The Ranting of the Retiree
Barry Worrell 6-08

My wife Linda and I got new cell phones just the other day. We have had the same ones for about three years now, and really weren’t planning on getting new ones. However, Linda dropped hers in the pool. There is was, lying in about 4 feet of water until she fished it out with a net. We took off the back and removed the battery and I got on the internet to see what to do about it. We got the “wiping it off” thing right but didn’t know about the “sims” card, so I took that out also. The article said to let it dry naturally for about 24 hours, but here in Arizona, it’s so dry that anything wet dries in less that half the time. We have a little 6 foot clothes line on the back porch and if you have enough clothes to fill it up, the first one is starting to dry by the time you put up the one on the other end  Well…….almost. Back to the “sims” card. In case you don’t know what that is, it’s a little flat piece of plastic with stamped circuitry on one side. This holds information such as your stored numbers, and anything that you have added to your phone. You might say it’s what makes your phone, your phone. The phone was working fine until several days later the screen display went dim and was hard to see. The inevitable finally came. We decided to get new phones. 

Getting something new is sometimes like pulling teeth. In three years time the technology advanced at a tremendous rate and man had figured out how to cram loads of new functions into a smaller space, which is another problem all together. As we all know, we don’t see as well as we used to and these little phones are just plain aggravating. We certainly didn’t want to get that phone they advertise on TV called the “Jitterbug”, which has two functions. Either yes or no. Even at almost 70, I'm not ready for a “assisted phone” yet.  Back to the original problem. We hate dealing with the stores that sell these phones. First, all the phones have a price tag with two prices on it. Then you find one you like, and that one is not on your upgrade list.  Plus there's all of the extras. Slightly exasperated, we left the store without new phones. 

Over the next few days we still discussed getting new phones. I got a coupon in the mail stating, if I sign up for another year with my provider, I get one month billing free. However, on line it says you can get the upgrade price for new phones if you sign up for two years.  That seemed like a potential contradiction to me. If you’re getting tired of reading about this, just imagine what I was going thru.   

I called my provider, which shall be known as “T-Mobil”, because it is. I talked to a very nice lady about upgrading and getting the best price. She said no problem. She would sign me for two years, I get the one month billing free, and I still will get the best price when I upgrade. After another lady confirms my decision to extend my contract for two more years, I get switched immediately, I might add, back to the lady I was talking to. She says, “Now, what phones are you interested in?” I say, ‘You can help with that also?”  “Certainly!” she says. I thought this must be my day! 

Since we had spent enough time in the store to pick out our phones, we knew exactly which ones we wanted. Both of the phones we selected were 29.99, but she said, “I’m going to give them to you for 19.99 each. My smile grew wider. The guy at the store told us there would be an 18.00 activation fee for each phone, which really irritated us. “What about the 18.00 activation fee?” I said. “I’m going to waive the activation fee” said she.  Two phones, the ones we wanted, and a car charger, seventy bucks and change. Oh yeah, free shipping. Was I grinning, or what.  

Needless to say, we have our phones and are very pleased with them. For 5.00 I downloaded Motorola Phone Tools from the internet. This allows me to put my own pictures and ring tones that I choose from any of my recordings, on the phones, without paying to download them. 

In a few years, if I’m still alive, I’m going to have to go thru this again. Hopefully, I will remember that I wrote this to help me go about it the best way. I hope it may help you also. My cell number is 301 675 ….   I'm open for questions.