it is generally considered polite to ASK before deactivating a person's only phone

[edenfalling]

About half an hour ago, Upstairs Neighbor R knocked on my door and said he had a phone message I needed to listen to. From my sister.

Apparently my parents bought new phones today, which, because the four of us are on a family plan (it's cheaper), means they bought me a new phone. Which means my old phone no longer works. Which means I have no phone, until the new one arrives in the mail.

They did this with no warning.

...

Probably I will have to hike out to the Verizon store/outlet/thing and get them to transfer all my numbers and photos and stuff from the old phone to the new one, because god knows I haven't a clue how to do that myself, let alone the equipment to do it. (Presuming, that is, that the job requires a cord of some sort.)

This is extremely annoying because the Verizon store is about 500 feet away from Bed Bath & Beyond, where I just was this afternoon to buy a new electric fan (since my old one cannot be made to work anymore unless I liberally douse it with WD-40 every day, and that is just not sustainable nor does it make my bedroom smell good). It is a forty-five minute walk from my apartment to that part of Route 13.

I am not looking forward to doing that again on a day that will presumably be hotter than today.

...

In conclusion, ARGH.

---------------

ETA: I just got an email from my dad, in response to my expression of annoyance, which says, among other things:

We did not realize the Verizon agent was disabling your phone and activating the new one until it was already a done deal - we had thought we would send you yours or bring it for the 4th and that you could then take it to a local verizon dealer and get the transfer made then.

As soon as we realized that we tried to call in the hope that the commands entered at the store here hadn't fully registered on the network yet, but it was already over and done with.

So your new phone is activated and doing fine, right here in front of me, with your same old phone number. It is a Gem, by Samsung. It is a 3G smartphone. It can do 500 other things than phone, some of which you may well want to do sometime - such as, it lets you check email when your computer is acting up or refusing to act at all. We got it a protective shell, too. It is black - we thought you'd prefer that to a kind of heavy day-glo pink.

[....]

When you get yours through the mail you should take it to a Verizon dealer and have them transfer all the data on your old phone onto the new one - we'll reimburse you the $20 they are most likely going to charge for it - had you been here it would have been done free.

love, Dad

So I am less annoyed at my family, though I am still very much NOT HAPPY.

Comments

[kaigou]

What kind of phone do you (currently) have? The last time I had to do a change, I was able to call & have them walk me through the copying-over steps, and I didn't have to go in. If you call & find out, then you might save a trip -- or at least know it's required if you do have to go.

[edenfalling]

You know, I just realized I have no idea what model my now-defunct phone is, probably because the last time my family updated the phones, they also did it without asking my opinion... though at least I was visiting them at the time and could pick up the new phone myself. It is silver-gray, it flips closed, it has no antenna, and though it has a camera function and can technically access the internet, it is not remotely a smart phone. (No keyboard, for one thing.) It says LG and Verizon on the front, and there is a little sticker on the back, partially worn off, that I think used to say QUALCOMM 3GCOMA, though it's hard to read some of the letters. The "phone info" option tells me nothing but a bunch of gibberish I don't know how to read or interpret.

I don't know what the new phone is, either -- all I have gathered from the three separate emails my family sent me is that it's a smart phone and it runs Android software. I have written to ask for clarification and details.

I knew Vicky needed a new phone now that she's back from Spain, and it makes sense that my parents decided to update us all before Vicky goes off to the southwest for a month, but I still would have liked a heads-up on the actual day of the switch. :-(

[kaigou]

If you've got an LG, and you're moving to Android, I think that's also an LG phone. (Just checked, and yes, it should be.) Chances are there's a process for upgrading from one phone to the next. You can call Verizon & ask, or you can just look up the 1-800 help # for LG and ask them directly -- there's certain to be a tech who can walk you through how to do it. I usually use Samsung, and when I couldn't figure out how to get my ringtones to work, I called them directly & they were really helpful, so I wouldn't be surprised if LG has the same thing. Best bet is to try Verizon, first, though -- you are definitely not the first person to upgrade, after all!