Old Dogs and New Tricks...

in #dropintheocean5 years ago (edited)


I was very proud of myself tonight. While talking to Tracfone Customer Service Department I did not reach through the phone and ... slap the young man upside his head. Hard.



Let's backtrack, shall we? I have only owned a cell phone for 4 years. Yes, I am an adult and four years ago I first purchased a smart cell phone. I knew nothing about them. Nothing. I only really wanted a cell phone because when my internet goes out my landline goes out. I had no way to contact my internet carrier to ask why and when will my internet connection be fixed.

I rarely use my phone. Each year, when I have to renew the Tracfone contract by buying more minutes, I look at how much data and minutes I have. I hide these numbers from my husband so he doesn't start using my phone and all my saved minutes and data. Yes, really. You never know when you will really need them and I like having extra just in case.



Where I purchase my Tracfone from it is almost cheaper to get a whole new phone that comes with minutes/text/data each year than to fill up your phone via purchasing a card for minutes. The only drawback is you need to learn how to use a new phone all over again. For me, buying a new phone is not a happy thing. It's a pain in my bum kind of thing.

Unfortunately, my phone was two years old and showing signs of not living much longer. I was smarter this time. I purchased a new hard case, screen protector and more memory all at the same time. It all came in the same box from Amazon about a month ago. I wasn't ready to learn something new just yet so there it sat. Behind me. Waiting.



Yesterday I received a notice on my phone. In five days my year contract was up. If I didn't want to lose all my saved minutes, I needed to start up my new phone and get it working. I pulled the phone out of the box and in bold letters it told me not even turn it on unless it was charged to 100%. The perfect excuse to put off learning a new phone for one more day.

This evening when I was awake as I was going to be, I took the phone and started reading the directions. I found where I had to put in the extra memory chip. Using the 'tool' from the box the phone came in, I popped open the side. Easy peasy right? I thought so. I took my tiny memory card and stuck it in the slot, gold side down. A tinier piece of 'paper' fell out. I set that 'paper' in the phone shipping box along with all the other scaps of wrappings that came with the package.



Depending on your age and knowledge you already know the rest of the story but I'm going to keep going in case you do not. Sigh...



I was finally all ready to call the company to activate my phone so I did. When calling the company they asked for the blah, blah, blah number or the SIM card number. I gave them the blah, blah, blah number. Again, easy peasy.

Waiting for the transaction to go through to change over my phone number to the new phone, I started to set up my new phone. There were a bazillion notifications that popped up once I agreed to sign my life away forever while agreeing to all the terms and conditions to activate the new phone. One of the notifications that caught my eye was one that said: "sim card not found".

I am going to be very honest here. I have no idea what a sim card is. I have heard the word spoken many times and I assume it is important because people seem to get upset about them. In the other two phones, I have owned, I never saw a sim card. I'm sure there was one but I never saw it. In my other phones, I did add extra memory because even I know you can never have enough memory.

Right. With all that in mind, I called Tracfone customer service. I explained that my phone said it didn't have a sim card. I explained that I didn't give the automated dude the sim card number but the blah, blah, blah, number and could I give him the sim card number so my new phone would register that it has a sim card.



You may laugh now. I will wait...



The young man lost his patience with me in 1 second. He condescendingly told me that adding in a number was not going to make my sim card reappear. He then said to open up my phone and look for my sim card to see if it was in there. I proceeded to tell him that the back of my phone is sealed. He told me he knew this. At this point I was thinking does he want me to smash my new phone open to look for something that is or isn't there?

I proceeded to tell the young man that I could see I was upsetting him but if he could calm down maybe we could figure this out together. He then asked me if there was anyone that could help me with my phone. I answered very calmly and with a bit of a chuckle, "No there was not, hence why I called Tracphones Customer service so I could get some help." He didn't like that answer. His voice went up a few octaves and he started to get a tad loud while talking to me.

I calmly asked him if he could stop yelling at me. I pointed out that this was not going to help either one of us figure out where my sim card was. He didn't take kindly to that suggestion either and proceeded to tell me once again to look for the opening in the back of my phone.

I stopped him mid-rant and told the young man that I would just go on YouTube and find out how to find my sim card because yelling at me was not helping either one of us. I then hung up.



Off to my best friend Google I went. Less then two minutes later I knew what had happened to my sim card by watching the video below. I said a prayer that I had stuck that little white 'paper' in the box and not in the garbage.



Lucky for me I had. I found it. I shook my head at how small it was. How when the phone was fabricated they did not make it so the sim card locked in place. When the small door pops open the little white sim card pops right out.

I still have no idea what a sim card does but I now know what one looks like and where on this new phone it can be found. I'm feeling old and very tired. A phone should not be this complicated. To some, I am sure they are not but to others...yeah.



I was asked to make a post this week for:

The word of the week from the Buddy Up community is Fabricate.

The things that come to an individuals mind when we hear a specific word can bring up many different things to many different people. All are right and none are wrong. It is what comes to mind when a word is mentioned.
Write what comes to your mind when you hear the word commemorate in a post. Use the tag #dropintheocean on your post.

A show is hosted in the Buddy Up server and the posts created for the word of the week are presented. https://discord.gg/rj6Uupq The show typically lasts for one hour. ~@thehive

All Photos found here



Make someone smile today. It can not hurt you.


Love,

Snook



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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://www.snookat.com/blog/old-dogs-and-new-tricks/

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I am also old enough to remember back in the day when you wanted a phone, you called up the phone guy -- and when he left, voila, you had one.

I also remember when you wanted to change the Tv channel, you got off your ass, changed the channel. Sat back down. Job done.

Nothing works like that any more -- and frankly, sometimes I miss it. I joke about how they have "improved" simple conveniences past all usability. It's becoming less of a joke.

I used to tell @catweasel ... "I just want a toaster. You plug the damn thing in and it works." ---> You don't have to "program" anything, you don't have to scan anything, you don't have to read "instructions" on how to do something you've done your whole life, you don't have to pray to God you don't inadvertently do something that "voids the warranty" because then you're really screwed, you don't have to put in batteries -- or change them, you don't have to find the remote!!

"They don't make 'em like they used to." No shit, Sherlock. And more often than not, now, that is not a blessing.

P.S. Don't get me started on toasters. Seriously. Just drop it.

I am staying very far away forever from the word Toaster!!!!!!!! I promise You!!!

HAAAAAAAAAAAA

HUGS

I'll stick to my existing phone, hasn't failed me once!

Thank You!! You made me laugh out loud for over a minute when I saw this photo :D

oh my gosh -

i
was
laughing
so
hard
throughout
this
entire
story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wait -isn't a sim card something you need to play for Sims?

I dunno. sounds right to me

hahahahahahaha

Dude on the phone is a bit of a dick, too bad you did not slap him. I actually also only got a fancy Android phone about 5 years ago before that I had an old nokia that could still marginally support one of the chat apps I needed. I have had a runin with that so called tool before on the fancy phones I suspect they get replaced with a paperclip by most but fortunately once you have all the things in chances are you won't be removing them again for a long time :)

chances are you won't be removing them again for a long time :)

That is what I am hoping for too :D Thank you for having the show. I will try and be better about being on time!!

I'm trying really hard not to laugh.

Posted using Partiko Android

OMG it's so dumb you have to laugh!!

i laughed my ass off! LOL

I really like the way you include a snippet of text inside some of the borders you use. It's a really nice touch. The post is really nice to look at in addition to being easy to read. You do a great job on every detail. :) And thanks again for the link to the paragraph article! Very informative!

Thank You!!!! and you are very welcome!! @shadowspub did great at explaining about formatting in that post that makes so much sense after you read it. I'm so happy it was helpful to you!!

There will be immediately noticeable improvement from this one due to its existence, for certain! :)

I hide these numbers from my husband so he doesn't start using my phone and all my saved minutes and data. Yes, really. You never know when you will really need them and I like having extra just in case.

So do I. Sshhhh!

OMG, what a thing! And yes, I saw it coming, fairly soon in your retelling of what happened. Now that your phone is working, I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for sharing this with the PYPT family! I love hearing your laughter when you talk! 💜

By the way, the SIM card (which stands for Subscriber Identification Module) isn't much more than a "key card" like you get when you check into a hotel, which allows you access to the room you're assigned. The SIM card contains the phone-number to which the phone is assigned, the name of the carrier, and some other techie stuff. 🙂

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