I Ported

I spent two hours in a RadioShack yesterday to do something I should have been able to do in ten minutes.

A few months ago Lyle struck out on his own and got a cell phone. This made me happy in a now-I-can-always-reach-you kind of way; but upset in a why-didn't-you-check-with-me-so-we-could-get-a-family-plan and maybe-I-could-get-a-cool-new-cell-phone-too kind of way. But none of this concerned him in the least, he got a cool new phone (which he never answers BTW) so he was happy. Yesterday I called RadioShack (where Lyle signed up for his Cingular plan) and asked about getting my number moved over to his plan. Sure, no problem was the answer. What do I need to bring with me? Nothing at all, we can take care of everything. So I left the house at 3:30 (yes, I took the afternoon off) and went to RadioShack. No problem, turned out to be a huge problem. The guy I spoke to on the phone was aparently not the expert, but a trainee. He did it wrong the first time and started over (one half hour gone). Then he asked me for the last four digits of Lyle's SS#. Luckily my phone was still working and Lyle was reachable. (BTW they never did ask if I was his current wife or for any proof that I was his wife. I could see a Judge Judy episode in the making.) Then they asked me for my Verizon account number. I don't have that number memorized. Well, it should be on your statement. I don't have my statement with me, since you told me I did not need to bring anything. Luckily, a guy who does know what he's doing steps in at this point and has me call Verizon and sure enough with the last four digits of my SS# they give me my account number. We should be home free now. Nope, the system is slow and they keep screwing it up. At 5pm I called Lyle to ask if he could pick up Jackson. At 5:30pm we were finally as done as they could get; they did not port my phone number but the best they could do was to give me a new number on Lyle's plan and ask me to call the Port Authorization # myself to get it done.

I finally did that this morning and the person at Cingular could not have been more helpful. She knew exactly what she was doing and got it done in about 10 minutes. Woo hoo! She also explained that as soon as my number was ported they would contact Verizon to close my account. Double woo hoo! I am terrible at things like that, I always feel bad about cancelling things; taking the very bread and butter from their table.

Anyway, while I did not pick out the fanciest phone in the store, like some people I know, I picked the most expensive phone that I could get for free with my two-year plan and it is great. It is a camera phone and it seems to have lots of features I will never, ever use. Lyle's phone is a camera phone too and he seems to think that we can email pictures to ourselves, but we haven't figured that part out yet.