.:Computer Defense:.

Welcome to a story of delays, frustration and amazing customer service, as I tell you the story of my new phone

So last weekend I went to see 300... It was pretty good... We left and walked a bit and the person I saw the film with caught  a streetcar... I turned the corner to continue walking and there was a Telus Store... Now Telus is my cell phone provider.. has been for just over 2 years (Since December 2004). My old phone was a classic flip phone (Samsung A670) and I had no intention of getting rid of it.

So I stopped by the Telus store with one thing on my mind, changing my phone number to a Toronto number. I've been here 13 months and still had a London, ON (519 area code) number. I figured I'd change my fiance's number at the same time, we'd bought our phones together, so we had  almost consecutive numbers and this time I figured I'd try for consecutive numbers. I was succesful... and without my fiance's presence managed to perform the following:

• Change my phone number (shouldn't have needed her)
• Change her phone number (probably should have needed her)
• Changed our billing addresses (probably should have needed her)
• Changed both phone plans (probably should have needed her)
• Moved her phone over to my account and canceled her account (definitely should have needed her)

Anyways, at the very least, they let me call her (although I could have called anyone, since they didn't call a number associated with the account) and they asked her (or the "her" on the phone) for permission. I waited in the store for about an hour while this was being processed. You see Telus stores are "agents" for Telus... none of them work directly for Telus. So these reps in the store have to call the same customer service number I'd have to call to do this. This number was overwhelmed for a couple of reasons. 1) WNP (Wireless Number Portability) had just launched and 2) Telus had just launched Amp'd Canada (bringing the known American AMP'd brand to Canada).

So I was killing time and decided to check out the Smartphones... I looked at what Telus had to offer... 3 Blackberries and 3 Smartphones (UTStarcom 6700,  Palm Treo 700wx, and the Moto Q). I already knew I didn't want a blackberry and at this point I was just browsing. The clerk and I were making small talk and she asked if I was interested in a PDA phone. I said I was, once my current contract ran out, and indicated an interest in the Palm Treo 700wx based on appearance and what little I knew about them. She pointed me towards the UTStarcom 6700 which has integrated 802.11b/g. It also has a full keyboard that slides out... which I find much nicer, given my larger fingers, to type on. The price tag changed my mind... $549 without a contract. I'd stick with my phone that was two years old and cost me nothing. The clerk said the calls were taking forever to process and suggested I leave (the store had closed 30 minutes earlier) saying she'd call me when the number change was completed. She called roughly 45 minutes later and suggested that she was going to try and get me an early contract renewal with an offer on a PDA phone. I was excited and awaited the response.

On Monday I had a voicemail letting me know that they were making a renewal offer and I could call for details.. I logged into my phone account and saw the renewal offer online. The UT Starcom 6700 on a new 3 year contract for $229.. I wasn't interested in paying even that much, although it was a huge discount... but I returned the call. She said that must be an error because she was prepared to offer it for $79.99. This I could live with, so I went over right after work and got started on the paper work. Here's where the fun started.

The clerk went to process the phone change and something went wrong... it turned out they couldn't change the phone. After about an hour and a half of calling it turned out that during activation the "backend had crashed" and not only did the change not go through... my phone number was deleted. More bad news... they had to charge me 229.99. I'd already paid the 79.99 and said that was all I was going to pay... They called around for another 45 minutes... got my number restored and the phone for me for 79.99. For my troubles they said to come back when I'd decided on a bluetooth headset that I wanted and they'd give it to me for cost. The customer service, since the troubles weren't on their end, was amazing... I couldn't have asked for more... They went above and beyond on getting me every deal possible and saving me as much money as they could. For those of you in the GTA, I highly recommend NexGen Wireless (the store just says Telus) at King and Bathurst.

As for the phone... I've picked up a 2GB Mini-SD card... and I'd recommend this phone to anyone. The keyboard is great to type on. The camera is quite useful and has some cool features. The video camera records audio and video... I'm quite happy with what it does and what it's capable of. It's been great so far...