How to get a new cell phone by wren

"I'm sure I made it much more complicated than it needed to be..."

How I did it: First step was to lose my old cell phone.  Turns out I have mad cell phone losing skills, so that was no problem.

Next step...I went to T-Mobile's web site & picked out a useful, less-overpriced model, ordered it, and had it shipped to me.

Then I discovered that I needed to take the tiny magic card from the old phone & put it into the new phone in order to make the new phone be a phone.  Oops.  Hadn't thought of that.

Next step was a trip to the TMobile store.  The fellow in the store was very pleasant and sold me a new magical microchip card.

Then I found out that the phone service is in Mr. Wren's name, so I could not complete the secret transaction needed to activate the microchip's magic.  So the next  step was to wait for Mr. Wren to come home from work, sleep, and wake up.

Next day, Mr. Wren phoned the TMobile people and vouched that I could ask for things on my phone.  I'm sure I could have saved time by having any male pretend to be Mr. Wren or faking a man voice myself, but I'm only devious enough to think about that sort of trickiness.

One more thing....it turns out you need to know the code number that is written in teensy numbers on the tiny magical microchip so that the phone people can make everything happen.  Of course, the microchip was already in the phone, so the very nice phone person had to phone me back on my land line while I took my new cell phone apart, forced the magical microchip out, and retrieved the number.

And finally, it was done.  The old phone was deactivated, and the new phone was turned into a working phone.  All of the T-Mobile people were exceptionally pleasant, perkily so, really, while I bumbled about.

Lessons & tips: Don't lose your cell phone!

If you do lose your cell phone, you might as well find the humor in it.

Resources: Nice T-Mobile employees, nice husband!


7 people found this helpful
 

Sep 21, 2008, 05:51PM PDT | 23 comments | 105 cheers


Comments:

(This comment was deleted.)

Sep 22, 2008, 05:30AM PDT

wren "I will not be reconstructed..."

: )

Sep 22, 2008, 06:00AM PDT | Respond to this 5 cheers

(This comment was deleted.)

Sep 22, 2008, 06:17AM PDT

wren "I will not be reconstructed..."

Absolutely!

I think the whole thing is pretty funny, too!

:)

Sep 22, 2008, 06:19AM PDT | Respond to this 4 cheers

(This comment was deleted.)

Sep 22, 2008, 06:21AM PDT

(This comment was deleted.)

Oct 09, 2008, 08:08PM PDT

wren "I will not be reconstructed..."

Oh yes,

I absolutely was laughing.
:D

Oct 10, 2008, 08:14AM PDT | Respond to this 2 cheers

tikini wishing you aloha ~ passing through, with aloha ~

it’s a conspiracy

you know it is

Oct 09, 2008, 10:22PM PDT | Thread | Respond to this 1 cheer

wren "I will not be reconstructed..."

As long as I can blame it on George Bush,

I’m content.

Oct 10, 2008, 08:14AM PDT | Respond to this 4 cheers

bookish

yet another thing wren and i have in common

... mad cellphone losing skills

Nov 13, 2008, 03:00PM PST | Respond to this 1 cheer

Rebecca is back and ready to rock and roll.

I just got a new phone two days ago

And I am still recovering from the trauma. LOL

Nov 21, 2008, 02:44PM PST | Respond to this 1 cheer

Flutterbyflyby3 The will to persevere is often the difference between failure and succ

How hard

Would it be to either include a slip of paper with those all important TINY numbers on it with the chip or a magnifying glass? (I have mad cell phone destruction skillz – insurance is a necessity!)

Dec 28, 2008, 08:41AM PST | Respond to this 1 cheer

WyvernDust

sorry

about your phone. Glad to see you though.

I have T Mobile too.

Jan 24, 2009, 06:41AM PST | Respond to this 1 cheer

infiniteissabella imagine faith

I

have mad credit card losing skills :)

Feb 07, 2009, 07:00AM PST | Thread | Respond to this 1 cheer

wren "I will not be reconstructed..."

Oh no!

Losing a credit card is maybe worse than losing a phone. . .!

Feb 09, 2009, 08:17AM PST | Respond to this 2 cheers

It

Tee hee

That made me giggle. The writing-about-it part, not the losing-the-cell-phone part.

Apr 14, 2009, 11:32AM PDT | Respond to this

sitio

lol!

“Turns out I have mad cell phone losing skills, so that was no problem.”

This entry started strong and kept me laughing all the way through!

Congrats on the new phone. I love new gadgets, even replacements.

Apr 21, 2010, 09:32AM PDT | Thread | Respond to this 2 cheers

wren "I will not be reconstructed..."

awesome!

I love it when people get my sense of humor. :)

I am coveting an iPhone right now!

Apr 21, 2010, 09:34AM PDT | Thread | Respond to this 3 cheers

DoubleN

I'm with you

I have lusted after the iPhone from the word go, but am concentrating on paying off any and all debt, including mortgage – so don’t see one looming in my future sigh

Apr 21, 2010, 09:42AM PDT | Thread | Respond to this 1 cheer

wren "I will not be reconstructed..."

Talk is Not cheap...

I know! They are so expensive, especially when you include the additional monthly charges. :::sigh:::

Apr 21, 2010, 09:48AM PDT | Respond to this 2 cheers

jimrin

At least your experience wasn't anything like this...

although it sounds like your experience would be a good plot for another episode.

From the TV show Portlandia on IFC:

Click on the image for the video…

Feb 15, 2011, 03:36PM PST | Thread | Respond to this 7 cheers

wren "I will not be reconstructed..."

haha!

I can soooo relate!

Feb 16, 2011, 07:20AM PST | Thread | Respond to this 1 cheer

jimrin

Is that the

“I can relate” pro or “I can relate” plus?

By the way, the magical microchip card can come in different sizes. The one for iPhone is smaller. However, people have found that a pair of scissors seems to work fine.

Other phones which are on CDMA networks (like Verizon and Sprint) do not have magical microchip cards. The advantage of the magical microchip card is that you can put it in another phone and have that phone work immediately. I think you’ve already discovered the disadvantage.

I am sure iPhones have them too, but there are apps on Android (free ones) which allow you to send a text to your phone to:

  1. Turn up the volume (in case it was muted) and then play a sound
  2. Report the location of the device by GPS

This does not help so much though when the phone is turned off or the battery dies.

Another app consistently logs the location of the phone, so you can track where it is, where it has been since the last time you remembered seeing it, or last position before being turned off or having its battery die.

Not related to a phone, but another device I heard is a video camera which you wear all the time. It records what you “see” and uses object recognition to catalog the objects it recorded. Then you can do a search on a particular object (ie, “Where was the last place I saw it”). I don’t believe this is a real product yet, but I could really use this!

Feb 16, 2011, 07:54AM PST | Thread | Respond to this 7 cheers

wren "I will not be reconstructed..."

It's just amazing to me

that you have all this information, Jimrin!

I still have to stop and think about how to dial my smart phone!

Feb 16, 2011, 11:59AM PST | Respond to this 2 cheers


wren has gotten 105 cheers on this entry.

 

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