I Fix Old People's Phones For A Living

[phonefixer]

He’s back

So, Tracfone guy came again. Turns out the phone was the problem. It was not compatible with the sim we used. It was an AT&T sim, which he was told would work.

We tried it in a iPhone, and guess what. It worked! So, moral of the story, never try to activate a foreign phone.

[phonefixer]

Tracfone

In all honesty, if you need a phone, choose a postpaid network.  You’ll get better service and a better phone.  If you do have the desire to use a prepaid, use one of the phones that you can buy at the store for that network.

And whatever you do, do not bring a foreign phone.  

I had a guy that brought in his phone to be activated.  The entire booklet it came with was in Chinese.   

He chose Tracfone so he could pay for the full year up front.  Okay, fine, I activate it and because he’s not choosing the $15 plan, I get $10 of commission instead of just $3.  

But, if you don’t know how to work a phone, don’t buy it.  If it’s a Samsung or an iPhone, sure, I’ll help you set it up and teach you a few useful things, but this was a Lenovo... I have never even heard of Lenovo.

Next time someone comes in with a foreign phone, I will simply tell them no, they need to go to a carrier store.

And to top it off, Tracfone didn’t even try to help when we called them.  They said ‘wait four hours and try again.’

[phonefixer]

What I Do

From the title of this blog, it might seem obvious what I do, but it’s a little more complicated than that.  Almost none of the phones people bring to me are broken.  The people are broken.

Almost every day, I have a guest (usually Consumer Cellular) come in with a problem on his or her phone.  Usually, it’s not actually broken.

For example, today, a guest came in with her Doro flip phone, complaining that after she charges it, it turns off when she tries to call someone.  She was pressing the red button (holding it down, actually) instead of the green button.  She literally thought you used the red button to call someone.  I had to explain “Green for go, red for stop.”  

She then proceeded to ask me how to get to contacts, how to dial (repeatedly, and she only said red about four more times with me correcting her).  Considering she was hard of hearing, I don’t know why she’s even using a phone that doesn’t go too loud.

I didn’t bother trying to explain the soft keys on her button.

The hardest part of my job is reassuring these people that they’re not idiots.  They always say ‘I must seem so stupid to you.’  Well, yes, you do, but I can’t say that out loud.  

From now on, I’ll vent my annoyance with these people on here.  I will undoubtedly have plenty of material.