Death of a Cell Phone: Part II (aka–I really, REALLY hate Verizon Wireless)

…and so do many hundreds, NO THOUSANDS of others. And I know this because I just spent my last Saturday in NY in a Verizon Wireless store listening to all the other angry customers. So, last week, I get my “refurbished MOTOKRZR” and guess what? It STOPS WORKING altogether when I’m on my trip to Chicago while Bella is having a nervous breakdown about the Mt. Vesuvius on her face and I have 24 hours to go before I get home. In a way, it’s better and someone else can deal with her 15 year old hood, but now, how the hell I am going to reach my clients?

Anyway, back to Saturday. So I get to the store early, and it looks like I am NEXT on line, only this next bit takes over 45 minutes (even though I already know what phone I want) and while I’m waiting, this family (mother, father, 13 year old boy) are having a huge argument which goes like this:

MOM: Let’s just get him the new phone
DAD: No way, cause then it’s going to cost us $50 more per month. Just get the battery.
MOM: But the battery KEEPS DIEING. And they said that he could upgrade and still stay on the family plan.
DAD: That’s not what I HEARD. YOU HEARD WRONG.
MOM: But what if YOU upgrade and we give him the PHONE.
DAD: I AM NOT DOING THAT TODAY. I need to take over the cell phone responsibility.
MOM: NO WAY. The last time you did that, you lost a $300 phone.
KID: You lost it in the cab.
Dad storms out. Kid to mom: Dad’s GONE!!!!!
MOM TO KID: He’s such a child. He’s worse than YOU.
KID: Yeah.
MOM: YOU be quiet.

And then there’s this guy:

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THEY DON’T HAVE MY BATTERY????

And then there’s a woman saying her Blackberry is only six months old and just STOPS WORKING in the middle of a phone call. And the response is for her to CALL THE MANUFACTURER. And the stories, go on and on and on. So I finally I GET my phone, but it’s going to take another 30 minutes or more to transfer all the data from the old phone onto my new phone and I leave it there because I am STARVING. And when I come back I see that the family is STILL THERE and I realize that Verizon MUST be the cause of many divorces, because the man looks like he’s about to kill someone. So I pick up my phone and the manager calls out: “Have a good day” and I’m like, “Yeah, what’s left of it” and as I sign for the phone, I see this:

And I’m like, “are they FRIGGIN’ kidding me??” (sorry for all the blurry pics, it’s just a little difficult to take a Blackberry photo of people you are spying on). But anyway, I get home, thinking my 2 days spent with Verizon over the last year is finally ended. Then I go to charge the phone and after 10 tries, figure out they gave me the WRONG CHARGER. And I just have to wonder, why there aren’t armed guards standing outside all Verizon stores because one of these days that husband is going to come back and take care of the person who really wrecked his marriage.