Reason #8,436,795 that I may have lived overseas for too long:
To really understand what happened today, you need a little back story....
So ever since I got my new BlackBerry back in late October, I haven't been able to text people (I know you are wondering why I let it go this long but honestly, I kept forgetting and I'm not a big texter). I've been able to reply to people's text messages but I haven't been able to initiate conversations. Hmm, wonder if the world was trying to tell me something?? Perhaps more on that in another post...
Anyway, so this week I finally had some time and I'm now starting to get annoyed that I can't text my friends. I used my roommate's phone and spent the past two days going back and forth with Verizon. I've done all the troubleshooting possible with their technical support people but still, I couldn't text. After much debate, Verizon decided that the problem must be with the phone itself and not the network. So they sent me a replacement phone and I got it today, literally 24 hours after calling them. Bravo Verizon!
Ok, so I excitedly opened up the new replacement phone this afternoon thinking that all my texting problems were solved. Not at all! : ( People still weren't getting my texts. I immediately called Verizon again and told them my plight. I was pissed! To make matters worse, I kept getting hung up on! UGH! I was moments away from just screwing it all and switching to AT&T and getting an iPhone! When I finally got a hold of someone, I had to explain that I had gotten through all the technical support stuff just yesterday. They were nice about it and said that one technical guy named Elijah had a little idea that he wanted to run by me. Little did I know that Elijah would turn out to be my absolute hero but also the bearer of news that I'm an idiot!
Elijah promptly got on the phone and simply asked me to go to my contacts in my phone and read to him exactly what a few numbers looked like. I thought this was odd but did as he asked and began reading out a phone number to him..."1-310-389-9753". He quickly interrupted, "Stop there. I know exactly what's wrong. You need to go through all your contacts and delete the '1' from every number. Ma'am, here in the states, we don't need a 1 before our numbers." Wow, I felt like such a dumbass! Of course I had to defend myself to Mr. Mocking Technical guy! "Yeah, you know, I've lived overseas for most of my life so I still think that I need to put that 1 in front of my US numbers." Then I let out an embarrassing chuckle. Sadly, he was not amused in the least bit.
So, yep, there you have it. All of that phone drama just because of a little '1' that I just had to put before everyone's number in my phone. I definitely will never be making this mistake again. Please tell me that you've heard of someone doing something like this before or perhaps something even more dumb! : )
that is such a funny story, Leah! Love you and could totally happen to anyone! I was at a hotel recently and tried to use a landline, and it definitely took me a couple tries to dial the number correctly!
ReplyDeleteUmmm you do need a 1 if you are using a fax machine for long distance. I couldn't get the fax machine to work one day, I tried about 15 times (I have trouble with fax machines anyways) finally I went and go a co worker and when i dialed in the number she just starting laughing at me because I had forgotten to dial 1 before the area code. - Courtney
ReplyDeleteI don't know about that. I instinctively enter a 1 when putting a new # in my phone and on those that I didn't, a recording comes on and tells me I need a 1.
ReplyDeleteGuess every phone is different.
ReplyDeletemy home phone shows a 1 on the caller ID in front of everyone's phone numbers. so if you are going thru caller ID and then hit the button to call that person back, it dials the 1 and won't go thru. SO STUPID. and i was all wtf is wrong with my phone it won't do call backs!! then my husband was all, well there's a 1 and it's local so..........
ReplyDeleteJust catching up on your blog! You're definitely not dumb and this is hilarious if totally annoying at the time! I've had to explain to American friends that you have to dial "011" before dialing an international number from their phones. It's all a matter of perspective! Here in India I have insane problems with what number to dial - depending on what city I'm in, I sometimes have to dial a "0" and sometimes not. If I receive a call from a number in Delhi while I'm in Delhi and save it, I may not be able to use the same number if I go to Dehradun until I add a zero and resave the number.... Phones are crazy things.
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