Back In Cell Phone Communication - Reach Out And Touch!

What a saga!

The good news is that I have a new cell phone and can now be reached on my old cell phone number - (978) 239-2864.

Getting to that point was an adventure. I followed the advice of Cingular, and reported my cell phone stolen and told them to suspend service. I then spent the better part of 24 hours trying to buy a replacement phone from Cingular over the Internet and over the phone. At each turn, after spending oodles of time navigating layers of voice prompts on the phone and dialogue boxes on the Cingular Website, I would eventually reach a point where a computer or live person would tell me: "I cannot process your order, because your service is suspended."

"Well, yes, you told me to suspend it. Now I would like to order a phone to replace the one that was stolen."

"You can't do that as long as your service is suspended. You will have to "unsuspend" your service before I can help you."

So, "unsuspend my service" is what I did. While the service was restored, I decided to call my number to see if I had any VM messages. Wouldn't you know it! The person who stole my phone answered the phone, cursed at me, and hung up. I called again: "Hi! I believe you may have 'found' my phone. I would like to have it back."

"I'll sell it back to you for $200, you (string of expletives deleted)!" followed by uproarious laughter.

I headed to the Cingular store down the street, purchased a refurbished phone, and was up and running. A short while after receiving my new phone, I heard it ring, so I answered:

"Is X still there? He told me to call him on this number."

This was a young woman who sounded as if she practices the oldest profession. She sounded rough and street-wise. She literally asked for "X," with "X" being the name of the person who had absconded with my phone. Perhaps I am now being plagued by the ghost of Malcolm X!

Never a dull moment!

If you have not given me your phone contact information in the past 48 hours, please e-mail it (achase@scwellesley.com) to me or call me with it.

Thanks.

Al