Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Year; old dog, new tricks

Happy New Year!

I've got a new gadget -- tool -- thing that I'm using to post this. It's a "smart phone" and yes, I'd say it's pretty smart, all right.

I've looked at such phones for awhile but couldn't stomach a 2-year agreement at $80 a month (that's how you get a "free" phone) when I've been paying a lot less with a prepaid service.

Then another homeschool mom mentioned a new deal she'd found -- $30 a month for 100 minutes of talk and unlimited text and data. You had to buy the phone at Wal-Mart, and the plan is a Wal-Mart/T-Mobile collaboration.

I researched smart phones to find the best deal I could manage, and finally settled on one.

Actually getting the phone was something else again. There was a special price online, so I bought it with the free ship-to-store option. Picked up the phone and tried to activate it.

I got far enough into the process to find out the SIM card was bad. What to do about it... Phone calls with T-Mobile and Wal-Mart.com -- multiple calls, long conversations, no resolution.

Finally after a week of useless phone, I got fed up and drove to Wal-Mart with the phone. Almost an hour later -- plus several more phone calls with T-Mobile -- and Jen figured out a solution. Yay! (Thanks go to Debbie for her efforts, as well.)

I'm not so sure about T-Mobile's customer service, but I'm pretty impressed with our local Wal-Mart folks, who went "above and beyond the call" to get me an activated, working phone.

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