Verizon rant...

So, I have had Verizon for a long long time, and have always been happy with them. Since September I have been having nothing but problems with them though. I travel a lot, and use my phone all the time. It is my work phone, so I need something that is going to work wherever I go and won't always drop calls and what not. In September of last year I got a Blackberry Pearl. I love Blackberry's! It's nice to get office emails to your phone for immediate checkage, and to be able to sync the phone to your computer to have all your contacts on both your phone and computer. However, since I have gotten a blackberry, my service has been annoying the heck out of me.

A lot of the time when I make a call the phone will ring 1, 2, maybe 3 times and then the call will end and the phone will go back to the home screen. Also, when people call me it will ring on their end, but never ring on my phone. They will go to voice mail then I will get it anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 hours later. Sometimes it will ring on my side and I'll leave a message and the person never gets it... I don't know how that happens, but it is annoying. There is only so much I will put up with. I have been dealing with it since September, and I'm at the end of my rope. There are borrowers that are getting frustrated that I never answer my phone and it's not that I don't answer it, it's that it doesn't ring.

I've been working with Verizon about the issue since it started happening. Nothing has worked that Verizon has tried. Every time I call in I have to re-explain to some person the problems that have happened, then they transfer me 2-3 more times having me explain it to each person I get sent to. I have had close to 10 blackberries and all have had the same problem. Finally, they opened a "trouble ticket" and are monitoring my phone calls to see when and if it will happen again.

At this point I'm ready to go back to a normal phone if it will fix the problem. I love getting my email right away, but I can also remotely log into my office from anywhere I have a Internet connection. So, I might be going back to a normal phone again.

Don't get me wrong, I still love Verizon's service and everyone I talk to tries to help, I just get frustrated with the problem not getting fixed. I would totally recommend Verizon to anyone that asks my opinion too. It's just a fluke thing with my account I think. My dad, brother in law, and sister have blackberries through Verizon and don't have the problem. I really think it is just the way my account is set up. And short of completely deleting me out of the system and re-signing up to Verizon, I think I'm going to have these problems with any blackberry or smart phone I get. I don't want them to totally cancel my service and reinstate it, so I'm going to just go back to a normal phone if they can't fix the problem soon.

Anyways, that is my rant. I still think that Verizon has the best service area and Customer Service in the industry. I am just the lucky guy that gets to have problems. I always find the kinks with phones and now with freak things in the network. Oh, well.

I can feel the wind in my hair already... almost

Well, I have decided to finally start the process of working towards my Pilot's license. I bought the manuals and have started slowly reading through them. I am going up soon with a friend to see if it is something I really want to be addicted to. I'm sure it is, but it's an excuse to go flying, so I'm all up for it.

My plan is to study through the summer so I can take the written test by the end of the summer. That way, the weather isn't that hot while I'm doing my hours of flying... seeing as alot of the planes don't have A/C. I can't wait to get up there and see things from a totally new perspective!

I am a sucker for anything that I can go fast in, and for adrenaline rushes. That is why I race cars, I love the feeling of progression and accomplishment. When I race cars I can feel the progression of my driving skills and I feel good that I am constantly improving my quality of driving. With flying, I will be able to do the same thing, but on a whole other level.

Hopefully I can stick to the plan and have the license soon! :-)