*Cheesy TV commercial announcer voice*
This hateful, ranting post brought to you in part by (more like blamed on & caused by):
Telus Communications
&
Bell Mobility Canada
Some days... I hate technology... Don't get me wrong, the only time I hate it is when it's not working properly.... If the new millennium would've wiped out the Internet and other forms of technology, as we know it today... There may just have been an Armageddon... I digress, my dislike of the current moment - Cell Phones and Cell Providers... Highway Robbery!!!
My personal relationship with a Cell Phone started about 4 or so years ago... Other than phoning someone with a cell phone, I hadn't given a cell a real thought until I one time moved.... I called Telus, a land line/cell phone/cable/Internet provider to inform them of the moving coming up in about a week... They made note on my file... I called the day of my move to confirm the new address and that my land line would be changed over by days end. I was assured that it would be... It didn't happen that way... By days end, no service change. I called the next day from work and they assured me that it would be by the end of that day... This went on for two weeks, until I had enough of their "sorry for the inconvenience, we're changing our system over and this must be a glitch. Thank you for your patience, we're working on it." I cut my services completely.
It didn't end there......... Every month for six months, I would receive a statement from Telus telling me how much I owed them.... For a line that had been out of service... So, every month I would call Telus, explain the situation, spend 15 minutes on the phone and on "ignore" and figured by the end of the call it was taken care of... Finally, the situation was corrected and I haven't gone back to Telus since. The sad thing is, I have two Aunts that made careers at Telus. (My Mum and my Grandma's Sister were both Telephone Operators as well, long before Telus was around though.)
After cutting my land line service - and after the end of my shift at work - I b-lined down to the closest mall and invested in my first Cell phone. I had done some research and settled on Bell Mobility and chose the LG Chocolate. I was excited - I had finally stepped into the 21st century! Of course, as with every new gadget, or toy if you will, I fiddled and played with the dang thing... I was texting like a mad Woman... Once Facebook began to make it's appearances on the scene, I was checking the Facebook too!
As with every toy/gadget, the "newness" wore off.... No biggy though, I was still a Facebook Addict and the Chocolate Cell Phone was never far out of reach... The end of my Chocolate was one such Facebook Tragedy induced time. I was out with the then Boyfriend, and he came back to the table after shooting a game of pool... He decided he'd be a wise ass and snap my phone shut on me... As he did so, the force snapped the battery clip clean off... The only way to get the battery to stay on would be a piece of duct/electrical tape... Effing classy... So I went into Bell to see what they could do for me... By this time, I had been on contract with them for a year out of a three year term. They advised me that fixing the phone would be more expensive than just getting a new one Conveniently, I had a "$100 Credit" on my account and was able to use that towards a new phone...
I wound up taking a cheap Samsung flip phone in a cute shade of pink... After a week, that thrill had faded too. I guess the Chocolate wasn't the only phone that I had that was cursed... About a year after I got this phone, it started crapping out on me too! This was a battery issue, too! I would use my phone through out the day, knock the battery level back by half - then I'd toss it on the charger when I was heading to bed. (The cell dubbed as my alarm clock as well.) This particular phone's issue was - when I woke up in the morning, it would read at a full charge... But once I took it off the charger, it would start flashing "Low Battery" and turn it's self off due to having no juice left... Again, I went to Bell and I had a "$100 Dollar Credit" so I replaced my phone while in Whistler during the Olympics. This time I've got a cheap Nokia. I dropped it once resulting in a rock chip on the screen that much resembled a chip on the windshield of a car. Bell replaced the screen free of charge.
What leaves me perplexed though are the outrageous rates Cellular Providers are allowed to charge their clients these days! It's down right obscene! Don't get me wrong - Cells are convenient as hell, and not just for business people anymore. You can be tracked down where ever you are, call home to see if anyone needs anything, call for help if you have car trouble, call for directions if you don't have GPS and are lost, call out if the power/telephone line is dead, texting to avoid calling all together, check Facebook and email if you aren't around a computer and the list goes on...(I've already raged out about people driving while using their cells... So I'll be lazy and not do that again here.) I hang my head in shame when I admit to my own outrageous monthly price for these conveniences..... On average, my cell bill is between $80 and $100 a month depending on long distance use. That's $960 to $1200 a YEAR and that's not even a Blackberry! (The two months I was in Whistler cost me a combined $500... No word of a lie...)
I went in to Bell today to do a simple task... Change my Alberta number to a BC number instead. Less than a week til Christmas was not the right time to do this I discovered... The teeny-tiny little store was crawling with people and the staff were all busy. No problem, I respectfully waited my turn. I was politely served and within 15 minutes, I walked out of the store pleased that I had changed my address and had been assigned a BC number, for less $$$ than I was originally quoted. I called a couple people in town to let fill them in on the number change. To save on long distance, I attempted to text out of town people the news... Then I turned Scrooge-y very quickly... I couldn't send texts because I had no access to do so... I also couldn't check my beloved Facebook..
I reeled on my heals and headed back to Bell. I was told to try "Powering it down" (Fancy talk for turning my damn phone off.)... Done... Didn't work... Tried taking the battery and SIM card out and putting them back in... Didn't work... Then I was informed the number change could take from 20 minutes to 24 hours... Nice... Luckily, 3 hours after the number change, I was able to text and everything else was back to normal.... Well, the SIM card still reads my Albertan number - I hope that changes soon though! I guess I expected the switch to be instantaneous and was a little leery due to my Telus experience those years ago.
With all the advances in Cell Phone Technology, I want a Blackberry of some sort... I don't want the high tech IPhone or any other fancy shmancy high tech gadget... Just a Blackberry... I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for it either! I'd say even $50 a month would be more than reasonable for a cell bill.... Sorry, Bell Mobility Canada... I don't want to use your services anymore either. I realize Bell is the service provider and doesn't actually make the phones... But I've gotten two crappy phones through them so far. (Jury's still out on the third one, but it's coming up quickly on that year mark.) I've run into more rude customer service agents through Bell then I'd like to admit. (And no, I'm not one of "those" customers that may deserve a rude one every-so-often.) My average phone bill is ridiculous. (I'll give them the $500/2 months bill because I did use A LOT of long distance in that period of time.)
So here's the question I pose... Any advice on what cell providers to use? I refuse to go with Telus and I'm looking to get away from Bell. I'm thinking Rogers but have heard mixed reviews. I'm looking for a Company that's reasonably priced and has a reliable signal. I'm looking to switch to a Blackberry. I like the Pearl but have heard they're such crap to not even bother. I'm open to suggestions, so please feel free to do just that.
It's not always about me; I'm not the "only idiot with a cell phone."
I went in to Bell today to do a simple task... Change my Alberta number to a BC number instead. Less than a week til Christmas was not the right time to do this I discovered... The teeny-tiny little store was crawling with people and the staff were all busy. No problem, I respectfully waited my turn. I was politely served and within 15 minutes, I walked out of the store pleased that I had changed my address and had been assigned a BC number, for less $$$ than I was originally quoted. I called a couple people in town to let fill them in on the number change. To save on long distance, I attempted to text out of town people the news... Then I turned Scrooge-y very quickly... I couldn't send texts because I had no access to do so... I also couldn't check my beloved Facebook..
I reeled on my heals and headed back to Bell. I was told to try "Powering it down" (Fancy talk for turning my damn phone off.)... Done... Didn't work... Tried taking the battery and SIM card out and putting them back in... Didn't work... Then I was informed the number change could take from 20 minutes to 24 hours... Nice... Luckily, 3 hours after the number change, I was able to text and everything else was back to normal.... Well, the SIM card still reads my Albertan number - I hope that changes soon though! I guess I expected the switch to be instantaneous and was a little leery due to my Telus experience those years ago.
With all the advances in Cell Phone Technology, I want a Blackberry of some sort... I don't want the high tech IPhone or any other fancy shmancy high tech gadget... Just a Blackberry... I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for it either! I'd say even $50 a month would be more than reasonable for a cell bill.... Sorry, Bell Mobility Canada... I don't want to use your services anymore either. I realize Bell is the service provider and doesn't actually make the phones... But I've gotten two crappy phones through them so far. (Jury's still out on the third one, but it's coming up quickly on that year mark.) I've run into more rude customer service agents through Bell then I'd like to admit. (And no, I'm not one of "those" customers that may deserve a rude one every-so-often.) My average phone bill is ridiculous. (I'll give them the $500/2 months bill because I did use A LOT of long distance in that period of time.)
So here's the question I pose... Any advice on what cell providers to use? I refuse to go with Telus and I'm looking to get away from Bell. I'm thinking Rogers but have heard mixed reviews. I'm looking for a Company that's reasonably priced and has a reliable signal. I'm looking to switch to a Blackberry. I like the Pearl but have heard they're such crap to not even bother. I'm open to suggestions, so please feel free to do just that.
It's not always about me; I'm not the "only idiot with a cell phone."
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