Scott's Pet Peeve #8446
by Scott Hardie on July 12, 2010
Not all mobile phones mix a qwerty keypad with their main numerical keypad, but I have an old Blackberry that does. That makes me especially frustrated by companies that only provide a letter-based phone number without showing a numerical alternative (800-LIKE-THIS). I just went to cancel Nutrisystem, and of course they require you to call a counselor rather than just cancel online, and the only number they give is 888-459-THIN. I actually started double-tapping the H before I realized it wasn't going to work. In retrospect, I could have searched online or maybe even brought something up on the screen to map letters to numbers, but instead I searched through a pile of old junk to find a landline phone that I haven't used in five years. After sitting through two commercials and two live sales pitches to continue the program, I finally managed to cancel.
Seven Replies to Scott's Pet Peeve #8446
Erik Bates | July 12, 2010
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Steve Dunn | July 12, 2010
Hmmm, that doesn't seem to work on mine. I don't think my Blackberry is that old, either. I think it is this model: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/blackberrytour/
An additional problem is that there ARE letters associated with the number keys... but they're not the letters traditionally associated with telephone keypads. 123 = WER. 456 = SDF. 789 = ZXC.
Tony Peters | July 12, 2010
I only have a Motorola F3 which is likely the most un-tech cellphone
Scott Hardie | July 13, 2010
I would like a more un-tech cellphone. I guess it's nice to be able to get online every once in a while when I'm stuck at an airport or something, but the connection is so slow that I rarely bother. (This site's Dashboard auto-refreshes before it has finished downloading the page, so it never finishes.) I really don't use my phone for anything but calls and a few text messages, and I would like a phone that just handled those functions well and skipped the bells and whistles. I know the Jitterbug is marketed to senior citizens, but it holds a certain appeal. I guess this should make me feel old.
Jackie Mason | July 14, 2010
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Lori Lancaster | July 16, 2010
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Logical Operator
The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »
February 10-16
I don't really blog much about my day-to-day existence because it feels too mundane. But life is made up of those little days, and we don't get an accurate picture of each other's lives if we only discuss the big events. Here's a snapshot of my life last week. Go »Scottish Highlands
Seeing a man in a kilt, the thought occurred to me, "Ha ha! I wonder if anybody has come up with 'upkilt' porn?" Then I checked online. Go »The Importance of Being Richard
A conversation drifted today into weird shortening of names, like Robert into Bob and William into Bill (how come Michael doesn't become Bike?), and inevitably Richard into Dick came up. How did that even happen, anyway? Go »Day 178
People have been asking me how the diet is going. I'm still at it, although I cheat much more often than I'd like, so the daily caloric average is now 1500-1800. However, I've been stuck on one seriously cruel plateau. Go »Scott's Razor
Hanlon's Razor states:Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.That's cute, but aren't we all just a little quick to assume either explanation? Nobody trusts anybody else's judgment any more. Go »
Steve Dunn | July 12, 2010
Preach on, brother. I've had the same problem with the Blackberry keypad.