Cellphone Company Gives Me Something I Can’t Have
A couple of months ago I bought a new Sony Ericsson Z750a cellphone. About a month after that I received a text message from Fido that they would give me 3 months of free video on demand and free radio on demand. Sounds very cool so I try it on my phone but the message on my cellphone says it does not support this feature. I reply to the text message that I cannot use the system, even though realize that they will never get back to me with this communication system. So a few days later I call up their customer service and ask them if they can help sort up the problem. The customer support person was not aware of the promotional offer and claims that Fido is giving me free video messaging for three months. I let it go at that.
Weeks later I get a phone call from Fido saying how happy they are to have me as a customer and if I have any questions or concerns. Of course I have questions!!! I decide to limit it to two questions so as to not scare the guy off.
First question I ask I thought would be easy: How do I stop the screen saver from coming on every 5 seconds? It is difficult to read the news when the screen goes dark to save energy. My workaround is to push the down button every 5 seconds but I’m sure their must be a setting on the phone to set an acceptable timeout period. Unfortunately, his answer was that I would need to go to the Fido retailer. Not a good answer from Mr. Fido Rep. “Hello, from which company are you calling?” I want to shout.
But I’m so mild mannered that I smoothly move on to the next question…. the one we all want to know the answer to…How do I access the Video on Demand that they have so thoughtfully provided me unlimited access to in order to get me hooked. The guy had to go talk to the tech support for this and he would come back and ask me if I could continue to hold. I patiently waited. After waiting 50 wasted minutes on the phone (in total) I was informed that my cellphone does not support this feature! Nobody can explain to me why the phone is advertised as having this feature and it has the navigation buttons for this feature. But somehow this feature is not supported on my fabulous 3G phone.
I don’t get it.
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Nobody knows nothing anymore….such complexities. How about LESS IS MORE….GET BACK TO BASICS???IGNORANCE IS BLISS!!!!
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
How about telling those companies to stop calling their clients to find out if they are “happy”. They don’t seem to be able to do anything about the client’s problems anyways. It will save the cellphone companies money and it will save me time.
Or how about a no frills cellphone company? They don’t provide you with “Are you happy calls” and charge less than other cellphone companies. If you want to discuss your happiness you call your own shrink. Much like No Frills where you supply your own bag.
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Hi :D,
Regarding the screen saver coming on every five seconds, see if this works in case yours is similar to mine. Go into your Main Menu and find Settings. Then in the Settings Menu, I have an option called Display. Go into Display and, on mine, there are options to adjust the screen saver and backlight (which is the light that comes on when you flip open your phone). I made my backlight stay on longer this way as the factory default was set to only eight seconds so that it saves on battery drain.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 am
Hi, I saw this cartoon and thought you might appreciate it.
http://bp3.blogger.com/_Wqo9IVCWV5E/SIY1cSAOG0I/AAAAAAAAAmw/_I-YcOvYqvg/s1600-h/Bz+ParadePiraro016WB.jpg
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Hi Bertie, I only see an option for setting the backlight brightness, not for the length of time to stay on.
As a footnote, I did bring the cellphone in to a Fido store and the clerk played with it for a few minutes and said it didn’t look like it had that option but that I should could call Fido. I explained that I already called Fido several times with no result but he just kept telling me to call and speak to another person.
Thanks for the suggestion, Bertie.
Hi Miriam,
I prefer to not have simplicity. It is not for everyone. I love having all these different technologies to keep in tough with a variety of people in so many different ways. Aren’t blogs wonderful?
Hi Lacy,
Yes that is a great cartoon. And I’ll stand in the long line up to buy the time travel phone when it comes out.
