ONE WEEK LEFT!

That's right, everyone!
ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT OF THIS CONTRACT!

I've entered the final week of garbage service with these bastards. Yesterday I pulled the battery out twice, and today I had to do it in order to end a phone call. The phone refused to respond to my bluetooth headset comman, then failed to react to any touching of the screen and when I finally tried the hangup button, still no response. So I pulled the battery off and left it out for 10 seconds, then reset it.

Honestly, if AT&T/Cingular gave me an iPhone for free, and paid for my service for 1 year, I'd STILL LEAVE. Too many things have happened to confirm that this is the most evil and despotic mobile phone provider in the United States, so I will be moving on. I'm already getting a preview of how good it will feel to just do this. I can picture it right now: a day without a reset. A day of complete phone calls. A day where each call dialed goes through, rings, and sounds great. I remember those days from nearly 2 years ago, when I had T-Mobile service.

So now it's my job today to research phones online, to look for store ads, and to try and decide which phone to buy and for how little I can get it. Sheryl, who worked with me back in the day at T-Mobile, is moving to a San Francisco store starting Monday, but has agreed to meet me at her new store tomorrow sometime to activate a phone (or two) and hook me up with a sweet deal.

I have to send a thank you letter to AT&T for the service I did get from Holly Meager and Katie,the wonderful rep last night who bailed me out of texting overage of $50 on my current billing cycle and switched me to an unlimited texting plan for the remaineder of the month. I plan on writing in the letter that if they'd had more people like Holly and Katie, perhaps my frustration with their mediocre service and horrible equipment wouldn't have turned into hatred and caused me to trash their service in front of every Realtor and friend and acquaintance I've spoken with for the last 12 months. And it MIGHT - and I say MIGHT - have caused me to consider switching to a better phone and sticking with their service for another year.

NAW!

The countdown begins....

The Twelve Days of Emancipation

I feel like I should write a poem. But then I stop and realize that I've spent far too much time already on all of this - from the exchanges to the data recovery to the daily resets to the lost messages to the blog to the website name to the plotting of my phone's death. So I'm not going to take the time to write a poem to the tune of "Twelve Days of Christmas". Because it's gonna feel like Christmas in just 12 short days when I can finally leave "the New AT&T" and their craptacular service.

So many people have said, "Wow, I'm so surprised you've had so many problems. My Cingular service has been great!" - usually followed by a giggle or a satisfied laugh which makes me want to shove my Treo 650 down their throat. Well, that's nice. Good for you. Bring your phone to my house and stay here for a few days, and then see if you still love "the New AT&T". There is absolutely nothing new about them. Same crappy customer care with HOURS (come on, people, it's 2007 - 24hour customer care is here to stay), closed after 9pm and all day on Sundays, and the same "sign a 2 year agreement but we'll only give you a one year warranty" scam that many other carriers use. So what is NEW about them? Just the logo, the name, and the rebuilding of the monstrous monopoly which the government will have to eventually break up again anyway. What a waste of OUR time and money.

OK, I feel better now. And in 12 days, this blog will have to take a new form somehow. I've toyed with a few ideas, but would love to hear yours if you have any. So drop me a line! And tell me what OTHER service you'd recommend and why. And please, no stories of satisfaction about AT&T/Cingular. It's way too late for that. :-)