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Stuck in phone purgatory

3 min read

Our middle daughter turned 15 last month, and we decided to get her a cellphone as her gift. As we did with our oldest daughter, we told our middle girl the gift includes the phone and three months of cellphone service before it becomes her financial responsibility.

On her actual birthday, we wrapped up a phone that a friend had given us to give to her. It was a newer model iPhone, and her excited squealing met our expectations. I promised to activate it the following day so she could make her first call or send her first text.

I attempted an online activation, and it wouldn’t work. My sister, who is far more tech-savvy than I, looked the phone over and told me the reason for the challenge was the phone was locked to a phone service other than mine.

I asked the giver of the phone if they would unlock it, and they said yes, but after a few weeks, were still being given the runaround by the carrier.

Finally, I sent my husband out to buy a different phone.

The excited teenager showed up at my job to ask me to activate the sleek new device, so I took a break to attempt it.

The gentleman I spoke with asked me for a couple of numbers out of the phone, but I could only find one of them. He informed me that meant that there was no SIM card inserted.

Looking all through the packaging, I could find no card to insert, so I had to abandon the attempt to activate until a new card arrived in the mail.

That afternoon, when I got home, I discovered the SIM card was located in the truck, and it was sitting on the counter for me. I took it to town the next day – we don’t have enough service at home to activate a phone – to try again.

After half an hour, the gentleman told me he was still unable to activate it, because – and I quote – “the phone was sold incorrectly and needs to be returned to the store for resale.”

Huh. I didn’t realize that if the cashier had scanned the box, and money had exchanged hands, that a sale could have been handled incorrectly, but I headed back to the store with the phone and the receipt.

I spent another half an hour with those good people, who were unable to return and resell the phone because it had an invalid serial number. I asked to exchange it for another phone, and was told there was not another phone in the store – at any price point – that was compatible with my carrier.

My money refunded, I left and went to another store location. No phones there, either. Finally, I went to my carrier’s store, and they told me they only stock the newest model of phone, and it would cost me nearly a grand to add it to my plan.

So my child is still phoneless, nearly a month after her birthday. I have ordered a phone online from Apple and am awaiting its delivery so that I can try once more to activate it. I’m not holding my breath, of course, but I am considering making another cake to celebrate once this is all over.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.

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