Havasimy

Okay. A update on the phone situation. I went to the verizon store tonight. There was a different woman behind the counter so I explained the problems and what the previous Verizon employees have told me, both at the counter she was at and on the phone at the national customer service. I said I wanted a used "refurbished" phone. (Refurbished was how the woman last week put it.) The lady last week had told me that there were two used phones I could get and, although she didn't explicitly say it, she made it sound like she could get me one immediately. This woman tonight said that I had to get the exact phone I had and there were no used ones available in the region (south Jersey). Now, unlike last time, there was a line of six or so people behind me line waiting. They obviously overheard me a few times saying how the person last week had mentioned nothing about me having to get the exact same phone and had said nothing about there not being any available refurbished phones. All the while, including when she was interupted by a co-worker to talk about another issue, she had my phone and was opening and closing it, despite the fact that I had told her when I had walked up that my phone had a worsening problem where it couldnt' tell if it was open or closed. Well, I was watching it worsen as she spoke to her co-worker. Anyway, I walked out of the store pissed. I decided to immediately call national customer service to see if they can find me a used phone from a different region. I walked back inside and looked on a business card to find the customer service number. I called from my car. I started out by getting a message about the hurricane and what Verizon is doing to help. Well, considering my recent encounter with New Orleans, I'm actually interested in helping the hurricane victims, but not at that moment. I pushed "0". I continued to push "0" until I got put on hold. After five minutes I hung up and tried again. I pushed "0" to get past the hurricane Katrina message then waited for the correct prompt. I waited on hold for less than a minute. From there on, it was good. I've generally had great luck with the personalities on Verizon Wireless customer service. Now they might now always be able to help me, but atleast when they can't they actually sound sincere when they say they're sorry. The girl in the store said sorry in a way that it came out "I'm sorry my co-worker a week ago said something that conflicts with what I believe and is now wasting my time because you keep repeating what she said." A customer service rep for verizon a couple years ago gave me a $5 credit because I had a problem paying a bill on their then-evolving website. Tonight, they apologized and said they could send me a refurbished phone for free. (Their story went along with the girl I spoke with in the store last week that there were two types of used phones available and that I didn't need to get the exact same model I previously had. They couldn't confirm or deny whether any were available in the South Jersey area.) So, they were able to find me one and ship it to me. Shipping was free for 7-10 day shipping or I could have it overnighted at a small cost. I was sick of my semi-working phone, so I paid the extra and will have my phone on thursday (it was too late to get over night shipping tonight). I can activate it over the phone. I have to go to a store with a technical support desk, though, to get the phone numbers transferred. I will be going to a different store to do it. Maybe friday, after my half-day at work, I can go into Philly or to a slightly further verizon store than the one I went to today, and get all my old phone numbers transferred. I'm definitely not going back to the technical support desk of tonight's store.

To summarize: I won't have text messaging until thursday. I also will have only semi-reliable phone service until then. And any text message you send me before then, I won't be able to read.