One.... Cingular Sensation. Or whatever their name is this week.

[captainsblog]

After months of putting off the task, our three-member family is fully cellularized again.

Eleanor had the newest and least-complained-about mobile phone in the home, while the others ranged from mostly dead (mine- lacking any display function whatsoever) to missing (Emily's). Next week (oops, beginning of the following week) is the anniversary of the emergency trip to Florida that turned us into a two-cell household, and that, in the mobile business, means Free^* New Phones With New Two-Year Agreement, so I made the journey at the end of the day to the local AT&T emporium to replace the dead and the fallen.

Close to two hours later, I was almost laying there among them.

I picked a good time- right around quitting time beats the afterwork rush from downtown and points east- and I made our selections, activated both new phones, and agreed on prices and terms by pretty close to 5:05. One credit card swipe would seal the deal.

Or not.

That swipe took out the entire terminal being used by my (very nice, and totally blameless) Wireless Sales Associate.  We stared at frozen screens (her whole terminal, my little "sign in the little box here" swipe-card display) for many minutes before realizing, yes, the cellular bed done got shit again.  In a store full of the hottest new iPhones and Razrs and Blacks-berry available for the customers to buy, the poor customer service reps have to use a mishmash of old computer parts (mine being stuck with a turn-of-the-century Cherry keyboard, her co-worker a Compaq) to activate and implement the back-office transactions enabling them.

When it was clear that Cherry wasn't going to be popped any time tonight (after a second attempt to sign up the transaction, requiring two brand new phones to be unwrapped, activated and, in the case of mine, reattached to my SIM card), we moved one terminal down to Compaqland, unwrapping a third Emilyphone in 45 minutes and finally, FINALLY, getting the deal signed up and paid for.

At one point, I heard my WSA and her manager talking about the problem, and I overheard the Sekrit Nam of AT&T Wireless's state-of-the-art in-house operating system for transactions of this kind:

It's called Opus.

My associate was probably too young, but her manager had already admitted to having been married, and was probably old enough to get the reference: You realize, don't you, that your computers are driven by a system named for a dysfunctional penguin?

I'll be charging my new Motorola Razr all night. In my anxiety closet.

(Thanks, as always, to elbiesee, this time for the icon:)

----
^* "Free," in mobilespeak, means "slightly cheaper than the cost of a firstborn child." We did get free swag in exchange for the delays, so I really can't complain about it too much.

Comments

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

Ah, a visit to Cingular/ATT/???. I know it well. When Bill returned from Baghdad, an attempt to reactivate his phone with his old number caused a poor Cingular CS gal to nearly be in tears. Before she completely broke down, we just opted for a new number. Our ATT contract is up next week. Hello, Verizon.