Drummer's Corner of the World

The title of this should have been "100,000 miles and an iPhone" since the Beetle turned over 100k miles as I pulled into a parking space outside Fashion Mall, home of the Indianapolis Apple Store. My wee silver baby is growing up! Eek!

Note that I said "should have been" ... My dislike of the Indy Apple Store continues unabated, as they have possibly the worst customer service I've ever encountered. I counted 18 people in Apple store shirts when I walked in. The store was crowded, which is unsurprising in a not-terribly-large space filled with 18 useless staff people, but at least half of them were standing around looking decorative and doing absolutely nothing. Normally, walking in that store gets you accosted by a half-dozen salescritters, even if you have no interest in talking to one, so naturally today resulted in my being totally ignored. I went to the back of the store and found an iPod car charger, which I needed, and then started looking for someone to sell me a phone. Nobody made eye contact. I finally stood in front of the girl who appeared to be in charge of wrangling people waiting for the subGenius Bar, and asked her who I should see about whether iPhones were in stock. She said they were, and I said I'd take one (16gb, black) and she said she'd find me someone who could set me up.

Four useless shirts later, there was still nobody to help. To fill the time, wranglerChick started asking me questions, one of which was (after ascertaining that I'm already an AT&T customer) "Do you have any discounts on your phone plan?" Why yes, I do... why? "Well, we can't sell you the phone then."

Say what? Because I have a discount on my plan, they can't sell me a phone? No... apparently that can only be done at an AT&T store, because only they have access to Those Records. Of course, I'd passed three AT&T stores on my way to the Apple Store. *sigh*

So I headed back to the back (where the sales desk used to be) and was ignored by the three guys standing behind the vast expanse of desk, and finally interrupted one of them to ask if they could ring up my iPod charger. Oh, no, that's not the sales desk any more... that's the "personal training" desk... sales is up on the end of the (sub)Genius bar now. One person. Long line. No effing way am I waiting through that while eight or nine salescritters stand around looking useless.

So I leave him holding the charger and I leave in search of an AT&T store. The nearest one had just closed (as in "moved away"... not as in "closed for the day") so I dove back into rush-hour traffic in search of the next store. They were there, and not busy, but also didn't have any black 16gb iPhones. Thankfully, they were very helpful and looked to see which stores in the area _did_ have them, and then called to verify. They sent me on my way to the Fishers store (half a mile from my office and six miles from where I'd turned over 100k miles at the Apple Store), and I went traipsing over there. They had the phone (they can't hold them, but they'd had 16 in stock so it was unlikely that they'd sell them all in the 10 minutes it took me to get there!), and the guy brought out the box and set it on the counter and took my phone number to start setting things up.

And then, with the box sitting Right There... taunting me... he said "Oh... I can't sell this to you for the $299 price... it'll have to be $499 'cause you have 22 months left on your current contract."

Why no... I don't... because I don't _have_ a contract. When I ported my number from TMobile to AT&T when I moved to TinyLittleTown, I specifically had them set it up so I wouldn't be locked into a contract. According to the AT&T guy at the time "All you'll have to do is add the data plan, and you'll be golden!" I didn't get a phone (my quad-band unlocked Samsung worked just fine w/ the new SIM card), so I was supposed to be all set for the iPhone once it was available.

Explained all this to the new AT&T guy. He dug around in my account some more and sent an email to "the only guy in Indiana with the authority to override this". At which point we promptly got his out-of-office notice. Urgh.

Thankfully, they agreed that they could hold the black 16gb phone for me, since it wasn't my fault that it wasn't going home with me today (and it would really suck if he called back to authorize it and they'd sold them all!) and hopefully Mr. Only Guy will call and give them the authorization code tomorrow, at which point I'll be very glad that all of this is at the AT&T store a half-mile from my office.

*pout*

I wanted new toys tonight! But at least I got the iPod charger while I was at the AT&T store, so I could listen to my tunes again on the way home!

I came to the new house today armed with the laptop, the cellphone, and a pen and paper, determined to slay the dragon which is Verizon's DSL activation.

Tried again to verify that their web-based activation system wouldn't work. It wouldn't. I could get there, but it would get halfway through the process and want to start installing software which I didn't want. Yay.

So I called Verizon, and waded through their byzantine menu system, which finally asked me if I was using Windows or Mac. I replied Mac and it promptly send me to Windows support... in India... over a b-a-d VOIP connection.

Lovely.

( Wherein Debbie's patience is tested to the max... )

So I'm online from the new house now!

Now to lock down the wireless router, which is currently wide-open. Yay for functioning internet!

My poor cell phone is very confused... earlier today, it was a TMobile phone, and now suddenly it's an AT&T phone (it's an unlocked quad-band phone, so it only required a new SIM card and I didn't have to get a whole new phone). It's a little echoey and weird, and outgoing calls work but not incoming. I'm assured that the echoiness and the lack of incoming calls will clear up in the next couple of hours (the latter, at least, is a function of the number having been ported... my incoming calls are apparently going to my old SIM card, which is in my wallet rather than in my phone).

On the down side, I was very happy with Omnipoint/Voicestream/TMobile for the last nine years and I wish I could have stayed there. My experience with their tech support has always been stellar, which can't be said for many cell carriers. On the plus side, this means my phone will work at the new house now. Yay! And I can have an iPhone when the new ones are released in a couple of weeks... also yay!

The whole process was actually remarkably painless, especially considering my previous less-than-stellar interactions with AT&T Wireless. Hopefully this is a sign that the new relationship will go smoothly!

*sigh*

In the process of upgrading the hard drive, replacing the dead DVD drive, and replacing the keyboard that got ripped up by Drummer, we managed to get the laptop screwed up so that neither keyboard nor trackpad work.

Unfortunately, it appears that the two tiny little now-broken tabs will require the replacement of the entire top assembly of the laptop, which is a $300 part, a couple of days for it to get here, and then however long it takes to get it into Sarcomm's schedule to install it because I'll be damned if I'm risking trying it here again.

So if you need me for the next few days, call. I won't be online outside work.

*bangs head on desk*

Due to an upgrade-run-amuck, I've got limited use of my laptop 'til I get back to the office tomorrow, restore from my backup, and try this again.

I'll pop into email occasionally via webmail but anybody who's looking for me this evening should use alternate contact methods or wait 'til tomorrow.

Gee... I bet I can get a lot of Stuff done if I'm not online all night, eh?

Sally and I frequently accompany the Indianapolis Women's Chorus in their concerts, and tonight is dress rehearsal for the holiday concerts this weekend (in which I'm drumming for a whopping two songs, both in the second act). I loaded all my stuff in the truck and traipsed downtown to the Indiana Historical Society building, where I totally expected to spend most of the night wishing I'd brought a book.

Imagine my happy surprise at discovering that the entire Historical Society building is now a free wireless hotspot!

Whee!

Sometimes it's the little things that brighten up a weekend. :-)

(And after Sunday afternoon's concert, I can shop, 'cause the Hysterical Society has a really nice gift shop with lots of nifty stuff.)