Phone Woes

I have a funny story to tell.

Two and a half years ago I bought a cute little red flip cell phone. It had a camera phone and was slim and trim and very cute. I loved that little phone. Then alone came a little baby boy who shared my fascination with my phone and several teething days later I realized it was time to upgrade to a new phone.

I took the phone into the store to have it fixed since it wasn't working properly and thinking about buying a new one. A misleading insurance policy and a lack of a desire to sign another 2 year contract (I'm totally a commitment phobe) left me with a broken phone and on a hunt to find another phone. Currently the cheapest phone Sprint carries for sale without a contract is $180. Ridiculous. I just need a phone to make calls and check voicemails and if I'm really lucky send text messages too.

So I hop online and do the new cool hip thing, I buy a used phone from Ebay. $60 later my phone arrives, only it looks like it was dropped into a blender. Unacceptable. I return the phone, the Ebay seller doesn't balk, I'm out $15 in shipping but chalk it up to a lesson learned and moved on.

My next phone is purchased and arrives. It looks fine, is a pretty pink color (yes I'm a pink-a-holic) and I trek down to the Sprint store only to find out even though it's a Sprint phone it was used on the Qwest network and can't be used on the Sprint network. Okay, great. Contact the seller, ship the phone back, get my money back, out another $15 in shipping.

I search around online a bit more, find another phone from another seller that's more expensive than I wanted but maybe I need to just fork out the money in order to get a working phone. I wait. The phone arrives. I'm giddy. It looks perfect minus a mark or two (it was used) and simply gorgeous. I rush to the Sprint store, wait 45 minutes, chat to the lady behind the desk and get everything ready. And then...

"Hmmmmmm...."

Hmmmm? What 'Hmmmmmm'? Hmmmm is not what I want to hear. I just want my phone turned on so I can talk to people and run my business.

"This phone was reported stolen."

And that's when I nearly lost it. Is a poor frazzled woman not allowed to buy a working phone for under $100?

Home again I've contacted the seller and sent a vert terse email about having a stolen phone in my house and needing to be refunded.

So here I am again, without a phone, about to have a massive photoshoot tomorrow, and just totally feeling like a dork. Anyone have a phone they'd like to lend me for the day tomorrow?

I am still easily reable by my business number 817 - 717 - 6637 as that will go straight to voicemail and I am emailed an alert and can listen and call you back from the house phone. But man life is different when you're lacking a cell phone.