In September of last year, I accidentally broke the screen of my cell phone. And since so-called “smart” phones have almost no physical control interfaces, this meant the phone was unusable. So I went to the Verizon store and bought a replacement; I really liked the phone that was broken, so I asked for the newer version of the same phone. What I was given instead was absolutely the worst device I’ve ever owned in over 30 years of mobile ownership, with the possible exception of my early-90s car phone with the window-mounted antenna. It’s called a “Moto G Power (2021)”, but the only actual “power” it appears to have is the power to infuriate me whenever I attempt to use it; while it seemed to have basically the same computer capabilities as my previous phone, as an actual phone it’s almost completely useless. Until I installed the repeater, it had absolutely no signal unless I drove about 5 km toward town, and even with the repeater it only works dependably if I stand in the hall within about 3 m of the repeater antenna. So needless to say, as soon as the screen on my old phone was fixed, I chucked the “new and improved” piece of shit in my desk drawer and tried to forget I had spent over $400 on something which, judged by the standards of modern telecommunications devices, was roughly as useful as a set of two Dixie cups on the ends of a piece of string. Well, the old phone never really worked properly again; the screen would go black during calls, so there wasn’t any way to hang up if the call went to voicemail (except to hold down the power button until the phone restarted). I knew that sooner or later it would die again, and it did a few weeks ago, which meant I was once again forced to use the Worst Phone Ever until I finally got so sick of it I called Verizon and complained. They gave me a decent deal on a replacement (which still means I’m out over $400 on the Shitphone), but after a week went by with no phone I called again and discovered that the order hadn’t actually been processed because of a series of very strange technical problems which made me wonder whether their order system hadn’t been created by the designer of the “G Power”. Fortunately, I happened to encounter that rara avis in terris, a customer service representative who is actually invested in providing good service; he not only got the IT folks to solve the issue, but also called me back the next day to personally process the order himself to ensure it was actually done. I should get my new phone today, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this painfully-expensive paperweight (since Verizon didn’t want it either); maybe I could get $100 for it on Craigslist.
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