One year ago I got voice mail for my cellphone. When I first got a cell in February of last year I did not have any way for people to leave me messages. Bowing to pressure, mainly from Mark, I decided to pay the extra fee for this service. Yet for the past year–yes, an entire year–I have had problems with my phone. It is making me consider cancelling my cell service and going back to a landline.

I wonder if any cellphone users experience the same problems I have. My phone often will not ring. People will call and leave me a message but I will never hear the phone, even when I have it next to me. The ringer is on, yes, and I always keep it at the maximum volume (which still isn’t all that loud). I have called customer service countless times, and even recognize the names of the tech support guys when they take my call. “Yes, Chinky, it’s me again“. Bell gives me the same useless remedies, like checking its power and making sure the ringtone is not on silent. They suggest stuff like powering the phone off for a while, and then they test it by calling me back to see if it will ring. Of course whenever Bell calls to test my phone it rings. But yet again, this past weekend when I was at Mark’s and I had brought my phone with me, I missed three calls. Mark and I were playing Scrabble and the place was quiet. I had the phone in the next room, which was not separated by a door. I checked the phone after we had finished playing and saw that I had missed three calls. I tested it from Mark’s by calling it to see if I could hear the ring from where I had been sitting, and the ringtone came through loud and clear. So I have to ask: Why the freak didn’t it ring for those three calls that I had missed?

This happens all the time. I am always missing calls. And that is only part of the problem. Half the time I don’t even get timely notification, or notification at all, when a voice mail has been left. The phone should send a jingly tone when a message has been left. Sometimes it does this. I often deliberately do not pick up my phone and instead wait for a message. The jingly tone chimes immediately. Yet the other half of the time my phone will suddenly jingle, to notify me that I have a new voice mail, yet the freaking phone never rang in the first place. And these jingles are always way past the time that the original unheard call was made. And sometimes I do not even hear the jingle at all. I will pick up my phone and see that there was a message, left hours ago. Perhaps if I waited an hour before listening to the message I’d get to hear the tardy jingle after all.

I am not pleased with my Bell cell service and want to cancel it. I will go back to a landline with pleasure if they cannot help me fix this. The support staff in Timbuktu know me, for crying out loud, so what does that tell you about the number of times I have had to call to complain? Are these problems because I have a faulty phone? Or would this happen regardless of the phone I used? Fortunately, I saved my old touchtone and two kettlebell dial phones.