Caller ID ahoy

Well, I did something I should have done a long time ago.

First, I ordered a new phone (from Amazon). My old phone still more or less works, but it's closing in on 20 years old and a feature or two has gone wonky.

Then, today, I decided: I might as well go ahead and get caller ID - I think my current phone will handle it and anyway, the new phone is due Thursday so it will be here soon enough.

I tried to sign up online. But, A T and T....bless their hearts....to sign up online, they have to give you an eight-digit code and they can give you that either over the phone (and I was at work) or mail it to you. Like, USPS mail. I suppose there's a security reason for them not e-mailing it, but golly, they ask you for your home phone number and everything, you'd think it would be possible to check.

Anyway. When I went home at lunch, I decided to try braving the phone tree.

When I told the voice-recognition software, "I want Caller ID," it sent me to a person.

And then I had one of the nicer customer-service experiences I've ever had over the phone. The young woman - I think her name was Natalie, I should have made a better note of it so I could get in touch with her supervisor to let them know she's good - was helpful and friendly and I got the impression she actually *enjoyed* her job (Not all over-the-phone customer-service reps seem to). She found a package that actually costs less than what I was paying (It includes Call Waiting, which I am not a huge fan of, but whatever, I don't have to use it) and took care of it and told me all the particulars.

She said, "Give it a couple hours and it should be working" but I was curious and impatient so I tried calling my landline with my cell phone and yup, she got the caller ID working. (My cell just comes up as "US CELLULAR CALLER" but that's good enough to tell if it's a real person or someone I don't want to talk to)

And now I will know who's calling me, and Carmen, Bridget, et al. from Cardholder Services can go pound sand. (As can the cheerful East Indian scammers who try to tell me there's something wrong with my Windows). (And I can, if it is my desire, passive-aggressively avoid talking to people who happen to call up late in the evening and whose phone call I know will be a cluster of frustration for me....I can let it kick over to voice mail and deal with it the next day)

I admit I had resisted doing this because of cheapskate reasons, and also it frankly irks me that I am paying good money mainly so I can avoid answering the phone for illegal telemarketers, but until they're squashed out of existence, that's how it is.

And when my new phone comes, I can decide, but I might plug the old one in - with the ringer turned off - to the jack in my bedroom, so I can answer quickly if I'm sewing or something, because my sewing room is right off my bedroom and is the farthest point from where I have the phone now. (Then again: does A T and T charge for extensions? It's not worth another $7 a month to me to have an extension when my house is as small as it is)