Hanging on the Telephone

 

My lack of post was due to delays at phone repair. 

Months ago, I dropped my phone, and while the case was fine, the phone still shattered something like the image you see. 

I finally went to get it fixed. And being I have Apple Care, it was only going to cost me $29. 

If that were only the case!

Since I was backed up, we were good to go. But they truly wiped out my phone completely. Everything. Still fine, since i had a back-up.  But then they went to reactivate my sim-card. 

Way back in 2007, when I got my first iPhone, it was a gift from 710. So while the bill somehow comes to, and paid by, me, the account is still under his name.  .....and now they wouldn't reactivate the phone without him being there with his I.D. 

FUUUUUUCK.  

I guess I'm just a '50's housewife who needs a man to get anything I need. 

They told me to try the AT&T store down the road, maybe they'd reactivate it. 

Short story - they couldn't. Not without the man of the household. 

But it took a long time to get to that point. Do you know who the AT&T store folks goes to for technical support?  Do ya??   The same fucking customer service line you or I would call.  Even their employees have to talk to Rajeet Brad.  And he wanted my account number.   Guess what??  I have it........on. my. phone. 

So while the rep was talking to the phone rep, I meander over to the display phones, which are operational. And I call 710..........nine times. At first he lets it go to voicemail, which I assumed he would from an unknown number, which is why I kept calling back. But then he just would automatically send it to voicemail.  Now I'm pissed. 

I'm upset for a number of reasons. One being it is now after 20:00 and I'm not going to have a phone. Second was, of course, being ignored when I needed to talk to 710. Third - and I can't stress this enough - is how dependent we are to our phones. Everything is on it. Personal. Work. All my contacts. How I pay for things. Spelling Bee!!!  

.....and on the way home, I pass two grouping of deer on the side of the road. Now I get into safety. If I got hit / hit them, I can't call anyone.    .....which sends me down a spiral of, 'would he pick up if EMS was calling him'.   Now I'm inexplicably irate.  

We go through options and still had 30 minutes before AT&T closed. So we trek back - I.D. in hand.  And it's back to the customer service line. They ask which device I had - which they should know. And it turns out they didn't want my account number, but my 4-digit code.  And then said, "we went the code to reactivate to my phone"...........which useless, because the phone isn't active. 

I mean, WTF, people. 

Finally another guy shows up, and it takes him a bit, but he brings it back to life. He wants to set it up, but it's after 21:00, I haven't been home since 04:30 and I haven't had dinner. I'd set it up at home. 

OMFG.  It was worse than setting up a new phone. It still is. I'm finding apps I still need to reactivate and set new passwords. My Apple Pay stuff was wiped clean. My face recognition: gone. My bluetooth links - all disappeared. I'm still finding things to set up. 

I'm still not happy about how to be so dependent on the phone, but I don't know how to break from it either. 

Honestly, I was without it for 3.5 hours. How sad is that?

It's rhetorical, of course. 

Song by: Blondie