The Trouble with Cell Phones

Yesterday, I did something that was not so bright. I was just finishing a conversation on my cell phone, flipped the lip closed and went to put the phone in my pocket. That's what I meant to do. What happened was that as I went to put it in my pocket, I kind of missed getting it in there. So when I let go, it did a nice air dive into a concrete floor.

I quickly picked it up, made some comment like "that's what I meant to do" to the person I was with, and properly slid it in my pocket. Later when I was alone, I pulled out the phone to check it out. The phone turned on and at least I can make calls, but the color display is broken. It actually shows some little tiny bits and pieces of an image, but no one would be able to tell what is going on.

So, I don't mind not seeing the date and time. But not being able to use the address book is hard and the big thing is that the background image was a friend of mine in one of his aussiebum suits. It is a great pic. I also had a bunch of pictures from the Halloween party I went to a couple of weeks ago in my borrowed full length spandex body suit costume of the Noid.

I realize that it's time for a new phone so I headed over to the carrier's store nearby. Sure they will give me a discount on a new phone if I sign up and commit for another one year or two year term. They do not seem to care that I have been a customer with them for over 10 years. It's like no new contract, no discount, you pay full price. I call that poor customer service. Not really a good way to take care of your customers.

This whole idea that a customer has to commit to a year or two contract is just silly in this technological age. Don't we give them enough money each month on the bill? And they have that ridiculous clause in the contract that says if you terminate your agreement early, like say for switching to another cell phone provider, they charge you $175.00 just for fun. they call it an early termination fee. I call it plain greed.

So my mind is now made up. Tomorrow I head on over to another cell phone carrier to check pricing. Since I have gotten a bunch of Speedos and other swim suits off of eBay (and some good lycra shorts and unitards) with good success, I will check out their listings of used phones just incase I can get a deal on the same model I have now. Not as easy to check out the quality of a phone on line as it is just buying a swim suit, but I will surf the listings.

As far as I am concerned, cell phone companies and landline telephone companies have the worst customer service, or are at least tied for last place. They should take care of their current customers instead of just going after new customers all the time. If they did, not only would they have happy customers, they would have more customers than they could handle.

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