ARRRGGGH!

It all started with a missed phone call.  There are not too many times that I don’t have my phone with me but occasionally I head out to the garden without it.  No problem, that’s what voicemail is for.  That is, if you can access your voicemail.  That’s always handy.

Like I said, this doesn’t happen very often so I don’t have to retrieve voicemail very often either.  When I do though, it is with the same access pin number that I have used from the beginning of voicemail time.  A simple, easily remembered 4-digit code that has never changed.  This time, though, the recording said I got it wrong … all three times I tried it.  They only give you three tries and then they make you take a time out.  I muttered some colorful words and went on with my life.

You can’t ignore voicemail though.  Every so often, at random times of the day, your phone goes spastic with very annoying startling sounds to remind you to check your messages.  So I tried again … with my personal pass code, my three-strikes-and-you’re-out code, only to be told I had failed once more.  I have no idea what forces were at play in the universe to alter my code; was it my phone? was it some glitch at Sasktel’s end? had I been hacked by aliens? No matter what the reason, I was unable to get my message. 

Did you know that after you have tried and failed twelve times you are then blocked from your own account?  That the only way to rectify the situation is to call Sasktel?  This isn’t annoying at all.  I decided that the portion of my life that I would spend on hold wasn’t worth whatever the message was.  Who needs voicemail anyway?  Who cared whether I got my messages or not?  Not me, that was for sure.

But my phone did.  It cared.  And at random times of the day it would go into it’s spastic little alarm sounds and I would shut it down and say some more bad words.  This went on for maybe a week before I finally gave in and dialed up Sasktel tech support.  We went through the identification process and the which-number-are-you-calling-about part before I got to talk to a real live human being who immediately informed me that I was not allowed to change the pass code on my own account because I was not the owner of the account.  I would need my husband’s permission to access my voicemail.  This didn’t upset me at all.  The nice gentleman at Sasktel detected this.

As it happened my husband was out on a tractor and wouldn’t be able to help us fix the problem so the fellow on the phone said he would send me a link to go in and fix it online.  I don’t know if he actually thought that it would work or not, I’m pretty sure he just wanted to get off the phone while I was still managing to control more bad words.  I thanked him and said goodbye.  I used the link he sent me, followed the steps they set out, but when it got to the part to actually change the pass code I had to tell them which phone number I wished to change and I was shut down again.  I was only the co-owner of the account, I still needed permission.  I wonder where my blood pressure was at after that one, I should have checked.

Another day or two passed.  In order for this to be remedied I had to remember to call during business hours when the all-powerful owner of the account was available to give his blessing.  Meanwhile I tried to go in on my phone and shut off the voicemail alarm, but if there is a way to do this I couldn’t find it.  I contemplated calling Sasktel to cancel even having voicemail but was afraid that if they would let me do that (without permission) with my luck the offending voicemail (and alarms) would remain on my phone to haunt me forever.  Time went on, my muttering bad words escalated.

Finally I could take it no more.  One of those #*%@#! alarms went off at 12:30 am and woke me up to toss and turn until 4:30ish, working myself into a state of fury at whomever it was that made up this stupid rule. 

You have to understand: The only thing Glen has to do with this account is he uses his phone.  I do – and always have – done every single other thing.  I pay the bills, I am the only user of email, I set up the mySASK portal, and I have made every single trouble shooting call over 40 some years.  About 3:15 am it even dawned on me that in all reality the account was mine.  When we got married and moved to the farm, I had transferred it to his name because back in the olden days there was one phone per household and it was registered under the head of the household’s name.  Who could have foreseen in 1983 where telecommunications would be by now?  Now every single person in a house has at least one phone and privacy laws have gone overboard stupid.  I can literally change the password on the online account so that the owner can’t access it, but I can’t change a code on my own voicemail account without his permission.  If we had a swear jar around here it would be full by now.

The very next morning, shortly after breakfast and while the farmer was still in the house, I dialled up Sasktel one more time.  I proved who I was, Glen proved who he was and gave his blessing to allow me to fix what I still think was a problem created by Sasktel in the first place.  I have chosen a new easy to remember code but I really hope I never hear that voicemail alarm ever again.  If you want to leave me a message, just send me a text.  Please.