Cell Phone Saga

I don't know why, but sometimes there is just that one thing which by itself wouldn't have been a big deal, yet added on top of other things just really pushes one over the edge....enter the story of the cell phone.

I got new cell phone service with Verizon around six months ago, got a brand new smart phone, LG Vortex. LOVED IT! Service had been great, phone too, until all the sudden about a month ago it started to go a bit haywire, turning off and on several hundred times a day (no exaggeration) it would freeze up and no buttons would work, the thing was just crazy! It would let me answer some calls, but not retrieve voicemails. So I took it back to the place where I bought it, they check it all out, did a factory reset, which they had to do twice because it froze up during the first attempt. Even then it continued to do the same thing, turn itself off and on again and freeze up, sometimes it would delete all my contacts and sometimes it would bring them back, but not all of them. The store was very confused by it's strange behavoir. "Never seen anything like this," they tell me.."In most cases people bring their phone in claiming it's doing something wrong but by the time they get here it's working fine....this kind of behavoir for a phone is just downright unheard of."

So they call customer service tell them the whole deal and since it's still under warranty they say they'll send me out a "new" one. "How do you want to pay for the shipping?" the $30 shipping???? Are they crazy? It's their phone that went haywire, not something I did to it, and now I have to pay shipping to get the replacement when it's under warranty??? "Oh well if you don't want to pay then we can send it standard mail and it will get there in around 5 days." Fine, to avoid the shipping fee, I'll wait.
And Wait.
And Wait some more.

TWO WEEKS LATER!!! The stinking phone arrives, big box with just the shell of a phone, no battery and no back cover, supposed to take those from the old phone and put them in the new one, it's a "refurbished" phone. Fine, ok, whatever, if it works I don't care! So I put in the old batter and the old back cover, recover my contacts and photos from the old phone and it's working fine. I send back the old phone (or they'll charge me $500 for keeping it, despite it's being dead and all) And I begin enjoying my new phone, of course redownloading apps, but much less than I had before, trying to keep it simple.

One week later:
I was using my phone to play a game, a game I play often as a stress releiver (air traffic controller...somehow it's totally a relief landing those planes safely LOL) But it's getting late so I take the phone, checking it's battery power to see if it needs a charge, half full battery, should be fine. I head upstairs. I set the phone next to my bed on the table, where I always do, I lay down to sleep and I feel restless. I decided to check to see if it was my turn in "Words With Friends" and when I pick up the phone it is off...that's strange, i know I didn't turn it off. So I push the power button, nothing. I remove the battery and replace it and try again, still nothing. That's very strange considering how much batter i KNEW it had. But I plug it in anyway, hoping it will feel more cooperative in the morning.

This morning, nope, still a dead phone. After church I took it into the wireless store again, they try all they can to power on the darn little thing and still...nothing. Not even sound, at least that would mean the screen was the broken part and that would be something, but nope, nothing. Dead phone. "I've never seen anything like this, for a phone to just be....dead." Seriously? SERIOUSLY???? Again?! So my last phone went crazy and this one went dead...AFTER A WEEK!!! I cannot believe this. So here we go with customer service again, but this time I talk to them instead of the clerk, i tell them the WHOLE story, and they say "I know how you feel ma'am" No you don't..your phone works! "We'll get you a new phone right away?" What in another two weeks...cause NO WAY I'm paying shipping! "Oh no it should be there within five days...." I've heard this line before. I ask, 'are you sending me a refurbished phone??'....silence on the other end. "Uh well, that is usually what we do...but..." 'BUT YOU BETTER SEND ME SOMETHING THAT ISN'T GOING TO DIE ON ME!!' (No I didn't shout, the caps are for you to feel the intense frustration I was feeling at the time.) "I'll put a note in here for them to send you a newer one." 'Newer' what is that supposed to mean? I think I was emitting steam from my hot head by this time.

The cell phone was the straw, and I am the camel, and my back has just broken. I am beyond words for frustration (although this is my greatest attempt to put words to the said frustration) and I'm trying to figure out why the stupid cell phone saga is making me so mad, I mean honestly it's not living without a cell phone, as frustrating as that is I really don't think I use it all that much (except for words with friends of course) I think it's just the feeling like I've been let down by the 'customer service' twice now. That to me is the biggest flaw in Verizon, i mean yes the people speak english and they get big props for that, but the fact that all they can do is take two weeks to send me a phone that then only lasts a week before I'm forced to go through all of this again...it's just insane! All I know is I feel like crying, over my stupid dead phone drama, I never thought I would have missed my phone that went insane, but at least it worked...once in a while, all I can do now is stare at the blank screen of a device that has let me down. It is very frustrating, I already have missed voicemails, but they didn't leave a number because it would have shown up on caller Id or at least been in my phone book, so to anyone who is or has tried to call me, I won't be calling you back anytime soon, maybe in five days....yeah right.