QWERTY phone
Aug. 26th, 2011 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillI got a cell phone a couple of years ago now. And I discovered texting. Which is just totally cool, because it has some of the immediacy of a phone call while being easier for the person on the other end to ignore if answering would be inconvenient right now.
But boy, pressing all those numbers all those times was just a pain. So I wanted a phone with a full QWERTY keyboard. But I have a TracFone (love the whole "no contract; buy minutes as necessary" thing) And they had no QWERTY phones.
Until I saw an ad in the paper yesterday and there was a QWERTY TracFone out for 30$--the LG500G. Well, I lasted about thirty minutes before I was on my way to WalMart, determined to make it happen.
Porting the phone number and minutes was a bit of a pain but the helpful woman at customer service 1) answered the phone promptly and 2) talked me through entering about sixty digits worth of codes. However the phone, admitting to its phone number and minutes, was stonewalling otherwise. "Unregistered SIM" was all it would say, like someone taking the Fifth.
Well the customer service woman said it might take a few hours. Or up to two business days. When we hit one business day (noon today) I called customer service back because I really wanted to start bragging to my friends about my new phone. Besides, I hadn't realized my phone would quit working so I hadn't warned anybody. We tried several things including popping the battery and removing the SIM card and wiping off the contacts, which actually worked (one of the two; I suppose it doesn't matter which). So I am now the happy possessor of a new phone.
I texted Alice and it works. Alice called me back, so I had her hang up and called *her* back and that works too. I have tried taking a couple of pictures and that works. I haven't tried hooking it up to the computer yet (supposed to work; we'll see) to move stuff off and on.
But so far, I am pleased.
But boy, pressing all those numbers all those times was just a pain. So I wanted a phone with a full QWERTY keyboard. But I have a TracFone (love the whole "no contract; buy minutes as necessary" thing) And they had no QWERTY phones.
Until I saw an ad in the paper yesterday and there was a QWERTY TracFone out for 30$--the LG500G. Well, I lasted about thirty minutes before I was on my way to WalMart, determined to make it happen.
Porting the phone number and minutes was a bit of a pain but the helpful woman at customer service 1) answered the phone promptly and 2) talked me through entering about sixty digits worth of codes. However the phone, admitting to its phone number and minutes, was stonewalling otherwise. "Unregistered SIM" was all it would say, like someone taking the Fifth.
Well the customer service woman said it might take a few hours. Or up to two business days. When we hit one business day (noon today) I called customer service back because I really wanted to start bragging to my friends about my new phone. Besides, I hadn't realized my phone would quit working so I hadn't warned anybody. We tried several things including popping the battery and removing the SIM card and wiping off the contacts, which actually worked (one of the two; I suppose it doesn't matter which). So I am now the happy possessor of a new phone.
I texted Alice and it works. Alice called me back, so I had her hang up and called *her* back and that works too. I have tried taking a couple of pictures and that works. I haven't tried hooking it up to the computer yet (supposed to work; we'll see) to move stuff off and on.
But so far, I am pleased.
