Chamblee54

The Motorola C-139 phone was a disaster. I put up with it for a bit more than a year. Finally, after another missed call, I was ready for a replacement. I had an Alcatel A205G before that, and had been looking at ordering another one. Then I went to Kroger, and saw an Alcatel A405DL. I asked a clerk to unlock the phone in the display rack, and she said I needed customer service. I saw the line at customer service, and decided to come back later. A few minutes later, while looking through the close out items, another clerk came up to me, and asked me if I wanted to buy a phone. She unlocked it, and checked it out immediately. With the Kroger card discount, the price was $16.19.
I am a neo-luddite. I see the smart phone masses, and think that is not for me. Just a simple phone, without the delicate large screen, is fine for me. Something to make, and receive, voice calls and texts. The pre-Motorola cell phones had been great. The first Tracfone was $4 at a yard sale, and lasted until it was obsolete. Instead of evolving into something better, flip phones go downhill.
When I get the new phone home, and unwrap all the parts. The sim card is already in the phone, with an empty slot next to it. Should I remove the sim card, or leave it alone? I call the customer service number… the first of many calls that horrible afternoon. First, I get immediately connected to a South Asian I could barely understand. The SA did not understand my question. I tried calling again. This time I got the menu. Getting through to technical support proved impossible. I called again, and got through to TS. Yes, you leave the sim card where it is.
I have new product anxiety. So often, getting a new electronic product set up is a nightmare. I charged the battery, until I could not put off calling for help any more. I have a Tracfone account on my computer. For some reason, I wanted to talk to a person, rather than set up the new phone myself. Looking back, this may have been a mistake.
I call technical support. The first representative was totally incomprehensible. I asked for another representative. The second one got my serial/sim card numbers, and said the phone was set up. I hung up the phone, and tried to call from the land line. The call went immediately to voice mail. I had to reboot the phone for the message to come through. I tried to set up voice mail, pushing the 1 button down, and waiting for instructions. The instructions never came.
I call back. This is the first of several callbacks. I learn that you push 1, 1, and 4 on the menu, then say technical support three times. It does not help to yell at the phone … it is a robot on the line. The robot laughs at you when you get mad.
The callbacks fall into a pattern. They ask me to turn the phone off, and back on. They put me on hold, and go talk to someone. They come back, send a call that goes through, and we think the problem is solved. I try to call from a land line, and the call does not go through. Back to step one.
The last call was a doozy. The man told me the reason I could not make calls was that my account balance was zero. This was very puzzling … I had checked my balance earlier, and I had over 200 minutes. I looked at the Tracfone site, and the balance was, indeed, zero. For the next hour, I was on hold, with brief conversations with the young man. Finally, the account was restored to what it was before. I could make calls now. The second slot, next to the sim card, was for a memory card.
By this time, it was 7:30. The phone had been purchased at 2:12. At 8:08 I sent out the first text: “Testing new phone please reply upon receipt.” At 12:33 am: “Consider this your reply.” Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.