Constant Companion Lost

I’m lost. My constant companion, my shadow, my everything died Saturday night.

No, I’m not talking about my beloved husband, or anybody for that matter. My phone died!

I know I’ve written in this space before about my attachment to this electronic device that certainly controls our lives somewhat, but also is useful, helpful, and multi-faceted.

When it first quit, I felt lost. Then, after a few hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I felt liberated. Now, I’m lost again. But I have survived, so far, two complete days with no phone. (I think others may miss me having my phone more than I do.)

So here’s what happened.

When I was going to bed Saturday night, I got an error message on my phone saying it needs a factory reset. So early Sunday morning, against my better judgment as I have no patience on the phone with computers, I called Verizon. After several minutes talking to some one then being switched to a chat which was basically texting, the Verizon representative said my phone was fixed. And, then we got disconnected.

My phone ceased to work at all. It would cut on, if I worked with it, but different messages kept popping up….like phone has stopped; Google play has stopped, System UI has stopped….I don’t know what all. It was baffling. And, the phone will not make or receive calls. Now it won’t even turn on.

And, as I mentioned earlier, I lose patience quickly trying to communicate with inanimate objects.

As an aside….it didn’t help that I had called DirectTV on Thursday….suffered through the computer talk, and finally got a person. I got my bill as straight as I could…not good enough but I could live with it. Well, they sent me a “confirmation” email Friday, confirming different numbers than we had talked about and locking me into a new two year contract…something that was NEVER mentioned Thursday in my call that may have been recorded for quality assurance. BS

DirectTV is an offshoot now of AT&T, and I can’t begin in this little bit of space to speak to my abhorrence of AT&T. It has to have the worst customer service of any company in the country. So, after I got the email….which you can’t respond to and you have to log into an account I have never set up and will not, I called.

The “customer service agent” hung up on me. I’m sure it was an accident. He asked for my phone number then phone went click, click, click, and no one was there. Why did he not call me back? I had just given him my phone number. Oh well. I was not happy to put it mildly. So, I will do business the old-fashioned way and mail a letter to DirectTV and tell them what I think.

And, in the meantime, I called Bank of America so I could cancel the authorization for DirectTV. That representative hung up on me too! I had a bad day Friday, for sure.

Then, my phone dies Saturday. I got frustrated Sunday, debated about going to the store, and decided to let someone else look at it.

My niece, Elizabeth Hobby, is a sweetheart and has the patience of Job when it comes to talking to recordings. And, she was willing to do it for me. So she called. I don’t know what happened, exactly, but Verizon is sending me a new phone, that should be here before this is printed. Then, I have to somehow get my information from my dead phone to the new phone, even though my old phone won’t cut on.

So, if you are in my contacts…please text me with your name Wednesday or after so I can put you in my phone.

You see, it had said for some time, Cloud Contacts failed to back up. So I’m going to be cut off from the world for a while, I’m afraid. But, at least I’ll have an alarm clock, can play games (real important), make and receive calls to the few people whose numbers I know, and text to those same people.

Heck, now I can’t even text the radio station to try to win $1,000.

So you have heard my saga. And you know my weakness. Please people. hire someone to answer the phone. I don’t think I’m the only one who hates to talk to a computer.

And, even though my dealings over the last week were with very large companies, there are businesses right here in Monticello that frustrate me when I try to call. Think about it if you’re using that convenience.