Blue Teeth and Black Berries...

I am so sick of being on hold and dealing with "customer service" that I could puke. It all started with a curious glance at a phone at a kiosk in the mall.

I have had the same old phone for 2 years and I was ready for an upgrade. I didn't want to pay too much for one either. My contract with AT&T, taken over by Cingular, was about to be up. The phone on display that caught my eye was the Motorola V330. I could switch to T-Mobile and get 1000 anytime minutes with unlimited nights and weekends. The best part of the deal was that the phone came with a free Motorola blue tooth wireless headset. Sign me up.

I got all of my paper work and walked away a happy man. But wait, where is the headset? Oh, it's a mail in offer? OK. Wait. Where is the paper work for it? I go back and sure enough, she sold me a deal that didn't exist. I handed my phone back and asked to undo everything. The same phone was on sale for less dough. The girl wanted her commission, so she promised me that she'd buy the headset at her dealer discount and get it to me. I said that if I didn't get it, I'd take it all back. She was find with that, so was I.

After two weeks I followed up. She wasn't there. But she was supposed to be there the next day. I came back. She had forgotten. I was about to turn in my phone when she promised me she'd have it then next day when she worked. I said I'd give her the one more day. I then went shopping at other places. One stand promised me a brand spankin new Blackberry 7100t for only $10 more than I already paid for my V330.

The next day I came back and sure shootin, she had called in sick leaving me bluetoothless. I was blue, however. I told the dude that was working there for her I was returning the phone. He then asked me if I would be happy if he gave me his headset. I took it and ran. But then I couldn't get it to connect to my phone. I took it back. He couldn't either. Once he did, he couldn't remember the passkey to make them paired. The dude called the girl and she was bringing it in that night. I was at the end of my rope. But I gave them one last chance. I went back that night and there was nothing there for me. I was in the act of returning my phone and going to the other place when this place offered to match it. I wasn't happy with the place, but the same deal as the other place without another endless pile of paperwork was good enough for me.

I took my bright shiny new Blackberry. I called T-Mobile to see how much the extra features cost for the e-mail and such. While doing that I found out that the dumb blonde also gave me the wrong contract agreement. I was getting charged $20 a month more than I agreed to! Now I was seeing black. The deal I got was only good for Arizona. I had a Hawaiian area code. I had to either get way less minutes or pay the extra moolah. After kavetching enough, I managed to get my offer with my number. I also took the chance to throw that stupid sales rep girl under the train. The customer service person at T-Mobile apparently had already heard of her. Good news for me, bad for her.

After 24 hours of using the Cell Phone/PDA hybrid I came to the conclusion that it was highly over rated and I didn't want it. I went to my computer and placed it on eBay. I took my earnings from it and bought the Audiovox 5600. That phone runs on Windows Mobile and has Windows Media Player 10 on it. It is exactly what I really wanted in a phone.

I have made a call every other day to this kiosk since. I am always promised a quick call back. I have learned not to expect it. The girl has been transferred and then fired. I am thinking I might just not get my Bluetooth - unless grinding your teeth will eventually turn them blue.

I never did get my Bluetooth headset. I had to go through several phones and sell a brand new Blackberry for half the value, but I finally got the phone and plan that I wanted. Long story short, what a headache!

Good news is that on the bottom line, I got a better upgraded plan for the same cost and a better phone for less than the cost of a new one. What would I change if I did it all over? Well, I would beat that sales chick black and blue from the beginning. Other than that, all's well that ends well.