I used to covet the iPhone.
I told my family the minute that apple broke ties with AT&T we all three were getting one.  That.Very.Day.

I don’t really feel that way anymore.  I love my blackberry.

and

I LOVE Verizon Wireless.
I am with Verizon because of my serious dislike for AT&T.

I have this issue, about transparency and telling me something and then standing behind or on your word.  If you tell me you are going to do something, I kinda expect you to do it.

If you don’t, I get really angry.
I can also hold a grudge.

This morning on Mashable there was an article about AT&T’s satisfaction rating according to Consumer Reports.
Oh OUCH.
It doesn’t look good for my former carrier if they were to lose the iPhone-heck according to some of the comments, people are leaving even WITH the iPhone.

Awhile back I had an issue with my cell phone.

It didn’t work, and by didn’t work, I mean it would turn itself off…or reboot or do some horrible messed up thing that didn’t allow you to make or receive calls.   I have not had a house phone for over 5 years and my cell IS the only way for someone to reach me for business and personal.  Having a functional device at ALL TIMES is paramount.  I know I am not the only human on the planet to feel this way.

I got a note from AT&T about being eligible for a new phone and I jumped on it because, well, the one I had sucked.  I went into the store and explained the issue to the sales person.  I didn’t want a brand new device with no track record.  I wanted something that I knew would function.  He assured me that if this phone did not perform that they would give me a device that would.

I guess what he failed to mention is that it would be a different phone but the same model.

Really, NOT DIFFERENT.

When this phone started the same stuff that the other phone was doing, I went back in and the people said, oh we don’t ever give you a different model when there are issues.  EVER.

Even if the person threatens to break contract?
Never.
So, I broke contract.
Ok, first I went to Verizon and got a new number and changed my voice mail on the AT&T phone telling everyone that I changed my number and THEN I wrote them a check.

I vowed that day to NEVER go back to AT&T no matter what.
The iPhone was the only thing that made me regret that proclamation, and only briefly.

I have since realized my thumbs are to fat to use the virtual keyboard (same with blackberry storm and any other touch screen).

My solution?
Blackberry AND an iTouch (when my precious Gen II Nano’s battery finally dies….)

What has your experience been with your phone carrier?
Is it a love hate or a love love?

Have you ever bought something that you thought you just HAD to have?  That it was the most perfect, soft, beautiful thing you had ever seen.  Even though it was twice as much as you wanted to spend that day.

It was the ONLY one in the store.

It was on sale and the full retail was 5 times what you wanted to spend, so you are getting a super-duper bargain!

After you buy it, you get home and look online and stores, like Amazon are still selling it for the “way over your budget” price.

And it has these beautiful grommets and rings and studs.  And it is sage.  You LOVE sage.

You feel thrifty AND chic.

You carry it everywhere you go.  To the office.  To lunch with your friend where you show off super cool new chic purse.

Then, you get home and you notice that the grommets and rings made a different sound when you set it on the counter this time.

Yes,  you buy a purse (sometimes) for the noise it makes.

Do you see that?  I am missing a screw.  (no jokes about having a screw loose please, I am heartbroken).

So, in the age of the Internets, I got online and searched out B. Makowsky.  Sent them a quick email about how I loved my new purse, but I needed a screw and if they could please send me one, I would be pleased as punch.

hah.

I will say dear reader, that they were quick with their response, but acceptable, it was not.

We are a wholesale company and specialize in sales through high-end department stores and boutiques. We apologize, we do not sell/send the screws separately. We request you to take your bag and receipt back to the store where purchased for assistance.  We also strongly recommend asking to speak with a manager to tell him/her about your specific issues in order to get the assistance you need.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you.

Translation:

We don’t have time to mess with the petty issues of one lowly customer.  If we sent YOU a screw we would have to send EVERYONE a screw and there would be anarchy.  Just take your baby poo green purse back to the store where you got it and complain to them.  We don’t care about you, your shopping experience or needs.

And even if that ISN’T what they meant.  That is what I feel and my opinion of that company is diminished to the point of  “no more”.

So, later today, I will be heading back over to the local TJ Maxx and getting my precious pennies back and then going next store to target and buying TEN purses!

I just really don’t appreciate birth control ads in my feminine hygiene isle!

And the guy who named this one seasonique needs to be taken out back-It is the 4 cycle a year pill.
Seriously would you want to take any medication that was a pun???

I am not a huge fan of oral contraceptives any way-for the ways they mess with your body-but this is just beyond all.

Good Job Colgate!
Seriously, thank you for using a REAL DENTIST in your ads.

Dr. Joyce Fang isn’t a person playing a dentist in this months Good Housekeeping!  Three Cheers.
And how cute is it that her last name is fang.
heh.

I do crack myself up!
Here is the ad that started this whole line of posts: Truth in Advertising

I am one of those pesky people who gets pretty snippy when I feel that I have been lied to or information has been mis-represented in anyway.  I get so bent out of shape over ads that say stuff like highly processed sugar crud made from corn is “natural” and just as healthy as regular sugar…

But, I guess I also get upset over ads like this too:

That cute chick with the SEARS ID around her neck is Felicia Day.  She is very internet famous-she is a social media maven and star of both The Guild and Dr. Horrible.  She is NOT a Sears Blue Appliance Crew Expert and when she gives “advice” about appliances, I don’t really believe her, because I KNOW she is an actress.

Now, I know that there are models and actresses and people who pretend to be all sorts of things in advertising, the part that chaps my bum about this one…the woman next to her is (unless they made her up too) the marketing director for the magazine where this ad appears.  So, the next question my little mind brews up…

How can I trust Sears to be honest about their appliances when I can’t trust their “expert”?

Is sears so far behind the times in Advertising and Marketing that they don’t realize that I am probably NOT the only one who saw this ad that KNOWS that woman isn’t Ms. Bohner?  Is there really a Ms. Bohner?  Is she fat? or ugly? Or just really shy?

In today’s social media, transparency environment; How would you feel to know that a “trusted” expert is really an actor?

Seriously.

It is bad enough when you feel the need to talk non-stop on the cell phone while driving.. Especially if you almost ran me off the road because you can’t turn the steering wheel with one hand…

OR

To take a walk, out in the wild with mother nature and YAP the entire time…

OR how about the ones who take their phone to the YMCA…we love hearing about your yeast infection, really.  ( and I am sure the person on the other end loves to hear the heavy breathing).

But, in the past month I have noticed more and more women talking on their cell phones in PUBLIC POTTY’S…now even IF YOU are not using the facility while you are chatting away with your BFF!!!, I AM.

And with all the tile and metal in those places, I KNOW the sound echo’s and bounces and I BET your friend thinks you are at the Falls of the Ohio.

Do us all a favor and keep it in your pocket-at least until you are driving out of the parking lot.

(rant over)

about fellow members of the female population.  

Not all of us, just a few.  

Particularily those of us who have become overly attracted to Edward Cullen.  

Now, if you are 15 yrs old or younger, this doesn’t necessarily apply to you.  I am very happy for you to have unrealistic expectations surrounding men and hope that you continue to look for someone as perfect as Edward for the next 8-10 years, only if you promise to not sample every toad you meet between now and then.  Besides, the longer you obsess about Edward the less time you will spend calling my 14 yr old.  (Yes, ulterior motives!)  But, one day you will need to realize that NO man can measure up to that, if they did, we wouldn’t need books like the Twilight Series.

Before I start, I do have to admit that I throughly enjoyed the first book in the Series and I made myself finish the second.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to read more, but everyone I knew raved about how good they were so much,  I almost drank the Cullen CoolAid.  I assumed that the paperback version of the third book would follow the same schedule as the first two.  Ms. Meyer’s (or her publishers greed) saved me-well that and the fact that all the 14 yr old girls who owned copies kept forgetting to bring them for me to borrow.  

I have not and will not read the last two books.

While I was reading the first book, I was mildly disturbed by the level want/need that was written into Twilight.  The sensual nature of Vampires has been written about and portrayed in film for decades but, they usually do not “target” teens.  Anne Rice may have been READ by high school kids very where, but those books were not marketed to them, they were (and are) adult fiction.  Hearing 13 year old girls talk about Edward like they knew him and how awesome he was, started creeping me out.  

THEN when I saw their mothers reading the same book and not being the least bit concerned about the sensual nature of the books…well, I kinda freaked.  This is probably just another one of the many reasons God blessed me with a son who hates to read.

When the movie was coming out women of all ages, some of them in their 50’s were circling the date of the movie release on their calendars, vowing to camp out as to be one of the very first to see “Edward”.   I have never seen such an obsession with a fictional character from grown women before.  I know in my teens and early 20’s there were friends of mine who LOVED reading The Vampire Chronicles, but didn’t have such reactions to Louis and Lestat.

This is new to me and it is kind of scary.

I have had more than one women my age ask me if I have finished the series yet-and when I respond with a NO, they offer to let me borrow their copy.  When I decline, you would have thought I called them fat or ugly, the reaction has been almost that severe.  I have had women try to talk me into reading it-telling me about them getting married and having sex.  When my eyes bugged out of my head they said OH, it wasn’t graphic, but we totally KNEW what was going on.  

Sometimes my dear women friends, it doesn’t have to be graphic to be damaging.  
Our minds are creative and wonderful things.  
So are our daughters minds.

And here we are praising them for reading a sensual novel with very mature themes and being OH SO HAPPY about it because “at least they are reading!”  To me, that sounds like catching your kids smoking pot and saying “at least it wasn’t crack!” with a smile plastered on your face.  

Setting our children up to fail so handedly in relationships.  Holding up a fictional relationship that CAN NOT ever happen (because one of them is walking dead) as the ideal.  As grown women showing our younger counterparts that WE are not fulfilled in OUR relationships so we have to dream right along with them.  

How incredibly depressing-for all of us.

I do think that girls should be able to read books and dream (to a degree) about what love and life could look like when they are grown, but AS adults, we are here to guide them, discern reality from fiction and hold up good, real and strong examples of love and life.  

That real men don’t sparkle in the sunlight and sometimes, they don’t smell very good either. 
And we love them for it-or inspite of it.

We as women don’t always wake up with perfect faces and bodies either.
And they love us for it-or inspite of it.

That is true, real and mature love.
Why don’t we celebrate and obsess over that?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject-fire away!