Trivial Matters

Earlier this year, my BlackBerry crapped out on me. Sprint refused to fix it because they could not duplicate the problem here in Portland. But every time I went away for the Army (to California, Washington, or New Jersey), my service would start acting funny. I’d get no connection despite having multiple coverage bars.

Frustrated at not having a phone, I bought a TracFone on one of the bases, canceled my Sprint service, and didn’t look back. After a while, though, I got to missing the extra BlackBerry features (email mostly) and decided to go with Cricket because I didn’t want to be tied to a contract in the event that I have to leave the country.

The one caveat was that I needed to be able to take the TracFone number with me. I didn’t want to have to go through the trouble of having a new number, especially when there are still people who try to use the BlackBerry number to get ahold of me (and then wonder why I don’t answer). TracFone told me that I could port the number with no issues. They gave me the info I needed and I went to Cricket last weekend to buy a new phone.

I picked the Samsung Messager, which is a very nice phone. It’s not a BlackBerry or iPhone, but it does what I need. The problem was that they don’t do the number porting in the stores. Instead, I was given an 800-number to call, which I did. Too bad they aren’t open on the weekends, so I had to wait until Monday to call again.

After spending 30 minutes on hold, I was connected. I gave the guy all of the info and he said to call back in four hours to check on the status. It was more like four days before I got someone to answer again. This was last Friday night. The new person told me that the change never happened because Verizon didn’t have that account. I explain why Verizon doesn’t have the account (it’s not a Verizon phone). To which she replied that TracFone was closed (they’re on the East Coast apparantly) and that I’d have to wait until Monday to have the new request processed.

It’s now Monday. To my knowledge, the number is still not ported. I tried calling earlier this morning, and nobody answered. I went back to the Cricket store and had them call. The manager was on hold for 45 minutes when I finally gave up waiting. I told them that if it wasn’t done by tomorrow, I was returning the phone. I’m thinking I’ll use the money to buy a netbook instead.

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