I'm still phone-less, after my disaster last week. As I said then, my Epic 4G phone--8 months shy of upgrade time--was left on the hood of my car, and shortly thereafter run over after it fell off into the street.
It was a dumb mistake. But I thought I had it handled. Since the same phone new would be $500+ out of pocket, I decided to buy one online. I don't know what made me pick eBay over Amazon, but I did. But I was sure to pick a vendor that had a huge approval rating. Out the door, a used Epic 4G in "excellent" condition, was $99. The phone finally arrived Thursday, a week to the day after "the event." I was so excited. I'm amazed how much I miss having a smart phone, even one that is sort of glitchy like mine was.
I got to the Sprint store just after 4:30 pm, and was waited on almost immediately. Not long into the transaction, however, it was apparent that not all was well. The phone started up fine. The sound and display were fine. Mr. Sprint-man was all furrowed brow, though. He poked and prodded, popped the battery, booted, rebooted, rinse, wash, repeat. . . And then he said, "Excuse me, I'll be right back, I have to go talk to a tech." Crap.
He then told me that it was going to take a little while, could I come back at 6:30? Sure, why not. I ran some errands, came home, watched a little tv, then went back. I was told to sit down and wait, which I did, for half an hour. I knew that 7:00 pm was closing time, so I wasn't feeling optimistic. I was right. The phone had been "rooted" by the previous owner, and probably not correctly. That person--or possibly the reseller--had tried to cover their tracks by putting everything back as it was. But it didn't take, and it won't take. Period.
My options were a) send the phone back to the vendor, buy another one from them or someone else, and wait another week to get it; or b) pay Sprint $35 plus tax, and they will replace it on Monday. Amazingly, they do that. And I think $35 is worth the hassle. So, I fired off a nastygram to the vendor, and firmly requested a partial refund. Whether or not I reveal their name and further details will depend upon their reaction!
Updates surely to follow. . . Meanwhile--and I can't stress this enough--never set your phone on the exterior of your car. Just don't.
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| Crunch! |
I got to the Sprint store just after 4:30 pm, and was waited on almost immediately. Not long into the transaction, however, it was apparent that not all was well. The phone started up fine. The sound and display were fine. Mr. Sprint-man was all furrowed brow, though. He poked and prodded, popped the battery, booted, rebooted, rinse, wash, repeat. . . And then he said, "Excuse me, I'll be right back, I have to go talk to a tech." Crap.
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| At least at my Sprint store, it wasn't raining! |
My options were a) send the phone back to the vendor, buy another one from them or someone else, and wait another week to get it; or b) pay Sprint $35 plus tax, and they will replace it on Monday. Amazingly, they do that. And I think $35 is worth the hassle. So, I fired off a nastygram to the vendor, and firmly requested a partial refund. Whether or not I reveal their name and further details will depend upon their reaction!
Updates surely to follow. . . Meanwhile--and I can't stress this enough--never set your phone on the exterior of your car. Just don't.
Dude, you have the worst luck with electronics.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of bad luck, I am still having problems with your site. Took me about 30 minutes or so to load your page and write this comment.
It seems like I am having problems with the site loading flickr, msnbc and comedy central.
I don't why I have the hardest time on your site. I am using Firefox.
Any suggestions (other than getting rid of my 8 year old computer)?
You have a point! On the other hand, I have a whole lot of electronic doo-dads and gadgets, so maybe it's just bound to hit me on occasion.
ReplyDeleteAs for my site loading on your computer, I think I'm going to eliminate flickr and update somme of the items on the blog to streamline it. Maybe I'll do that this weekend. But have you tried Firefox, Safari or Chrome, instead of Internet Explorer? That might help too.
As for your computer, if you sign up for TigerDirect.com email alerts, or even eBay updates, you can sometimes find super-sweet deals on computers. Particularly RIGHT NOW as Windows 8 rolls out. You could probably find a computer for dirt cheap with Windows 7, and even if it's low-end, it will run circles around an 8-year-old computer. Stay away from Pentium or Celeron, go for dual-core or better, but even on a budget, you could make your life easier!
Thanks for the info and today was much, much better.
ReplyDeleteYep, it is time for a new computer. It will be only my 3rd computer- my first was a Tandy from Radio Shack and it cost $1000 around 1995.