Daily Struggles

What do You think?

Am I just having seriously awful luck with my recent phone purchase?

Let me explain what I have been through and please let me know if your experience is similar.

Around the first part of January I went to one of the Nations largest retail chains WAL MART to purchase a new phone. At the store they have an electronics department that can sell phones and sign you up on various carriers all at the same time while you shop.

I looked at several phones from different service providers and the Motorola Cliq stood to be the best purchase (not the cheapest). The advertised capabilty of the phone appeared to be superior to the other phones available.

I made the purchase and that is where we start.

A learning curve is definitely involved when buying this phone and reading the owners manual is a must to understand all of the phones’ capabilities. After reading and setting up the phone I notice in a few days that the screen rotate feature was not working correctly.

I call my carrier T-mobile and they explain that I can use “Buyers Remorse” and exchange the phone for a like phone or drop the contract. I said the exchange was fine because I really like the advertised capabitly of the phone.

At that time they attempted to tell me that the retailermay have sold me a product out of box (returned) and that I may want to eliminate my accountset via the retailer and get the phone at a T-Mobile store. I explained that seemed like a lot of back and forth and running around and that I would exchange from the retail location.

I get my new phone (same CLIQ – MB200) and have issues with the speaker for regular calls. I work around this by using the ear buds provided (but ear buds are not convenient,esp. when out on a date) or by using speakerphone. But after a short period of time this gets old.

The phone should work and function properly it’s almost new or actually I got it new. I also have issues with java on the phone and the phone being lost between towers in covered areas.

So after several calls to the carrier they say that they will send a new/replcement phone. The support person said this would be done on the warranty. That the phone I recieve would be new or like new(refurb) and should function correctly. Well send the phone I say.

Less than a week ago I get my warranty replcement phone. Excited that I will have a properly working phone I unpack it and install battery and sim card (sim replaced also).

I log in to the phone ,or attempt to, and the signal strength is none. Hmmm, that’s interesting, I connect via (oCatacoo Solutions) wifi and login and the antenna stength remains weak.

I call the carrier to inform that the replacemnt is worse than the one being replaced so I will send the replacement back and ask them to please send one that works.

Within  a few days I get yet another phone. Wow, Cool, my phone is gonna work, fingers crossed,

Well I change everything out and login (good antenna) start to use the phone and everything is force closing, Home, Contacts and the dialer couldn’t come open. Hmm, that’s interesting, so I call customer service yet again.

They ask me to reset the phone (wait, I just got it, not even an hour uptime yet) so I reset the phone
and it continues. They send me to the warranty department again and I am told that I now have three
options. I could get the DASH or the Gravity 2 or another CliQ.

I look at the options they gave me. The other phones aren’t close to the CLIQ by any means. So the
replacement CLIQ should be coming shortly.

My Question is has anyone else had a CLIQ replaced via warranty?

Did you get one that had issues or am I just having awful luck?

Sometimes we create our own problems…

We may look at an issue and come to an assumption of what is real.

This happens alot when we don’t know how to properly do or deal with a certain situation. This is common to form your own conclusion. We must do this in order to live and take care of the tasks at hand.

That is why there are experts but believe it or not even the experts don’t have a grasp of everything.

Take for instance the Painter he might not know how to properly overhaul an engine or the Networking expert might not be able to look at PHP5 code and modify it correctly. Many people are so educated in one specified area that they find it hard to do or even conceive doing another task.

Maybe this is a testament as to our human learning curve. Whatever you would call it it is in all of us.

Where we go when an issue arises might be our friends or the experts but when we do we have put our trust in the knowledge and experience that the solution will work. Sometimes we may go to several sources to get a more round knowledge on a subject when we are overcoming a situation but in the end what solution we have come to is based on this knowledge.

Take for instance the new guy on the web building experience. He may rely on many things that he reads to gain an understanding of what he is doing but he is no expert. He merely has learned enough to get something accomplished. When he has a snag in the process of building the code he must return to these trusted sources he has accumulated in order to overcome whatever it is that he is facing.

When I rely on a so called authority or this or that said expert I am still limited. I am limited to what knowledge they have and the truthfulness and fullness of how they assist you. In fact if you are following someone else’s instruction they may make you look worse than you did trying it yourself.

Always remember one thing, I think that people in hard situations learn this, trust your own judgement. If you are great friends with someone they are more likely to tell you the correct way and if they don’t know are willing to share that lil’ tid bit with you also. They can help you with what you are going through in any event with an honest solid opinion.

Please be careful who you reach to when you are looking to improve.