Latest updates. Warning: this mostly a cluster rant!
I've still been fighting with Strife (Straight) talk and, to a lesser degree, Cox trying to get the phone number I was using on Strife Talk ported to my Cox phone account. I never dealt with so many poorly trained, incompetent idiots in my life! The stress has been horrendous, causing my TMJ to flare up several times (the past six months have been the most stressful for me in years for numerous reasons).
After filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, even though Strife Talk's responses have been from idiots that confuse certain orifices with others in their bodies, I suddenly finally started getting some of the information I needed to get some action from Cox that, hopefully, will have the number ported over next Tuesday (time will tell). It took two days of multiple calls with Cox with a lot of "hurry up and wait" to get to this point. One thing that helped was I was able to get my grubby little mitts on a phone number that got me better trained agents who, based on the quality of their English and the lack of difficult to impossible to understand accents, are located here in the SSA.
While that situation is on hold, I tackled getting a 4G dumb-as-rocks flip phone from Verizon to replace my old 3G dumb-as-rocks flip phone since 3G will end at the end of the year. That turned into another nightmare. First, I had problems just getting into my account, then wasted a few more hours hours sorting out some settings and transaction SNAFUs, then attempted to buy the phone. Their misbegotten website wouldn't let me. I tried using their chat so I wouldn't have to deal with accents I have trouble understanding. That did not go well.
The first idiot...er...agent (who, based on the style of English being used, was from South Asia; definitely not the SSA) ghosted me after 30 minutes. A second one chimed in but, after 45 minutes, said he would have to have me call someone else since he couldn't handle that sale
. The third one wasted another 30 minutes before finally saying he would have to give me a phone number to use. I was furious by now but called the number. I was astounded to get someone who sounded like she was from the SSA. After checking on a few things and verifying I was me via an emailed code, she was able to get the process started and eventually sent me an email from the company that handles Verizon's phone sales transactions. I filled in the blanks, hit send, and my Credit Union blocked me, saying I needed to call the number on the back of my card. *&^%$#@! I had to end the call with the Verizon agent, after getting her personal number so I could call back after dealing with my Credit Union.
Normally, when a transaction gets blocked by my Credit Union over a concern it may be fraudulent, it takes no more than 10-15 minutes to get it straightened out. It wouldn't even take that long but they have the idiotic, mistaken notion that everyone has a so called "smart phone" and texts requiring some draconian alternative verification measures that any hacker worthy of the name could have easily defeated with a little research prior to the call.
This time, everyone acted like they also were confusing certain body orifices with others and it took well over an hour to get my card unblocked.
By the end of the call, I was so livid, I told the mental midget I was talking to that the current transaction had timed out and that a new one would need to be initiated and, if they blocked that one, there would be Hell to pay (by that time, I was so lividly furious, I was shouting!), then hung up. I called the Verizon agent back, we jumped through the hoops again, and we eventually got the transaction to go through.
I've never had so much trouble buying anything, not even a home or a new car, than I did trying to buy a flipping flip phone; an overpriced one at that. I had a choice between an $80 one that got lousy reviews and a $240 one that fair reviews (the negative aspects were ones that weren't a concern to me). I opted for the hopefully better reliability of the $240 phone. The prices for flip phones are ridiculous now. My last one, the one that has been serving me faithfully for the past ten years are so, cost me a whopping $12! Yeesh!
The transaction for the phone cleared on my credit union account and, this morning, I received a UPS tracking number. UPS tracking doesn't show it being picked up by the carrier yet but the phone is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Considering the season, I'm not holding my breath. Once I get the phone and get it charged up, I'll have to get registered to my account. Supposedly, it already has my current phone number programmed into it. However, the directions on how to set it up that came with the email that had the tracking number were for a "smart phone" (idiots!) so setting it up may be "challenging".
Now, it's hurry up and wait for things to hopefully happen as promised. I am so sick and tired of dealing with incompetent, poorly trained idiots (who are only a tiny step above vegetables).
Rant over. You are now being returned to your regularly scheduled Forums.
However, I've found that, since the default color when no cable is connected to the tester is green, after screwing on the part that goes onto the other end of the coax, if I hold down the little button and keep holding it down while screwing the coax onto the tester, if there is a short or an open, my eyes will see the little light change shades. It's Michael Mouse but it works for me.
The Cox phone modem actually automagically connected and I now have phone service in the house (doing happy dance...er...shuffle)! I love it when things just work (pretty much; only one RJ11 socket works but I can easily live with that).
). Also, the prices of many things, including tools, have skyrocketed lately plus there is the fact that Klein is American made, which drives up prices (but also tends to result in higher quality) and would have to be exported to the UK, which will increase the price to you.
I'm spending most of today in bed recovering from yesterday's work and last nights muscle cramps.
I used two cables before since I didn't have a splitter but, when I ordered the new phone system, I also ordered a splitter so, today, I pulled out the cable that was plugged into the socket that wasn't working and used the splitter to hook up both the backup phone and the base station to the working cable.