Saturday, March 15, 2014

Sometimes, WIND Mobile really, really sucks



I followed through with my obtaining a new smartphone intentions and upgraded to a Nokia Lumia 521.  A budget smartphone that does everything I need plus more (and it cost me under $80).  I'm a simple guy; extravagance is overrated.  There's no need to dump my money into an object that can get lost or stolen in seconds (although if a thief did take my phone, I would assume they would bring it back to me out of disappointment).  I would be grateful for that.

Cell phones I've owned in my lifetime.  That's it.

So with a new phone,  I decided to dump SpeakOut for a new wireless telephone plan and after much research and cost-benefit analysis, I decided on a $30/month plan from WIND Mobile (unlimited local text, talk, data, blah blah alskdjfalksdjf).  Compared with what other companies offer and what you could get with WIND, this is a fantastic, or I daresay of the HIGHEST excellence of plans regarding the service and features offered with price paid.

BUT (...think huge, of the Sir Mix-a-Lot variety) there is a good reason.  Their wireless coverage is of the MEDIOCRE averageness (or depending on your experience, really SUCKY, like the Sir James Dyson variety).  When I'm out in the open, I can usually get full bars no problem, but as soon as I go into a building, depending on what room or level I'm on, I can easily get one bar or no reception at all.  At my current place of work, I'm near the top of a twenty-one story building and until I calling tech support numerous times to inquire about it, I would get no reception at all.  I visited several WIND retail stores and each time, sales reps told me that the more I complained about a location of poor reception to the corporate tech support number, the more focus it would get from network management so in the end I did that.  For now, my reception is stable at one crappy bar, but if I move a few feet (and sometimes if I just pick up my phone) I'll lose all reception for a few minutes.  It's dumb.

WIND's customer service is pretty lame too.  I don't think it will improve until the company grows more and then they'll be able to get better resources, but that's just me trying to be optimistic.  Every time I called, the agents answering the phone would always politely take information and details regarding my "issue," but always failed to tell me what the problem was and when it would be resolved, apologizing non-stop the whole time (I'll bet they were trained in that). My issue was always in a queue.  I actually took the time to hand write a two-page letter detailing my reception problems, but no one replied me.  NO ONE.  Amateurs.   

The TL;DR version of this story is that WIND sucks, but I'm willing to pay for their service because it's cheaper than the others.

The End.  8^(  <== sad face

Addendum EDIT,  June 4, 2014:  Before my contract ended at that work building, I discovered another co-worker who was also on WIND and she had the exact same problem as I did.  We determined that there was just a dead zone on that side of the building because if we walked to the opposite side of the building, we both got reception.  However, there are still times when I have absolutely no reception for no good reason.

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I update a new album on Flickr almost everyday, called "Chalkboard Mug."  I dressed up in tights as an elf at a Christmas party last December and I won a chalkboard mug for best costume.  I try to draw something stupid everyday and this album is the result:


https://secure.flickr.com/photos/72937995@N00/sets/72157640451301713/
Album contains 53 photos as of today.


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I found a pond where ducks frequent and some of them are really mean:



And yet they're still so cute.

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Gas was in the 130s about a month ago, but in the past two weeks has jumped up to the 140s and I've seen it as high as 142.9¢/litre.