There is never a better way to make yourself feel OLD than to try something new and preferably technological. Like a mobile phone.
stop laughing
I said, STOP laughing!
It’s just so sad. I had a phone for years, decided it was a waste of time and stopped using it. But a few weeks ago I realised that I really need one again.
So, I bought the cheapest prepaid I could find. And it has taken me ALL day to get the damn thing going. And I STILL haven’t got it to do what I want.It must have 3752 different menus and NONE of them look like the ones in the handbook.
My kids have phones and THEY figured theirs out (in two seconds). Peter has one that cost a fortune and does everything except make it’s own payments and HE figured his out (although it took him much much longer than the kids).
I feel somewhat defeated. All I have to do is tell it which five numbers I want to be able to call for free. And I can’t.
I should have bought an expensive one, then the little boy in the shop would have done it for me. They don’t provide service to tightwads. Or is it that they assume that only an idiot wouldn’t be able to work out how to use a $100 phone?
20 comments
Comments feed for this article
August 3, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Lindsay
I wouldn’t worry about it too much, you’ll work it out…although I do think there needs to be some kind of mobile phone standardisation with the buttons.
I’ve had multiple family members getting new phones at the moment, and at one point I had my granny and my dad phoning me with in about an hour, asking how they worked. I’m not sure how I was supposed to help them without seeing the phones (or even knowing what type of phone my granny had). My mum has only just realised the button she needs to push to actually answer her new phone (before that she was going through a menu).
In the list of phone breakages my dad and sister have both dropped their phones in the toilet (twice each I think), and my dad has dropped a phone in the pool as well.
This may seem like me making fun of my family, but I’m just pointing out some examples. My mum constantly gets infuriated with me because I don’t reply to her texts!
August 3, 2007 at 5:35 pm
nicolette
Hi Kirsten, send me the phone and the book, I’m a mobile phone expert! NO, I’m not! I had a wonderfuL phone, but the thing didn’t like me anymore and stopped working, so I had to buy a new one and I did fall for its looks, but it’s an awful phone to use. Do never go for the looks. $ 100 is not thàt cheap. They should have explained it to you anyway.
August 3, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Margie
isn’t that one of the reasons we have kids to help with all those buttons on phones and computers and things that go buzz in the middle of a conference…. i now have the hang of how to turn the bl,,,,,,dy thing off…. and i can sms like a pro…. all i need now is a blog… i am working up to it… i have a man who rings me up and tells me i can have another phone… but i don’t want another one i have just worked out how to use this one…. the last time i got a new phone… it took me ages to get the dam thing worked out…. my long time love has a phone that can be dropped from high buildings or so he was told untill it ended up in a thousand bits… yes..give me a home among the gum trees… i think.. happy days margie
August 3, 2007 at 6:09 pm
peppermintpatcher
tell me your number and I’ll send you a text message.
You will be able to reply won’t you?
August 3, 2007 at 9:25 pm
caityquilter
You know the phones they sell for kids, that have only 5 numbers you can call plus the emergency button, and they have BIG buttons and ALL THEY DAMN WELL DO IS MAKE PHONE CALLS?? That’s what I’m getting next. So are my parents. Cos not a one of us is a budding auteur who desperately needs to make a MOVE with their DAMN MOBILE PHONE!!
Ahem. I have just officially crossed the line into fuddy-duddy-dom. But - am I right?
And for $100, they SHOULD damn well explain it to you. Go make them.
Harrumph.
And don’t walk on that floor, I just washed it. Kids these days….
August 3, 2007 at 9:25 pm
caityquilter
umm, that should have been MOVIE. The eyes are one of the first things to go, obviously.
August 3, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Stomper Girl
Surely your beautiful daughter ought to be able to sort you out?
But I am shocked Kirsty. If you can work a computer surely you can do this phone thing. Just stop letting it sense your fear!
August 3, 2007 at 11:31 pm
erin
oh you make me laugh. i’ve stopped now.
August 3, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Anita
I know what you mean. I can use the computer like a champ. But the phone always leaves me stumped.
August 4, 2007 at 12:07 am
Maddy
Yep did the same thing, had a great little phone, never used it, got rid of it, now I need a phone, got a cheap one and just like you I have no clue how to turn off the capital letters or change the stupid ring tone. grrrrrrrr
August 4, 2007 at 11:11 am
crafty
I also have the cheapest pre-paid phone, it has one fancy feature, a torch! ?
I worked out how to make and receive calls, but I didn’t have to do any setting of numbers for free calls or such bother, and it took me two years to work out the quick way of writing text messages. Or that there was a quick way, and I didn’t so much work it out as have someone show me…
so I don’t think I can be of much help to you on this one!
August 4, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Meggie
Got given my granddaughter’s castoff. camera phone & all. Worked out how to use it- well mostly. Then got offered a ‘deal’ including mobile. O hardy har har. Feckers wouldnt allow me to use ‘their’ phone. Never mind the fact that it was an old phone! Then I got given another kid’s old one. Pah, it is so complicated I cant do a thing with it. So… I pay $5 a month for PFFFFT. Bastards! I hate them all!
August 5, 2007 at 1:01 am
kirsten
not laughing. i just got my cell phone this year, and pretty much always forget to charge it. which doesn’t do much good, does it?
August 5, 2007 at 4:58 am
Christiane
sounds very familiar, I have my phone for my handbag and for emergencies which hopefully never come,
I hate reading the instructions and the recharge thing is annoying………………….perhaps someday when I get bored with sewing and knitting then I ‘ll work it out (= never).
August 5, 2007 at 7:45 am
Isabelle
Well, I think we have to admit that this is the sort of thing we have children for. My phone can do all sorts of things that I have no idea about but as long as I can phone and send text messages, I’m happy.
August 5, 2007 at 8:55 am
melinda
There is not even a hint of a smile on my face. Get the kids to make it work. Tell them you will pay them. Large sums of cash… extra if they keep quiet about it. The first giggle means no money.
August 5, 2007 at 10:41 am
velcro
I’ll send the FB over. He reprogrammed my parents’ remote control when he was 1 and bypassed the pin requirement for certain adult channels before he was 2.
August 5, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Fairlie
Go find yourself a pre-schooler…they have an innate ability to work out anything electronic!
My phone does all sorts of stuff, but all I actually wanted it to do was make and receive calls. (Although now I have worked out SMS I do find it veryhandy.)
August 5, 2007 at 5:56 pm
redslippers
i consider myself young, and let me tell you, there is nothing overly logical about mobiles. i hate them- alot. i only have one because a friend bought it for me and the previous one had been bought by my b/f.
August 5, 2007 at 11:20 pm
YUMMERS!
I couldn’t live without my phone… it’s like an extension of my hand. With both of my daughters living in different states, we shop together in stores over the phone. But as far as anything other than calling and receiving calls, I am clueless. That’s what husbands are for!
Joni