EJ: Hi, I'm looking for a charger for this phone. She holds out a perfectly functional silver flip phone.
Cingular Employee #1: He winces in a combination of confusion and terror, like he's just seen Tori Spelling's chest cavity for the first time. I'm sorry, there's no way we have a charger for that phone. That's, like, a really old phone.
EJ: It's like three years old.
CE #1: Exactly. He smiles benevolently, as one might when a mentally challenged toddler points at a dog and yells "TRUCK!" Like I said, that's a very old model. You're really better off just upgrading to a new phone entirely and starting your contract over with better equipment.
EJ: I don't want to get a new phone. My current phone is just fine. And I really have no desire to change my entire contract just because housekeeping at the Hilton on 55th Street lost my charger. She is starting to get a little testy, as she often does when dealing with people who are condescending about technology. She is a smart girl, she knows that cell phones are capable of taking photos and syncing up with iPods and performing laparoscopic surgery, she's just not interested in all those bells and whistles.
CE #1: I mean, you could try to go online to one of those appliance warehouse sites and try to find a charger there. But you really should just get a whole new calling system.
EJ: A "calling system?"
CE #1: He calls out to a man across the store. Hey Tyrone, come over and see this.
Tyrone comes over to check out the phone, oblivious to the confusion on EJ's face. His jaw literally drops open as he turns over the phone in his hands, then quietly chuckles to himself.
CE #1: She says she needs a charger for this.
Tyrone: Good luck with that. Exeunt Tyrone.
EJ: So you don't have a charger for it.
CE #1: Not a chance. A phone that old...
EJ: Getting perhaps a little more angry than is appropriate for the situation. Look, if you don't carry the charger, fine. But I'm not spending a hundred dollars and re-upping my contract to replace something that works perfectly well.
CE #1: He is now a bit nervous. He senses that he and Tyrone have been too overt in their mocking this girl with the ancient, Luddite technology. But we have lots of inexpensive phones here with cameras, with wireless capability, that will sync up with your Outlook...
EJ: But all I want to do is make and receive phone calls. And texts. And this phone does that!
CE #1: Well, fine.
EJ: FINE. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP.
Exeunt EJ, in a righteous huff. She turns on her heel pivoting out the door and proceeds to walk smack into a puffy, be-suited man yelling into his Blackberry. He ignores her completely as he shoves past her into the Starbucks next door.
EJ: Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
FIN.
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2 comments:
This is not a terribly surprising thing. I've never worked in a place like that, but judging by dude's immediate impulse to try to sell you on something else, I'd imagine that they don't keep equipment around for "old" phones specifically to try to get people to pay more money and upgrade.
Some of the less-intelligent non-EJ's would probably go for it, though the simple suggestion of that as a viable solution is ricockulous. If you've had that for 3 years, you're probably off of contract no? If so, then it's even more rickoulous. I'm surprised that current phone chargers in the store won't work for your phone though. Chargers for the phones I've had aren't that different, and I've been able to use one for more than one different phone in the past.
[/irrationally long comment]
Damn phone companies. Especially T-Mobile. (I don't know if you're with them, but I thought I'd highlight my disgust regardless!)
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