New Phone

My wife and I have had the same cell phones since 2000, and she’s recently expressed some embarrassment about her phone—it’s an old style. I don’t really think about my phone; I’m used to it, it does what I need it to do, so I don’t care about the style. But, as I was reassessing our calling plan with Alltel, anyway, I figured I’d look into new phones, too.

I had gone to the Alltel store last week to do all this, but the place was crowded with customers waiting for just two Alltel folk. This time when I went in, there were no customers and four Alltel folk. I was immediately greeted.

The woman who greeted me was all “salesperson.” She was friendly and helpful, but everything she said was to set up for or give a sales suggestion. She was not pushy, but she did know and use the well-known sales tactics, like ask a leading question and mention add ons at every opportunity.

Alltel also sells wireless Internet access, and they had a laptop set up on one wall to let customers test the connection. She told me I could play around on the Web while she went to the back to get my new phones. Nice; get the customer to use the product and it will be easier to sell it. I didn’t say anything, but just left the laptop alone. I have plenty of Internet at home and work, so I don’t need to play around with it on a public computer. They probably track everything that people surf to.

The saleswoman returned with my phones, and proceeded to get them set up. She brought out car chargers just in case I wanted to get them, and she explained the benefits and convenience of having them handy.

When she hooked my old phone and new phone up to transfer the contacts list, I had an idea for the Internet connection. If they track sites people visit, why don’t I go to Total Bullgrit? I could even leave it open so another customer might see it and read it out of curiosity. (Nothing wrong with secret self promotion.)

I got up from my seat and stepped up to the laptop. I left the Alltel main page and brought up this site. Hmm. Unfortunately, the page size was wider than the laptop resolution was set for, so the right side column was cut off. I might have to make adjustments for that. Then I clicked the General link.

The Alltel laptop flashed this page on the screen, but then blocked it. Ha! I backed up to the main page, and it got blocked, too. What the hell? What was the browser picking up on this site to block? I’ve specifically kept this site “family friendly” so anyone can read it. But Alltel found something to dislike about it.

So, you should be ashamed of yourself for reading this trashy Web site. There’s apparently inappropriate material around here.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com