Monday, November 17, 2008

Can You Hear Me NOW?


Raise your hand if you still use a landline phone. I'm guessing the only people who raise their hand are those who are over thirty-five.


I was a late adopter of the cell phone. They caught me at an in-between phase. My children were out of the house, so I didn't need to keep track of them. I worked from home and I didn't do a lot of driving in the city. I finally got a cell phone two years ago. Rumor has it I was the last person in Southern California to actually own one.


I'm still not wired. I only give the cell number to family members and if I'm meeting someone for coffee. The number isn't on my business card and I'd rather leave it that way. I don't even have a camera on my cell. The worst part is I only have 450 minutes a month.


I have been without my landline phone for thirteen days. Ugh! I won't go into detail about how it happened. Suffice it to say, we were trying to streamline our operation, acquire fiber optics and eliminate a second phone line. Somehow there was a SNAFU and I'm in a desparate situation.


I've used up all my cell phone minutes and have spent at least two hours a day on the phone with Verizon trying to get it resolved. Tech support has been very pleasant, apologetic and unable to solve the problem. The worst thing about the whole situation is I can never talk to the same person twice. So every single time I call the toll-free number, I have to explain the situation all over again.


My husband admires my ability to stay cool and calm. I got emotional last Wednesday and the tech hung up on me. I've learned that they are the link to my getting a number and I'm nice or else.


Now, in the total horrors that is occurring in the world right now, I realize that being without a phone seems really petty. On the other hand, there are certain things we expect in life. A phone is one of them.

3 comments:

Kathleen said...

This made me laugh, Cathy, because I still have a landline and I LOVE IT! No dropped calls, I can hear everyone perfectly and it's reliable like Old Faithful. Part of it is, I live in a neighborhood with a lot of old brick buildings in the city, 4 - 8 stories each on average and the way they are aligned, makes it hard for me to get a cell phone signal in my home, so I keep the landline.

I am in the process of switching from Verizon to T-Mobile at home, which is still considered a "land line" but it's VOIP vs. regular old fashioned land line. These VOIP (voice over internet protocol) lines are the way to go, as they are much cheaper than Verizon's regular wired landlines. What I pay around $50+ before taxes to Verizon, I can get via T-Mobile for a mere $10. You should look into VOIP (your phone plugs into a router instead of a phone jack).

Skype is another cheap alternative to save your cell phone minutes, because you can use your computer to talk to others (you can still call landlines, cell phones and Skype users) for FREE or for about $2.50 a month, depending on which plan you want.

So, don't let this phone situation continue to stress you out. You definitely have some affordable options to remedy the situation. I am curious to hear from you how it all works out!

fatfighter said...

My hand is up! I use both - they each have their purpose, in my opinion. And I gotta admit, I'm a big fan of texting, too! ;)

Sorry about your problems - that is so annoying when you have to repeat your situation every time you call to get the problem solved. What a pain!!! Shouldn't someone be taking notes they can refer to on this?

Kathleen said...

Hi Cathy, another nuevo landline option is something I saw in yesterday's newspaper. Very affordable -- it's called a Magic Jack and although it works by plugging into your computer, you can use a regular landline telephone to talk. Only caveat; your PC must be on or else your calls go to voice mail. Check out www.MagicJack.com