The Blackberry fiasco

The bloom was off the rose of the Blackberry just after I last wrote about it. Did not have access to emails or websites for five days! I tried various settings and it looked like everything was set up, but no luck. I planned a trip to a Verizon store for help just as soon as I had a day where I got out of work early and didn't have any other plans. This did not work out any day this week -- and a lunch time trip wasn't in the cards, either. Closest store, I think, to my office is somewhere around 96th Street and Broadway. Just far enough away to not give me time for the actual conversation and assistance from the Verizon tech desk.

Have to add an aside here. The Verizon store further south on Broadway -- in the 80s somewhere -- is much more helpful than the one near 96th. I have not had a good experience overall with Verizon salespeople (Customer service desk is ALWAYS helpful and professional, though ... odd) But this one store I had a nice experience with a salesman and because he pleasantly surprised me that way I decided to go back (see how it works, store managers?) and buy stuff from him.

By Saturday night I still hadn't gone to the Verizon store. It would have been the one in Queens; Bay Terrace shopping center, near the Barnes and Noble. But I still ran out of time. We were all going to Paddles for Rocky and Friends' birthday party, so we picked up Marie on the way. She was the one who'd given it to me, and told me it had been working fine, that she just wanted to upgrade her phone.

She says, "Maybe you could try uninstalling the FaceBook app on the phone." I thought, "WTF?" She was in the back seat, looking at various options on the phone, as she said this. "You want me to uninstall it for you?" she asked. "I had this problem before when I had the phone."

"Okay," I said. "That doesn't make any sense, but I don't need instantaneous access to FaceBook. Go ahead." She did, and suddenly the phone was behaving properly again. Well, that's nice, after almost a full week of being nearly out of touch!

Thanks, Marie. Thanks for causing me grief, FaceBook. Marie said I could reinstall the app (she had done this after her similar problem and there wasn't an issue), but I think I'll hold off on that for now.

This week I look forward to writing much more, now that I have no excuse. Oh, I know, I had no excuse before. Someone should be spanked.