Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Cell Phone Frustration

      Well, as I had feared the cell phone reception with Verizon back in our woods is not nearly as good as our CellOne reception was.  I convinced myself it would be OK because we have had several people, including our sons and their wives and others who have stayed with us, use their iPhones at our house and none complained of poor service.   But my words are sometimes garbled and occasionally a call is dropped when I have made and received calls the past few days.   So now I am trying to decide what to do about my new iPhone.  I love it, but only if I can use it!
     I'm sure you're thinking, who would keep a phone that doesn't work properly?
     Those are my thoughts, too.  I would return the phone and sign-up for CellOne immediately if it were just my phone to consider, but Country Guy says he is happy with his.  (I wish he would get a few more calls when he is home so he could see if he is really happy with his or not.)  Since most of my calls are made and received from our house, I have had lots more opportunities to see the problems.
     To make matters worse we bought the phones, and the plan, at a corporate store in Lincoln, NE, while we were visiting our daughter.  I took mine in to the local store here and was informed they can have nothing to do with the iPhone, only corporate stores are allowed to sell them or service them, and the plan needs to be cancelled at the store where it was purchased.  That means if I decide to return mine I have to ship it back to NE.  Since Country Guy's phone is on the same plan he will probably have to return his, too, and re-subscribe.  So it becomes rather complicated when considering how to do that and not disrupt service and keep the apps, contacts, etc. already entered in the phones.
     Someone mentioned the anetenna for the iPhone is around the outside edge and is touch sensitive, so I went to Terre Haute and purchased a new case for it that protects the edges in hopes that would work.  Yesterday I was able to carry on a few conversations without interruption and had almost decided to keep the phone since it seemed to be working fine.  Then this morning as I was talking to Jess, she said she would call me on my house phone because my words were becoming garbled.  This is so frustrating!
     I was told there are cell phone signal extenders that might help inside the house.  But how will I know till I purchase one?  I have only one more week to decide what to do because there is a 2 week cancellation clause in our cell phone plan.  Any suggestions?
     Why does life have to be so complicated when all I wanted was a phone?  I think I listened too much to all those iPhone users who were raving about their phones instead of using common sense to stay with the service that worked so well for me.  Maybe this post will help others who may be tempted to get one of those snazzy phones, to think through their decision a little better than I did.
     I am still holding out hope, though, that I can keep the phone, and not go through all that trouble!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My dad and uncle installed an antenna booster on the shop roof so they don't have to stand by the window anymore in order to have a clear conversation.