Towncrier
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 23, 1999
- Messages
- 10,336
A little background. We got our first cell phone contract many years ago with GTE Mobilnet. Our trust Nokia 232 analog phone (there was not digital at the time) served us well. The deals kept getting sweeter, and I kept extending our contract one year at a time in order to get the new deal. One new deal included a LGC-330W dual mode phone. At first, Sue hated it. But she grew to like it. Good thing to. Our contract with GTE (now Alltel) went well into the 21st century.
Fast forward to a year ago. Sue's phone started having problems. I finally determined that the earpiece was intermittent and that, if you banged her phone a certain way, it worked fine. I knew that wasn't going to work, so I turned to Ebay where I was able to get her a used LGC-330W phone, just like the one she was used to. I was still stinging from forcing Sue to change phones 3 years earlier. The new phone was programmed by the local Alltel store and everything was good. For about 4 months.
For some odd reason, Sue's phone would not stay in digital mode. For those of you who have dual or tri-mode phones, you know that analog mode is the kiss of death. The battery that will keep a cell phone alive in digital mode for days will barely survive 8 hours in analog mode. I figured that I had purchased a bum phone.
I went to Alltel to see if they could help. They told me that I was SOL (sorta outta luck) because we still had nearly a year to go on our contract. They were willing to sell us a bottom-of-the-line Nokia phone for only $200. I told them "no thanks" and made a mental note to switch Sue over to Verizon in September.
So back to Ebay I went. This time, I found a brand new, never been used or programmed LGC-330W phone. So I bought it and got it reprogrammed by Alltel. Right from the start Sue had problems with this phone as well. Same symptoms. The phone switched into analog mode almost immediately upon being turned on. I guess Sue didn't want to upset me, so she kept the fact that phone #3 was no better than phone #2. And she kept that secret until last week when I found out that the kids were having trouble reaching her on her cell phone. We headed back up to the Alltel store this past Saturday to see if there was ANYTHING that they could do for us. We got the same song and dance routine about how we were SOL until we were in the last 3 months of our contract. They suggested that we call Vince (the guy in the know) on Monday.
In the meantime, I fired off an email to Alltel tech support via their website on Monday. I got a reply on Tuesday that told me to call the 800 number because they could not help me. And they marked my problem resolved. I called the 800 tech support number and was told that our phone probably needed to have the PRL (preferred roaming list) information updated. Now remember, this is a phone that has not been manufactured for 3 years.
This afternoon, Sue finally went to see Vince. After he looked at our phone, he told her that it most definitely needed to be "fixed" (aka reprogrammed) and that he would loan her a phone while they sent ours in to the repair center. Finally an admission that Alltel did something that rendered phones #2 and #3 obsolete. Since it is their fault, Sue is under the impression that the "repair" won't cost us anything. I hope she is right.
So now we sit and wait until next Monday when (hopefully) our LGC-330W returns from the shop, good as new.
The lessons learned are:
1. Don't fall in love with your phone. It will have to be replaced.
2. Don't sign any long-term contracts with the cellular provider.
3. Don't believe the first bozo that you talk to at Alltel. Odds are he knows less about cell phones than Alexander Graham Bell.
At least the kids and I can reach Sue in an emergency.
Fast forward to a year ago. Sue's phone started having problems. I finally determined that the earpiece was intermittent and that, if you banged her phone a certain way, it worked fine. I knew that wasn't going to work, so I turned to Ebay where I was able to get her a used LGC-330W phone, just like the one she was used to. I was still stinging from forcing Sue to change phones 3 years earlier. The new phone was programmed by the local Alltel store and everything was good. For about 4 months.
For some odd reason, Sue's phone would not stay in digital mode. For those of you who have dual or tri-mode phones, you know that analog mode is the kiss of death. The battery that will keep a cell phone alive in digital mode for days will barely survive 8 hours in analog mode. I figured that I had purchased a bum phone.
I went to Alltel to see if they could help. They told me that I was SOL (sorta outta luck) because we still had nearly a year to go on our contract. They were willing to sell us a bottom-of-the-line Nokia phone for only $200. I told them "no thanks" and made a mental note to switch Sue over to Verizon in September.
So back to Ebay I went. This time, I found a brand new, never been used or programmed LGC-330W phone. So I bought it and got it reprogrammed by Alltel. Right from the start Sue had problems with this phone as well. Same symptoms. The phone switched into analog mode almost immediately upon being turned on. I guess Sue didn't want to upset me, so she kept the fact that phone #3 was no better than phone #2. And she kept that secret until last week when I found out that the kids were having trouble reaching her on her cell phone. We headed back up to the Alltel store this past Saturday to see if there was ANYTHING that they could do for us. We got the same song and dance routine about how we were SOL until we were in the last 3 months of our contract. They suggested that we call Vince (the guy in the know) on Monday.
In the meantime, I fired off an email to Alltel tech support via their website on Monday. I got a reply on Tuesday that told me to call the 800 number because they could not help me. And they marked my problem resolved. I called the 800 tech support number and was told that our phone probably needed to have the PRL (preferred roaming list) information updated. Now remember, this is a phone that has not been manufactured for 3 years.
This afternoon, Sue finally went to see Vince. After he looked at our phone, he told her that it most definitely needed to be "fixed" (aka reprogrammed) and that he would loan her a phone while they sent ours in to the repair center. Finally an admission that Alltel did something that rendered phones #2 and #3 obsolete. Since it is their fault, Sue is under the impression that the "repair" won't cost us anything. I hope she is right.
So now we sit and wait until next Monday when (hopefully) our LGC-330W returns from the shop, good as new.
The lessons learned are:
1. Don't fall in love with your phone. It will have to be replaced.
2. Don't sign any long-term contracts with the cellular provider.
3. Don't believe the first bozo that you talk to at Alltel. Odds are he knows less about cell phones than Alexander Graham Bell.
At least the kids and I can reach Sue in an emergency.
