adventures in cell phones and flat tires
so last week my boss offers to buy me a new phone if i switch over to cingular since he has a cingular tower on his property and my at&t phone won't get reception there. and i thought this incredibly ironic considering that monkey wanted me to buy a new phone because the battery won't hold a charge anymore, and i tried to explain to her that phones aren't cheap and they don't give away phones unless you sign up for new contract.
sooooooo i thought what the hell i'll do it. so i call cingular and ask them some questions and ask if they have a plan similar to mine. i also inform them that at&t is offering to give me 350 more minutes for the same price if i sign a year contract. she says to me that cingular doesn't have that plan and that at&t is trying to keep as many people as possible and to sign up new people because the acquisition price depends upon how many subscribers at&t have. and she says if you have at&t you should have access to that tower because we have a roaming agreement. i tell her that in fact i don't get reception there. i can stand 20 feet from the tower and no reception.
so i go to cingular, sign up for the 600 anytime minutes with the rollover, unlimited nights and weekends and free mobile to mobile and get this kickass little flip phone with a color screen and i'm stoked.
until i get home.
i get no reception anywhere near my house. not even like 5 miles within my house. i used to get perfect reception all around, just not at work, which is heading up the mountain. so i'm bummed and monkey is definitely not happy. which of course makes me feel once more, thanks for reminding me i can't do anything right. appreciate it. like it's my fault and i KNEW before i bought it i wouldnt' have reception. i mean, think about it, if i'm signing up to EXPAND my reception, i don't think i'm going to lose reception. but whatever. i fucked up, apparently.
but i figure, it's a cool new phone and maybe if cingular is going to acquire at&t those towers will come under cingular. but then that's when i learn that there's a little something different going on.
i have a TDMA phone. i have no idea what that stands for. what i do know is that it's the old digital network that was nationwide by at&t and i got reception pretty much everywhere.
all the cingular towers are GSM. i have no idea what that stands for, global something monster whatever. all the new phones availabe through cingular and at&t are GSM. which is the new global network but has a much smaller coverage area because they have less towers.
so i didn't think it was a big deal until i needed to make some long distance phone calls from my house and i couldn't because...I DON'T GET CELL RECEPTION HERE and i don't have long distance on my land line. so i thought fuck it. i need to call at&t and see if i can get my old contract back but first i call cingular to find out if they know if these old towers will come under cingular. she doesn't know because everything's going GSM and those are TDMA towers blahblahblah. if i return everything within 15 days i'm clear with cingular
so i call at&t and say i tried cingular, it sucks i get no reception at my house if i come back to at&t do i have to pay all that initiation fee crap? no she tells me! NO. I. DO. NOT! at&t has a 30 day "buyer's remorse" program that you can come back to your old contract no hassle within 30 days of cancelling.
AWESOME! i said hook me up beeeeyotch!
so she does. and i guess the deal is that when you keep your number they "port" it. whatever that means. so while they're "porting" you can receive calls on one phone and make calls on the other phone so you need both phones they tell you for 24 hours.
well, the cingular phone deactivated within 2 hours. the at&t phone never activated.
but wait it gets better.
i'm driving to costco on my way home from davis. i have to pick up sodas for the store so i pull off the freeway. as i'm exiting my car feels very strange. i'm holding the steering wheel straight, but i can feel the car swerving on it's own. wtf?
so i get to costco and think what's up with my front tires? so i check them and they look fine. then this guy walks up to me and says you drove right by me and your right rear tire is really flat. and i walk over there and holy shit it's FLAT. and he says maybe you should go over to the tire center and have them put air in it. and i'm looking at that tire thinking, yeah RIGHT. that's going to hold air. but i hope. mostly because i wanna sell the car and i don't want to put new tires on it and then sell it right away! sheesh
so i go over there and they come over and take one look at the tire and say no way that holds air. so they say when you replace a tire we recommend you replace two at a time if you can't replace all four. well, hell, why don't i just do TEN! seeing as how i have NO money in the bank after paying all my bills and NO money coming in for september because my funding doesnt' start in NOVEMBER. no sweat!
but they were very nice really so i didn't say any of that to them. and they looked at my other tires and said, sure you don't want all four done? i almost said, well i don't have the money for the check i'm about to write you for two...
so $170 later i have two new back tires. and all i have to say is that i'm so glad that i had already pulled off the freeway when it went flat because i have triple A but i didn't have the card with me and i also had TWO PHONES THAT DID NOT WORK!
sooooooo i thought what the hell i'll do it. so i call cingular and ask them some questions and ask if they have a plan similar to mine. i also inform them that at&t is offering to give me 350 more minutes for the same price if i sign a year contract. she says to me that cingular doesn't have that plan and that at&t is trying to keep as many people as possible and to sign up new people because the acquisition price depends upon how many subscribers at&t have. and she says if you have at&t you should have access to that tower because we have a roaming agreement. i tell her that in fact i don't get reception there. i can stand 20 feet from the tower and no reception.
so i go to cingular, sign up for the 600 anytime minutes with the rollover, unlimited nights and weekends and free mobile to mobile and get this kickass little flip phone with a color screen and i'm stoked.
until i get home.
i get no reception anywhere near my house. not even like 5 miles within my house. i used to get perfect reception all around, just not at work, which is heading up the mountain. so i'm bummed and monkey is definitely not happy. which of course makes me feel once more, thanks for reminding me i can't do anything right. appreciate it. like it's my fault and i KNEW before i bought it i wouldnt' have reception. i mean, think about it, if i'm signing up to EXPAND my reception, i don't think i'm going to lose reception. but whatever. i fucked up, apparently.
but i figure, it's a cool new phone and maybe if cingular is going to acquire at&t those towers will come under cingular. but then that's when i learn that there's a little something different going on.
i have a TDMA phone. i have no idea what that stands for. what i do know is that it's the old digital network that was nationwide by at&t and i got reception pretty much everywhere.
all the cingular towers are GSM. i have no idea what that stands for, global something monster whatever. all the new phones availabe through cingular and at&t are GSM. which is the new global network but has a much smaller coverage area because they have less towers.
so i didn't think it was a big deal until i needed to make some long distance phone calls from my house and i couldn't because...I DON'T GET CELL RECEPTION HERE and i don't have long distance on my land line. so i thought fuck it. i need to call at&t and see if i can get my old contract back but first i call cingular to find out if they know if these old towers will come under cingular. she doesn't know because everything's going GSM and those are TDMA towers blahblahblah. if i return everything within 15 days i'm clear with cingular
so i call at&t and say i tried cingular, it sucks i get no reception at my house if i come back to at&t do i have to pay all that initiation fee crap? no she tells me! NO. I. DO. NOT! at&t has a 30 day "buyer's remorse" program that you can come back to your old contract no hassle within 30 days of cancelling.
AWESOME! i said hook me up beeeeyotch!
so she does. and i guess the deal is that when you keep your number they "port" it. whatever that means. so while they're "porting" you can receive calls on one phone and make calls on the other phone so you need both phones they tell you for 24 hours.
well, the cingular phone deactivated within 2 hours. the at&t phone never activated.
but wait it gets better.
i'm driving to costco on my way home from davis. i have to pick up sodas for the store so i pull off the freeway. as i'm exiting my car feels very strange. i'm holding the steering wheel straight, but i can feel the car swerving on it's own. wtf?
so i get to costco and think what's up with my front tires? so i check them and they look fine. then this guy walks up to me and says you drove right by me and your right rear tire is really flat. and i walk over there and holy shit it's FLAT. and he says maybe you should go over to the tire center and have them put air in it. and i'm looking at that tire thinking, yeah RIGHT. that's going to hold air. but i hope. mostly because i wanna sell the car and i don't want to put new tires on it and then sell it right away! sheesh
so i go over there and they come over and take one look at the tire and say no way that holds air. so they say when you replace a tire we recommend you replace two at a time if you can't replace all four. well, hell, why don't i just do TEN! seeing as how i have NO money in the bank after paying all my bills and NO money coming in for september because my funding doesnt' start in NOVEMBER. no sweat!
but they were very nice really so i didn't say any of that to them. and they looked at my other tires and said, sure you don't want all four done? i almost said, well i don't have the money for the check i'm about to write you for two...
so $170 later i have two new back tires. and all i have to say is that i'm so glad that i had already pulled off the freeway when it went flat because i have triple A but i didn't have the card with me and i also had TWO PHONES THAT DID NOT WORK!
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