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Razrs and Tilts and iPhones....Oh, My!

By
Real Estate Agent with Long and Foster REALTORS (703) 470-4545 0225085927

So yesterday afternoon, I pick up my phone to return a call to a prospect who wants to talk about listing her house.  That's cool.  I like listings.  A lot.

I kept inputting the number, but the call won't go through.

Then, I look at WHAT I was inputting - you know that old saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome?  Yep.  That was me. 

Some of the numbers of the keypad of my phone were sticking but I kept trying...and trying...and trying.

Noooooooo!  Not now!  Like most Mondays, this one had been unusually busy and no time for my phone to misbehave.   Seriously, not a good time.  At all.

Finally, I decide to switch SIM cards with my other phone - like many other agents, I carry two phones.  One is just a small, simple RAZR phone for calls while the other is a smartphone for everything else. And should I have a phone problem, well, I always have a backup.  Good, right?

I HATE using my smartphone for phone calls...mainly because, well, the phone is apparently smarter than I am and I cannot figure out what all the symbols mean.   Yes, I KNOW there is a manual, but 68 pages for a freakin' phone?  No thanks. 

I...just...want...to...make...a...simple...phone...call. 

Is that too much to ask?  I don't need to conference in anyone else, I don't need to see their photo in order to know whom to call (I can read, thank you, and find their name THAT way), I don't need ten other functions...I just need to make a call

So, I swap SIM cards in order to make and receive calls from my "regular" phone number.  I manage to finally bumble through all my calls - although I don't understand why I need to "slide and press" in order to receive a call - making plans in my head to run to AT&T as soon as possible to pick up a new phone and restore natural order to my world. 

About that time, my dear husband walks in the room, I briefly explain (admittedly probably adding a little more drama to the story than was really necessary) my phone situation and he says, "I still have my old RAZR phone in the car.  Let me get it."  (He ditched the RAZR phone for an iPhone, but the joke is on him....18 months in to the iPhone, the battery is about kaput and he has to keep it charged it most of the time. Ha!)

Uh huh.   

He brings me back his old phone...his very tired, basic black phone with the cracked cover. 

Really?  Really? 

"Thanks, honey."

I sigh, resign myself to the idea it's really not a bad plan to use that phone - because, well, I actually KNOW how to use that phone - until I can buy a new one and it's a lot easier than trying to figure out the freakin' smartphone.

So once again I pry off the backs and pop out the batteries and play musical SIM cards. 

Only one problem...the SIM card from my phone doesn't work in HIS phone...it worked fine in the TILT, but it doesn't work in my husband's old phone, which is the same kind of phone!  Arrrgghhh...go figure. 

After 15 minutes of frustration, I give up, put all the SIM cards back where they belong and resolve to just run to the phone store first thing this morning.  The phone insanity has gone on far too long and I just do not have any energy left for Plan B. That is, if there is a Plan B.  (There isn't).

The evening passes with no further phone drama.

Until this morning...when I pick up my phone to see I have a text message from AT&T.  "Your Smartphone requires a data plan.  We have added the appropriate plan for your smartphone.  Blah, blah, blah." 

Aarrrrgghhh!  Nooooooooo!   If I can figure out how, I will have to give them a call this morning and straighten THAT out.  Gotta admit, though, I'm pretty impressed that although I only had the SIM cards switched for 15 minutes, they were right on the whole "gotta add a plan" thing. 

The daggone phone really IS a lot smarter than I am.

Faina Reinhardt
HotRentalsNY.com - Manhattan, NY

Susan,

Thanks for this post. I know the situation wasn't funny but it made for a great story :) I was constantly at war with my IPhone.  So...I divorced it!!! Yeah!!! Who wins now?!!!   Post my break up I purchased a Blackberry and we have been living happily ever after.  It shares my views that business can't wait! 

Jul 27, 2010 02:57 AM
Gabrielle Nemes
RE/MAX Realty South - Tumwater, WA
206.300.8421, S King & Pierce County RE Advocate

HAHAHAAAA .. sounds like one of my days! Thanks for the chuckle. Hope you got this worked out!!

Jul 27, 2010 02:58 AM
Mary Kay Hopkins
Mary Kay Hopkins, LLC e-PRO, GRI, CRS, CRB - Lake Charles, LA
e-PRO,GRI,CRS

Susan, thanks for the laugh. Sorry it was at your expense.

Jul 27, 2010 03:05 AM
Amy Soto
LPT Realty - Riverview, FL
CDPE

Loved this post! Sometimes smart phones aren't as smart as we think they should be.  I switched to a Palm Pre last year only to find out it would not support my lockbox key and probably never will.  I keep my centro JUST to use the lockbox key but now the button is sticking so I have to find another solution soon! I am waiting for GE to create a fob for the android platforn so I can have one of those. Who know , maybe I will break down and just get a blackberry also- it sounds like the ultimate solution!

Jul 27, 2010 03:08 AM
Debbie Gartner
The Flooring Girl - White Plains, NY
The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers

ROFL.  You need to start doing stand up comedy.  Thanks for bringing a smile to my face this morning.

It's amazing how dependent we have become on our phones and when they don't work or no cell phone coverage, it feels like the world is coming to an end.  You just reminded me how a few weeks ago, I lost my phone - for 8 hrs.  I was going absolutely insane.  I couldn't find it anywhere.  I knew it wasn't in my house since I could never go that long wo/ getting a phone call or text of some sort.  Then, I got in my car and started to drive 40 mins on my way back to where I had been....and, while I was driving got a call from a realtor...so then I knew it was somewhere in the car (it had fallen in between 2 things.

I called the realtor back...I said, "Hi Joe.  I haven't met you yet, but I love you already since you helped me find my phone."  I met him a few days later and then 2 weeks later, he got some carpeting from me, so that was really cool.

Jul 27, 2010 04:17 AM
Susan Haughton
Long and Foster REALTORS (703) 470-4545 - Alexandria, VA
Susan & Mindy Team...Honesty. Integrity. Results.

Faina:  "Who wins now?"  Hahahahah  That cracked me up.  You should write a post about THAT!

Gabrielle:  LOL...we are just so dependent on technology!

Mary Kay:  Thanks!  LOL  It was quite an afternoon.

Amy:  Technology makes me feel like a hamster on a wheel sometimes...they keep us hopping with all the new gadgets and upgrades.

Debbie:  Great story..you should blog about it!  What a great ice breaker! 

Jul 27, 2010 04:48 AM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

I hate what phones have become.  They seem to sacrifice phone service for more and more fantastic apps junk on your phone.  I use my phone to call people, text ocassionally and hardly ever to send an email. 

Jul 27, 2010 04:50 AM
Susan Haughton
Long and Foster REALTORS (703) 470-4545 - Alexandria, VA
Susan & Mindy Team...Honesty. Integrity. Results.

Chris Ann:  I went online to see if I could just order another phone and I think maybe 3 "regular" phones came up as choices.  Aaarrgghh!  It's a world gone mad.

Jul 27, 2010 05:05 AM
Shelley Rowton
Move To Realty - Austin, TX
ABR, RSPS - (512) 507-5779 MoveToRealty of Austin

I started carrying two cell phones after drowning one in my purse with a bottle of water.  So while I waited for the replacement, I added a cheap phone on a second line.  Then I kept it because I never wanted to be without again in the event of another drowning!  And I refuse to get an iPhone.  Some moral stand I'm taking that I can't even explain!

Jul 28, 2010 12:37 PM
Susan Haughton
Long and Foster REALTORS (703) 470-4545 - Alexandria, VA
Susan & Mindy Team...Honesty. Integrity. Results.

Shelley: I know exactly what you mean about the iPhone and I cannot explain it either!

Jul 28, 2010 01:23 PM
Bill Saunders, Realtor®
Meyers Realty - Hot Springs, AR
www.BillSellsHotSprings.com

Hello Susan,

My poor little antiquated nokia has a great feature. You push a button and it opens. It's rather basic :) and it works very well.

Aug 01, 2010 02:06 PM
Dr. Stacey-Ann Baugh
Century 21 New Millennium - Upper Marlboro, MD
A doctor who makes house calls.

I was like this too but then I took the plunge and got an I-phone and now I can't imagine life without it.

Aug 09, 2010 02:42 PM
Susan Haughton
Long and Foster REALTORS (703) 470-4545 - Alexandria, VA
Susan & Mindy Team...Honesty. Integrity. Results.

Bill:  I replaced the Razr with a basic nokia - well, if you can call a phone that still has mp3 and video and email basic!  But that was the most basic they have now, I think!  And, yeah, your antiquated phone will do exactly what it needs to do:  make a phone call!

Stacey-Ann:  My husband loved his - for a while - but the battery didn't last as long as the 2 year commitment so he's pretty ticked off about it.  He has had the phone about 1.5 years, so the newer ones I'm sure don't have the same problem, but he's going to something else when he finally decides what he is going to do.  Most everyone else I know with an iPhone loves it.  Enjoy!

Aug 09, 2010 02:54 PM