stupid #$@%! phones (a personal rant)

Recently Brandon acquired a new all inclusive cell phone from work, so we decided to shut off his personal cell phone.  Unfortunately this led to a whole slough of problems as I was forced to switch my teenage sons phone over to Brandon's number due to contract issues.  However, I figured it would be a simple switch, and we could all get on with our technically savvy lives. I should have known better!  Unbeknownst to me Collins phone had a security feature that locked it if and when the SIM card was removed/replaced.  Should be easy enough to fix...if you have the password.  We tried all the obvious choices- last 4 digits of the phone number, our stand by PIN's, 0000, 1111, 1234...all to no avail.  We did however succeed in completely locking down the phone from our repeated attempts. AAAARGH I thought to myself- but I figured a quick trip to the cell phone store would remedy the problem***sigh***there is no such thing as a quick trip to the cell phone store.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but as that is a security feature you have enabled we can't unlock it."
"OK, could we just replace the SIM card then?"
"Sure, this will just take a moment....hmmmm....this is strange....just a sec...let me Google this...ummm, you're going to have to call the manufacturer."

Anyway, after a long and complicated process involving myself and several "helpful customer service agents" from somewhere in the deep South (aren't they all from there?) I finally obtained a series of codes that would enable me to turn off the security feature that locked the SIM card...only to discover that as a final step I would need the original password to do that.  Isn't that fun?

I figured while I was there I'd try to resolve a separate cell phone issue (we get no reception in our house). My new friend Kelly at the cell store suggested I call customer service to see about getting a '3G cell' that would boost our reception.  Already frustrated, but grateful for the tip I called customer service.  A helpful fellow named Patrick (also apparently from the deep South) knew exactly what I was talking about and told me to a specific location on the companies website.  I searched the web site, found the product in question...and was directed to go to the store ...*%^$#@!