I don't know what I did in a previous life to piss off whomever's in charge of technology, but whatever it was, I'm sorry, and I promise to be a better person next time around. A warning: this post will be full of bitching and moaning - sorry 'bout it, I just need to vent. Just skip to the jump toward the bottom if you don't feel like listening to me whine.
I'm having 2 issues getting my American cell phone converted to a German number - one on the American side, and one on the German side. I guess I should consider myself lucky that there aren't any more sides to this issue, or I'd surely be having an issue with that side as well.
The American side
When we moved back to the states from Italy in 2013, we went with AT&T as a carrier, and purchased phones from them. My initial phone was on a service plan. When that phone bit the dust, we went to a separate cell phone store and purchased a cell phone, and took it to AT&T to transfer my number to it. When I upgraded from that phone, I purchased another phone from that same local store, and took that one to AT&T as well. The last two phones I've had were not purchased from AT&T, and were not on a service plan with AT&T.
Knowing that people have had issues taking cell phones overseas, I went to the local AT&T store and the gentleman there looked up my phone and told me that it wouldn't be an issue, just to submit an unlock request on the AT&T portal.
I submitted an unlock request on the AT&T portal. For some reason, AT&T's site told me that I couldn't unlock my phone, because I still owe payments on it (I don't), and because it's still on a service plan (it's not). At that point, I didn't have enough time left to go back into the local store, so I chatted with a nice lady on AT&T's support site who told me that she'd take care of it. I then got onto a plane to come over here.
Got over here, and got a message that my phone couldn't be unlocked because I still owe payments on it, and it's on a service plan.
Chatted with AT&T again, spoke with another nice lady (ironically, with the same name as the other lady) who told me that she was going to take ownership of my issue, and that she'd take care of it.
Got an email the next day that my phone couldn't be unlocked because I still owe payments on it, and it's on a service plan.
Chatted with a billing person at AT&T who told me that he saw the problem, and that he'd take care of it. Perhaps he really is taking care of it - I'm not certain. Maybe I'm just not giving it enough time to work its way through the system. The automated system is still showing the latest unlock as "IN-PROGRESS," and tells me that it could take 2 days for the request to be resolved. This request was submitted on the 9th, and it's currently the 13th. If it's not resolved in the next couple of days, I'll probably just resolve to only having a cell phone around the apartment, partly due to...
The German side
So, based on the input of others, we've decided to go with a pay as you go plan, using a service sold by Aldi - Aldi Talk. You have to go buy a starter set to get the SIM card, but then you can just buy access in a block, for about €15 for a month's worth of minutes and data. To start out with, the Aldi next to Becca's office (which is quite convenient) was out of the starter sets, and we had to find another location. There's one in the town we live in, but it's a bit further than Cori and I wanted to walk, so I had to navigate bus lines to get there. Not a big deal... still learning our way around, and that's a big goal for me. Found our way there, got the starter set.
Got home and tried to activate the card (at the same time as negotiating with AT&T about my phone), and discovered that they've got ID requirements here to activate SIM cards. You evidently have to verify that you are who you say you are. Okay... and how do I do that?
That's a good question - glad you asked! There are three convenient ways you can do it:
1. You can put the activation app on your phone and it'll do it automatically!
The app isn't available for my phone. I can't figure out why.
2. You can video chat online!
There are a few languages available, including English. When I select English, it switches back to German. When I select Italian, it switches back to German. When I select Hungarian, it switches back to German. I don't have the confidence in my pidgin language skills to go through this process online, when it'd be so easy for the person on the other end to just disconnect from the session.
3. You can go to a local place and they'll verify you!
Sounds like we have a winner! So I click that link, it gives me a code to put into another app. I download that app onto my phone, then put the code in - success! It gives me a QR code to show to the people at the local place. Look up locations, and there's one right down the street. I went down this morning to "talk" with them and get verified. Got to the place, and turns out, you've gotta have a data connection to get to the QR code on the app. D'oh! I stepped out of line and connected to the town's free wifi (I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't been able to do that). Got back in line and got verified (using my pidgin German and the clerk's pidgin English). Walked home. Logged back into the Aldi Talk site, it's still showing me the same three options above. After spinning my wheels and getting more and more frustrated, I posted on the Frankfurt subreddit to see if anyone had any advice. A few people there said that it sounds like I should be okay, but that it can take a couple of days for the verification to go all the way through.
Overall
I'll take partial credit for getting my cell phone up and running, even though I know I'm just kidding myself. Honestly, will you please stop trying to take these away from me?!?!?
Moving on... walking downtown last night, I encountered a really cool mural - new readers might not know that I'm not big on inline images... I don't post many of them, so when I do, you should really pay attention, because they're special in some way (make sure you read the translation underneath):
This applies to both respect and affection.
Just thought I'd share something cool I saw around town.
No more updates for a couple of days, but I'll have a really good one this coming weekend - Strange things are afoot at the Circle K!
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