making fun of you because your phone is lame and you'll be missing the taco party - you know it's time for a new phone.


Also, since I am currently roommate-less - I need to cut back on my expenses. So when my contract was up I decided to switch over to my family's family plan. That way I would only have to pay my part of the plan and not be all on my own. Which means... NEW CELL PHONE!


After much pestering of my sister (the plan is under her name)...


She was able to get a hold of our carrier and figure out how I can switch over to their plan while still keeping my number. They said it was 100% possible for me to switch over - hooray! I only needed to be there in person so I could give permission to stop my current plan. So this past weekend, Bandit and I took the shortest trip to Chicago ever - just so I could get my new cell phone.

Oh the things we do for technology these days.

Upon my arrival in Chicago, we had lunch and then immediately went to the mall so I could get everything done. 

When I got there, the guy was all "you could have just done this on the phone." I'm pretty sure my face looked like this:
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I had been waiting all summer to get this done. I had been up since 5:15 in the morning to drive. I did NOT just drive 6 hours just to have been able to do this over the phone. However, the original guy my sister talked to came by and was able to help us out. It was a good thing we did it in person because he was able to waive some major fees. Woo hoo!

He told us that everything would be able to transfer from my old phone to my new phone. Number, contacts, everything. It would take up to 24 hours. Usually it would only be about five however. In the mean time, I would have a temporary number for the new phone, and my old number with the old phone. Once the old phone stops working, that would mean the new phone would be good to go. 

Simple enough. Right? WRONG.

With new phone in tow we wander about the mall happily and then head home. Every few minutes I eagerly check the new phone to see if it's ready yet. Nope. However, I can set up my Google and Facebook accounts. This is pretty much the only thing I can do. Every time I look at my phone, it's the Google and Facebook set up screen. Woo.

Hour by hour goes by...

Nothing.

Friday night arrives...

Nothing.

I get up Saturday morning...

Hey! I can go past the Google and Facebook set up screens! I can get apps going and downloaded. Once I get that done I check to see if any of my contacts have been switched over.

Nope. None of my contacts from my old phone have switched over.

BUT it has synced ALL of my contacts from my Facebook account, both Google accounts, AND both of my Twitter accounts. 

I had over 600 people in my contacts.

Yup. Even those random people on Facebook that you never talk to anymore.

And the people I follow on Twitter whom I have never had a phone or text conversation with in my life are magically on my phone.

Even those random people you emailed MAYBE once in your entire life and you have no idea who they are. They were on my contact list.

But people's cell phone number that I actually needed - nope. Not there.

So here I am wandering about all day with two cell phones. One that is old and I'm ready to throw at a wall. The other one with a number that I won't use and a million contacts that I don't want to contact.

Later Saturday morning the guy from the store calls me and says he forgot to put my birthday in, and that was why it was taking so long.


Fast forward to the drive home. As I'm driving I hear my old phone go off. It's a text message! It is welcoming me to the phone service and tells me what my new number is. (Which is really my old number that I'm keeping...) Does this mean that my new phone is good and ready to go????

You'd think.

I call home and ask which number pops up when I call.

It's still the temporary number. I try calling on my old phone - my old phone is deactivated and I can't make calls.

But... but... but.. "THE GUY SAID THAT WHEN MY OLD PHONE DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE THEN I CAN USE MY NEW ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"


Alas- I continue my drive home.

Sunday morning comes.

Still can't use my old phone - and my new one can only use my temporary number. And seriously - why am I going to give anyone my temporary number when it's only temporary? It would just make things confusing. 

Please note - at this point it's been at least 24 hours since I've called/texted anyone other than my mom, and at least a day and half since I got the new phone. This was supposed to take 24 hours tops.

At least my data works and for the first time ever I could upload pictures from youth events onto Facebook in real time. 

Yay!

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But by Sunday night - I was tired of it. I wanted to call or text my friends and share with them my misery.

Oh wait... I CAN'T BECAUSE THE PHONES ARE STUPID. So I go to bed and watch re-runs of How I Met Your Mother until I fall asleep.

Then... I wake up this morning.

What? What is this? A text message on my new phone!

It is another welcome message - giving me my new number. (Which is really my old number... Are you keeping up?)

I call my mom - and YES! In fact my old number has been switched to my new phone. HALLELUJAH! Only took them 3 days...

But what? What is this?

My contacts have NOT been switched over?

I can't connect to WiFi?

I can't connect to 4G?

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So... here's where I'm at now.

I'm down to one phone and one cell number which means I can talk to people and text them.

But I can't get to WiFi and 4G... which was part of why I got this new fancy phone in the first place.

And I have to manually add in my contacts that I actually want and get rid of the ones I don't.

So... how was your weekend?

EDIT:

As of this afternoon everything works. I just had to turn my phone on and off.

I feel silly now.

Or I just need a nap.

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14 comments:

  1. TECHNOLOGY IS SO ANNOYING SOMETIMES. I would try going to your local phone store about the 4G issue and see what they say.

    Sorry your weekend was so hectic!

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    Replies
    1. That's my plan right now. The WiFi and 4G was working fine last night! I watched Barney Stinson & friends on my phone before I went to bed. So I KNOW it was working!

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  2. 1. I love McKayla face. So appropriate for pretty much once a day in my life.

    2. I'm getting my upgrade in the mail today! It's the same carrier, just a new phone, but reading this makes me want to go home OMG RIGHT NOW! to make sure everything works when I switch them. I probably should've went into a store...

    3. All the gifs! :)

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    Replies
    1. I had a feeling you would appreciate all of the GIFs. And just... UGH I felt like all weekend was me with McKayla face!

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  3. OMG. I can't believe you drove that far to get a new phone!! That's some serious dedication, my friend. I had the same problem with my contacts when I got my new phone - I had to manually enter all the phone numbers, and then 24 hours later, it decided it was going to sync with my email, and I suddenly had all these entries for people I haven't spoken to in ten years, along with having six entries for my best friend from high school (one for her phone number, two email addresses under her married name, and three under her maiden name), as well as four entries for her husband.

    So I went through and deleted all the junk ones (for people like the guys I worked with at Brewery Land, and the person I dealt with at the Australian Embassy in Peru when Ness got sick!!!) only to find that when I deleted them from my phone, it automatically deleted them from my email contacts list. I was NOT impressed...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's why I'm scared to delete any contacts - I don't want them deleted off of my email too! Ugh. I've found a way to "hide" them when I go through my contacts list on my phone, but they still pop up when I go to text people. It's weird.

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  4. You didn't say that it was one of the "old guys" in the office who suggested turning the phone off and then back on....

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    Replies
    1. SIGH. Fine. It was Pastor Mark who had to teach me how to use my smart phone.. :-P And thank you by the way.

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  5. Maybe next time you buy at Best Buy Mobile. We transfer contacts for you (for free), port your number, so you can keep it (for free) and make sure you don't have connection issues (for free).


    That guy didn't know what he was doing, clearly. I port numbers all the time and it's never an issue. Most of them are done porting within 10 minutes.

    What phone did you get?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There were some things the guy did great (like waiving the $250 fee...) but others - obviously not so much. I will have to just follow your advice from now on and buy through Best Buy Mobile. That is what you told me to do in the first place! lol And I got the new MyTouch 4G slider. I LOVE it so far!

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    2. I'll hook you up when you're ready. Might be 2 years at this point. Also, $250? For what? Unless you were still under contract, I don't think there was anything to waive.

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    3. I don't even know! Like, I was switching from my old T-Mobile contract to my family's plan. And it was supposed to be only $50 but since I was getting a new phone it was $250. UGH it was so confusing. But again, it's all sorted out and now that the phone is set up and such I'm really loving it.

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  6. This was properly timed, Emily. Well played. I wanted to update phones a few months ago, but no one else in my family was ready to pay for data, so my mom got an iphone with data to "try it" and I got her old one. Now Gill and Paige are off to school and of course, it's time to switch to data, but it's been a whole fiasco with mailing phones to us and upgrades and they have theirs all set and ready to go and I'm still waiting! After months. And theirs? No problems, no hassle, no waiting.

    Mostly I'm annoyed that I'm so frustrated by a cell phone with data. Rrrrrrrr...

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    Replies
    1. I TOTALLY understand! I love my phone now that I'm kinda getting the hang of it and the issues have been sorted out. But getting it set up has been a NIGHTMARE! UGH CELL PHONES!!!!!! WHY DO WE RELY ON YOU SO MUCH?????

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