Finding Peace When You’re Having One of Those Weeks

So, it looks like I won't have a phone for 30 days now...

It's been one of the more frustrating weeks I've had in a long time. Where almost everything has gone wrong. One day I will laugh telling this story when it's all over...

Found out I don't own the phone I was leasing from Sprint for the last 22 months (lease to own). My bill should have went down, but instead it went up. I discovered it was because I was now renting the phone! Wait, what?

I had originally tried to buy the phone upfront but apparently the sales person lied to me and told me I could not buy the phone outright and told me I could only lease. I had be a customer with Sprint for over 12 years, I wasn’t happy with the new way they were doing business, but I had to reason not to believe him. This week, I spoke with 3 customer service reps about what happened, even one from the Corporate office. Sprint does not care, they only kept telling me about new promotions. This is how they are all trained. Plus, they said, some crazy New York State law prevented them from selling me the phone at the remaining $36 due on the phone. I said, why would I stay with you after you’ve done nothing to help me resolve this? So that's about $700 down the drain.

When I went to turn my phone in, I finally had a nice customer rep who asked me who the rep was? I said, you are the first rep to ask me who the rep was. At the end, he said, “I feel bad. I'm sorry for what happened to you. I don’t blame you for leaving us.” I later found out this rep credited my account for $200.

I went back the following day to buy an “unlocked” phone from Best Buy. I never knew about “unlocked” phones. They are phones that are not tied to a carrier, such as Sprint or Verizon. However, carriers can still offer deals through Best Buy to get you to sign on with them. Since you are not tied to them, you can leave at any time, unless you go in on a buy on get one free offer and pay over 24 months like I am choosing with Verizon, and what I thought I was doing with Sprint. This seems legit since every sales person at Best Buy is saying it, not just one unscrupulous salesperson at Sprint. So, now I am getting a phone for free and upgrading my mom's phone at the same time. Nice.

In order to take Verizon up on their offer, Best Buy had to do a credit check. The check got stalled because I put a freeze on my Equifax account due to the security breach they had in 2017. What a pain to unfreeze it. I couldn’t even answer the questions to my own account! “What is the current balance on your credit card?” Does anyone know the current balance on their credit card? It fluctuates all the time, especially if you have automatic payments. I know, I could call my credit card company, but I am on the phone with Equifax at Best Buy, not the most convenient time to make another call. It took a long while, but finally got the freeze lifted. They said it could take an hour to show up, so I went to lunch. Went back to Best Buy and it still wasn’t showing up on Best Buy’s system. Best Buy said it could take 24 hours. So I left.

I went back the next day and the freeze was still on my account. After making another call to Equifax we figured out Equifax has my name wrong on their file. I have no idea how they came up with the combo of my name on file but it’s one that I never use. I swear, getting married and unmarried causes so many problems for women’s names, so now I have to submit a written request with all of my legal documentation to prove who I am, to have them change it, to my correct name.

I went home and couldn't find one of the required ID cards. Actually, I have not been able to locate that card for 2 years. I was told to always pray to St. Christopher if I’ve lost something. I’m not Catholic, but apparently he is the patron saint of lost items. It took a half hour but it worked!
Thank you St. Christopher!

But then my printer was not working. If anything can send you over the edge it’s printer problems, so now I can't make a copies of the documents or print the letter I need to send to Equifax. No software updates or resets were working. I’m thinking I should have just bought a new printer the last two days I was at Best Buy.

On top of all this, my check engine light went on in my car on my way home from Best Buy yesterday, so I went and had that checked the following day. So far the shop said it seems like a small replacement, but if the light comes back on, I will have to bring it to the dealership. Let’s hope it stays fixed.

And when I got home, my trunk was frozen shut and wouldn’t open, so I couldn’t get my groceries or my sushi dinner out of the car. (For people who wanted to know if the sushi was saved? Yes, I went down a couple of hours later and was able to save the sushi from the frozen trunk).

The next morning, before I went to the auto shop, I went to Staples near my house to make copies, fax the docs to Equifax and buy a new printer. The young salesman saw me waiting in line and grabbed the large box from my hands and said, “I’ll take you over here.” I walked over and he said, “The strangest thing just happened? The whole system just blew out?” I said, “No, it’s me. It’s the week I’ve been having.” I went on to tell him about my week. Turns out he has to talk to Sprint about his lease. I gave him a few tips and he was happy.

Friends keep telling me how to find a cheap phone and avoid the credit check. I could buy the Samsung Galaxy S9 outright from Best Buy now, no problem, but I’m holding off on the twofer one deal, plus $200 off, (which can take up to 30 days per Equifax). Also, I kind of want to see how I do on this phone detox the Universe has put me on.

I missed a lot work, yoga this week, I was a bit stressed and frustrated, and that’s perfectly normal to feel stressed in these situations, but it’s how we choose to handle the stress. Life isn’t always going to be perfect, because life isn’t about perfection the way ego likes to think it is, and that’s what trips us up, the idea that things aren’t going the way things should be, instead of moving with the ebbs and flow of life. Not giving your all your energy to it becoming a victim of it and completely losing your sh*t over it. Sh*t is going to happen and if you resist the current, it’s going to take you down if you let it. I’ve been through a lot worse in my life, as I know many of you reading this have been too, so while as annoying and frustrating this was, I am still grateful that no one is sick in my family and everyone is safe. I am healthy and safe too. I have a roof over my head and I always have access to food. I made it back to yoga, and found time to meditate in between.

All in all I am still very blessed

This will pass soon enough.

I love what one friend taught me. That when something bad happens to her, she knows something good will happen to her to balance it out.

I am opening myself for many good things to come into my life now.

~ Namaste Loves <3