Sigh.  I wish stuff would just mostly work.  Is that too much to ask?

So in an ironic twist, which I’ll devote a post to later, I’m trying to activate my WWAN card in my new Dell XPS M1330 on the AT&T network.  The short version of the ironic twist is that Apple forced me onto the AT&T network – against my wishes.  I had previously sworn off given these asshats another dime.  But alas, the iphone forced me back.  I rationalized it by saying I was paying Apple, not AT&T.  And Apple did a reasonable job making AT&T not suck. 

Dell, however, failed at making AT&T note suck.  So after activating on Dell’s site – well at least I thought I did – my WWAN card didn’t work.  So I ended up at some new activation screen.  Which told me to enter exactly the same stuff as my other AT&T account…. after it refused to accept my AT&T login / password.  Great.  The whole point of getting AT&T was to not have yet another stupid account floating around.  But no, they can’t even make it easy for an existing customer.

And they charged me a $40 activation fee.  WHAT THE FUCK.  They are supposed to be given me a fucking rebate for crying out load.  But I’m to tired to argue.  Maybe I’ll take it out of them in a screaming customer service call later, god knows they deserve it and it might make me feel good although it is unlikely to accomplish anything.

So now my stupid WWAN card is polling the network telling me 2 days until activation.  What fucking planet do these guys live on?  I have an activate (never late, never missed a payment) AT&T account.  They know the IMEI and other crap for my card.  Why the hell can’t an automated system just turn it on? 

Well wow.  I feel a little better venting on this.  AT&T sucks and the second I can get the gadgets I want on any other network I’ll be gone.  They’ve consistently delivered the most unbelievably stupid activations and a horrible consumer experience.   It’s a good thing they are monopoly and can bribe Apple or I’d never use them.  Ever.  I kind of regret not setting up a seperate data plan with Verizon or ANYONE else.  Woops.  Don’t worry AT&T, it won’t happen again.

A company your size and scale has no excuse for craptacular service like this.  It’s sad and disappointing.  I’m so lucking forward to using your network in 1 day and 22 hours.  Those are some fast computers you got there.

/rant