Verizon on the Horizon

The past few days have been a struggle. My cell phone slipped from my shirt pocket while I was burying my cat Willow. It fell onto a rock. One corner of my cell’s screen cracked halfway across the bottom and almost halfway up the side. I had an insurance policy and the replacement phone was sent. I spent nearly three hours Monday evening on the phone transferring the content from my old phone to the new one. One thing I forgot to do was to write down the “code” to unlock my new cell. My old phone didn’t have the lock out on the screen, so after I hung up from the tech support, I tried to access my new cell, but was unable to do so. I tried to call the tech support, but the transfer to the new phone was complete, and when they would send verification codes that I couldn’t receive because I was locked out. Verizon would ask questions like what is your 4 digit access code, like an old codger like me would have it memorized or written down somewhere that was easy to find.

So, my attempt to rectify, I called the Verizon help number. Because I was unable to access my phone, it was suggested that I go to the nearest Verizon store and have them do a “factory reset.” I spent a bit over an hour at the store. The sales rep was very polite and attempted in multiple ways to do a factory reset while talking to a Verizon help tech. I haven’t used my Google account for ages and couldn’t give them the information to access my phone date through another avenue because of the lock on my “new phone replacement.” Any message sent to my phone was locked away. Their attempt to do a factory restart filed. I was upset enough thinking of the phone numbers and photos that I would lose.

It was suggested by this smaller satellite store to go to the Verizon center in a nearby city to have them do the reboot and factory restart. Again Verizon was chasing tails and the larger store was unable to do the restart. I only spent an hour and a half there. My only option was to get an updated phone and call Verizon to activate it. The staff of that store couldn’t help (although they tried) because the Verizon IVR (activations) was closed, of course.

I almost went back on my resolution of, “I never go out if I’m grumpy, because no one wants to deal with a grumpy old man. Pray for me while I try to activate my new phone.