Hell Mobility

You might wonder why I've got a picture of Snookie here, but all will be explained in time...

I've been having some issues with my cell phone lately. I've got the Palm Pre (need I say more?) and there have been problems with it for a while. Long story short, the volume button on the side doesn't work. I can decrease the volume, but not increase it (without going into the menu and adjusting it there). I can hear the phone ring, but I can't play videos or listen to music on it. I know it's not the end of the world, but when I buy something I kind of expect it to work.

So I went into Hell Bell Mobility this evening to talk about the issue. I went up to the customer support person who was busy talking on her cell. She was a combination of Snookie and Carmela Soprano - complete with the poofy hair and the long fingernails. I mean, LONG. She had her nails airbrushed with the Louis Vuitton insignia on them. Seriously.

They had to be at least a couple of inches long and she kept putting her fingernails in her mouth while we were talking. GROSS. But I digress...

Snookie The sales rep asked me when I got my phone, and I know I got it sometime in September, so all I said was "late September". She went to her computer and started looking for the date I purchased it...by the DATE. Not by the phone number or any other information, and she just kept scrolling. One of the other reps bitchslapped asked her to step away from the computer and go hooch it up elsewhere deal with another customer.

He found all the details and told me it was still under warranty. Great. He said I could get another phone, but they were on back order. I asked him how long it would take to get a new phone and he told me it could "take up to a month". Umm, ques'que fuck?!

Not that I live and die by my phone, but that's kind of an inconvenience. I asked the rep if I would lose any apps that I recently downloaded, and he said he wasn't sure and if I wanted to know, that I could call Bell. Umm, I'm in the Bell store, shouldn't he know that?!

Anyways, I called Bell from the BELL STORE and the customer service rep went through some trouble shooting with me. He asked me to restart the phone because "sometimes that fixes the problem". Umm, my problem is a mechanical problem with the button, but apparently I don't know what I'm talking about...but I digress.

When the phone restarted, he told me to click this, click that, do this, do that, and after twenty seven minutes and fifty three seconds (yes, the phone had a time stamp), he told me that the issue was with the phone's buttons. For all things holy...I was about to scream.

He told me that I should go home, upload all my pictures, and any info that I had on it, to my computer and then go back to Hell Bell and ask for a new phone. Didn't we already establish that I needed a new phone?! Anyways, he told me that if I wanted a new phone, I could get one for "free".

Technically it would be "free", except I would have to pay $35 for them to diagnosis the problem (yes, I already diagnosed it for them), and if I wanted a "loaner" phone while I wait for my "free phone", I could get one for $25. Yup, I could get my new, free phone for $60.

In the long run, I decided that I didn't want to bother. The issue doesn't affect the phone, per se, it's just annoying. Anyways, really, why should I pay for any of this when it's a technical problem? They suck.