Good Old Pen and Paper

I upgraded my cell phone this week, taking advantage of Verizon's "New Every Two" offer. I was eligible for a new phone as of two weeks ago: four months before my two-year contract ended. I think they make this offer at the 20 month mark because that is how long the free phones seem to last. I was desperately in need of a new phone because the old one had a defunct battery that no longer seemed to hold charge or didn't have an accurate battery sensor and always told me the battery was low even after a recharge. I had been thinking of switching to Sprint when my Verzion contract ran out in July because they have 7pm nights rather than 9pm nights. The problem with Sprint is that Sunshine says she doesn't get good Sprint coverage inside our house, and I would have to wait four more months to switch over and get a new phone with them. Verizon gave me 1000 bonus minutes for signing a new contract, and I talked them into giving me 250 more on top of that (who says you can't barter in the U.S.?), which can be used over the lifetime of the contract. Plus I got a new phone now, so that was enough to convince me to stay with Verizon.

Last night I activated the new phone, but I couldn't get my contacts migrated on the new phone using their program called Backup Assistant. I called customer support. They said that their Backup Assistant Server was down and I should try again in the morning. I tried again this morning. It finished the backup process and showed I only had the four contacts already programed into the phone. I called customer support again. They couldn't help me over the phone and said I have to drive to strip-mall-land in Gainesville (one of my least favorite places) to have the people at Verizon fix it. This is when technology is more trouble than it's worth.