♫1-877-Karma's-Not Just for Kids♫
Oct. 9th, 2021 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogWe've had us some moments in the past few days. My workweek was four straight days of virtual court appearances, a Tuesday with five straight hourly appointments (including one of those court things) and a Friday with no court but plenty of stress from clients and opponents. Meanwhile, Eleanor finally got to the point of being ready to install the final major things in the loo, but for various reasons the Big Day came the morning after she got her bimonthly cortisone shot in her knee, which meant she was amped up on steroids, sleep deprived the night before and sweating like crazy during the process. We've gone two nights with no upstairs toilet, which is less of an issue for me than for her (there's a portapotty up here for such things), and there have been any number of mismeasurements and false starts and stops, but we're getting there.
And in it all, there have been those moments. Here are some of them.
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A neighbor and friend of ours has been of immense help in getting this project done. When we first set out to fix the big things in the bathroom, we couldn't get any of a half dozen possible contractors to help. The insurance company tried and failed to get somebody under contract to do it. Friends or other contacts recommended one guy or another, but they were too busy, or it was too big a job, or it was too small a job, or they couldn't commit to get here until next year. I even had a client who does this kind of work, but he never bothered to even show up to look at the job. So it largely became DIY, or in this case Do It HERself, but our neighbor has more experience at this than even she does and he has popped in previously to offer advice. We decided some time ago that when it came to the end of the job- fixing the rotted floor, replacing the throne and laying down the new underlaiment and vinyl flooring- we would hire him for that purpose.
Eleanor decided on a figure. I agreed with it. She told him the other morning what it was. He said it was too much. We insisted. He accepted it. And somewhere in there, he told us that the exact number was a sort of sign. You see, he and his girlfriend two houses away have had troubles of their own. Her mother, who they live with (and they moved here from another state to help take care of and her then-husband who died last year), had a major health crisis a few months ago. Both of them lost time from work dealing with it. They've mostly recovered financially, as Mom has medically, but it turned out there was one specific bill that they were worried about getting paid on time, for which they were somewhat short,....
by the exact amount we'd decided to pay him.
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Moving on to my own tilts with windmills:
For much of the past two weeks, I've been dealing with new tech, mostly in the office but also moving an older printer from there to the house and then setting up this new laptop. Last time I posted here, I reported that I'd done some DIYing of my own getting the new printer and this laptop to communicate: I solved the mystery of how to get it to scan to this machine's scans folder, called Tech Guy #1 back to tell him I'd done so (and explained how I'd done it), and also mentioned I'd never heard from TG#2 who was supposed to take a crack at it.
Well, TG#2 finally called me yesterday, because apparently the service order was still sitting around in their system. At some point in the past couple of weeks, probably due to changes we've made on our phone plans (more about THAT joyful experience to follow), my phone now displays all incoming phone calls by name rather than number. (It had always displayed contacts by name, but now every name, or UNKNOWN, or TOLL FREE NUMBER displays.) I didn't know who JOE NOTHISREALNAME was, but it looked vaguely familiar. Joe turned out to be TG#2, following up to see if I still needed help.
No, but where did I know his name from? A think, a thank and a thunk later, I checked in a particular piece of software, and boom:
I'd done the guy's bankruptcy five years ago. He worked for the company at the time, but I had just moved into that office and wasn't dealing with billing or service on the printer back then so I had no idea he was connected (heh) to my tech. I asked if he recognized my name from anywhere else, and after a few seconds, he said, Wait, were YOU the guy who....?
Yeah, that's me. Glad I made such a good impression (heh again).
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Our other circle of Tech Hell has involved the mobile phones. As part of getting my old office printer to connect wirelessly in the house after it turned its nose printhead up on talking to our existing wifi, I got the brilliant idea of using my iPhone as a hotspot. Last time I'd looked into this, it was a limited and expensive proposition, but now, it's right on the Settings menu to turn it on!
Or not. Apparently my plan was so old, it didn't even have an option to enable such a thing. So I looked into whether I could upgrade any or all of our plans to include such an option. My iPhone has had unlimited data since back when it was originally Cingular Wireless. When Eleanor got an iPhone of her own, she went with a limited data plan that's occasionally burped and bumped into a higher price bracket due to some glitch or extended video watch. But we found a new plan that would put Eleanor's phone into the unlimited data category, add mobile hotspotting to mine, and even throw in an HBO Max subscription that we now get through the kids (they can now cancel and use ours), all for less than we're paying now!
Except, that is, for the burner.
That was Eleanor's last pre-smartphone, finally replaced with an iPhone 6s five years ago. Little Nokia sat, lost and lonely, until we ripped out our multiple landline phones which were running us over $175 most months. I then ported the one "personal number" among them to AT&T and parked it on that burner, just so we could keep in touch with people who had that number for us.
Few ever did. Most of the calls we did get on it were from doctors confirming appointments, and various robots and spammers. It Just Sat for most of the past five years, occasionally ringing, more occasionally letting out death pangs if we'd left it unplugged, and perhaps being useful a dozen times to find a missing phone or take when one of ours had been left behind someplace.
But it was only 10 bucks a month, plus taxes and garbage fees close to that- until we changed the plans. Even though our total bill went down when we made the change, the tiers meant that we were now paying $45 a month to have, well, THAT.
And so, I was given a QUEST:
I would remove the burner from our plan, saving us something, and then either tossing the phone or putting that burner, with its oldschool landline number, onto an El Cheapo™ prepaid service which would cost something around the 10 bucks a month it was costing us before.
After four more trips to AT&T stores, four separate trips to other retailers, and endless time on phone calls with bots and beings, we think it's done. The burner is definitely off our AT&T account, saving to be determined in about three weeks. But here, if you care, is the litany of how we got there:
First AT&T Store trip on the quest, this one with Eleanor, during last Sunday's Bills game when we knew it'd be empty: They tell us that we can indeed remove the burner from our plan without it affecting our other services, but they can't do it in the store. If we want to port the number, we should pick a plan at a retailer of our choice and they'll take care of it.
Best Buy visit the first: All representatives are busy assisting other customers. I picked this store because we have a bunch of rewards points with them. I do scope the racks of hangtaggy things, and decide that Tracfone looks like the best bet, seeing one that costs 20 bucks prepaid for three months of service or sixty minutes of use, whichever comes first and trust me, the three months will. After waiting and waiting, I bail.
Best Buy II: Electric Boogaloo: There are other Geek Squads out there, and I hit the one on the way out of Rochester before my final stop of the day on Six Appointment Tuesday. I claim the pre-selected hangtag and bring it to a Geek. She is not impressed with what I am buying. She is not helping me port the number or activate the phone. Go to their website or call their customer service, she harumphs. And no, my reward points can't be used for this. Meh; I'm still saving.
Meeting the New Guys. Here's where I discover that what I've bought isn't enough. I get nowhere on the website because it's asking for codes that make no sense. I call the number and get the bot, who really REALLY doesn't want to let me speak to a representative because he really thinks he can do it and I won't be put on hold. Which I finally am. For a minute. Whereupon we discover that their plan is not compatible with the burner's existing SIM card. I needed to buy one of those off that hangtaggy wall as well, for all of 99 cents. Nice of Ms. Harumph to have told me that.
I went to Tarjay and all I got.... now it's Friday and the burner is still burning the $45 a month to exist. I decide that Target is a better option for the 99 cent purchase. But there was this on sale, and we always need that, and before I knew I had a full bag to bring home! (Just as well, the cats love playing with it. It's paper.)
Back to the bot. New SIM in hand, I begin the task of assigning the landline number to the new guys. They need things. Like a massively long code off the new SIM card. Of which there are three inside the hangtaggy thing, btw, but one says it's AT&T compatible and that's good enough for me. It's such tiny type, I can't read it. Eleanor hears my pain and brings in a lighted magnifier. I read it off to HAL. He then asks for information from our AT&T account. I struggle. He hangs up. Eleanor gets mad at me for arguing with a bot. I promise to do better, which I do by escalating to a hooman bean. I now have the requested information. I give her my account number, my zip code, my PIN, or what I think is my PIN, that I use to log in to my AT&T account, and .... that's not my PIN. It's too long. A PIN is shorter. I didn't know I even had one. And so,....
Trip number five to AT&T! I've been in there so much, I discover they've put me on their dental plan. Both of my/our previous
I Can't Be Bot-Third: Just as Eleanor is waiting for our neighbor to come help finish the major part of the bathroom work, I get on the phone with the bot. This time, we get along, and the account number, zip, correct PIN and everything work! But I still need a hooman bean to effect the transfer. This takes another 45 minutes, but at last, YAY!, I get a text from AT&T on the old phone: YOUR NUMBER HAS BEEN PORTED. IF YOU DID NOT AUTHORIZE THIS CALL THE MOBILE POLICE. But finally, the moment has come, to pry the new and registered SIM card off its credit-card-sized holder and slide it into the waiting vagina of the burner. It promptly breaks into three pieces.
Help! Geek! Back to Best Buy. Seeing how their $20 stake in this adventure is bigger than Tarjay's 99 cents, I choose them for further torture. And Gods bless, Mr. Geek gets puts SIMty together again, slides it through the burner's moist, glistening lips, and hands it back. We turn it on. (As if it already wasn't.) NO SIM CARD, it cheerfully chirps. But there's an UNLOCK tab below. So it's not that there IS no card, it's that Burner doesn't want to talk to it. Because THE FUCKING PHONE, WHICH WE BOUGHT IN 1937, IS STILL LOCKED TO AT&T AND NEEDS A 16-DIGIT CODE TO UNLOCK IT.
With Six You Get Eyeroll. I'm on the other side of town where the only northtown Best Buy is, but there's also an AT&T Store there which I haven't victimized yet. Dude takes one look at Burner and says, That won't work anymore. Funny, though; it worked with YOUR SIM card on YOUR network within the past two hours, so why don't we just go nuts and unlock it? He harumphs and does so, telling me it might take 24 hours.
I got groceries, came home, plugged it in and shoved it back into the corner where it's spent most of the past five years. I'm done with allayas for now. But it's off our AT&T plan.
Meanwhile, while I was doing all that, look what materialized in my absence:
The new vinyl floor, all in except for some trim. The new throne has received its first bits of business. The extended vanity is in. The heat register will move from the windowsill to the hole where it belongs. The new handmade shower curtain will take its place.
But for most intents and purposes?
IT'S DONE.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-09 10:05 pm (UTC)I did a 'weekend remodel' to replace a bad tub in a house some years ago. After 3 months, it was finished.
The litany of "oh shit" moments was long; rotted floor, bad pipes, dry rot down the hallway, walls and floor out of square... the usual bad surprises when you tear into a house.
Getting across the finish line on a project like this is a cause for celebration.
WOW
Date: 2021-10-13 11:39 am (UTC)