Cell phone angel

Madness.  That’s what you approach when your cell phone dies.  Last week I wrote I was two days without a cell.  That was not true.  I wrote my column a day after I bought my new phone.  I was waiting for the newly-installed  micro-SIM to work.  The prestigious provider told me it would go on in one to three days at the longest.  “Please try to make it soon because I rely on my cell for work,” I said.  It’s true.  People order things from me.  My students call me to say they’re going to be absent.  My whole life depends on my cell phone.

I walked down to the mall garage and suddenly I could not call my driver because my normal versus the micro-SIM card was frozen.  I got an Only Emergency Calls prompt.  To me calling my driver was an emergency.  Not to them.  Anyway, fortunately he saw me. 

I bought my new phone on Tuesday thinking that I would spend Wednesday, a holiday, getting acquainted with it.  Nope I had no cell phones.  Thursday, the new one was still dead and the old one frozen.  Friday, nothing.  Saturday, dead.  Sunday, stone-cold dead.  Monday morning, I was so angry I was at the store as soon as it opened.  I told the young guy, it has been five days since I had a working phone.  What will you do to make it work again?  I brought my column to prove to him that I’m a columnist.  He changed my micro-SIM and said it would definitely work within the hour, meaning roughly 12:18 pm.  I gave him until 2:18 pm.  When he looked up, there I was again.  No working SIM.  Nada.  Another three hours, he said.

 But I knew it wouldn’t work.  I hunted for an old phone I had bought and went off to Greenbelt 1 to buy myself a SIM card.  I decided to install it myself.  But when I got home I could not get my old phone to work either. 

 I called my driver who has three phones and a little business selling load.  I told him to please fix it?  He came back to say he couldn’t  because something was stuck.  I remembered.  The first time I wrote about StemEnhance I got more than 800 texts and my phone froze.  The texts were still there.  I was totally exasperated with everything I decided to stay home and mope.

 The next morning, Tuesday, I headed off to Greenbelt once again.  From where the car parked I could either turn left to go to the provider or turn right to go to Greenbelt One to have my old cell fixed.  It was before 11 a.m. so I would have to wait at the provider.  I decided to go to Greenbelt 1 and have my cell cleared.

 I went to where I had bought the SIM card and asked who could fix my cell.  She pointed to a man across her stall.  I asked him if he could clear the cell up so I could use it.  In a couple of minutes he did.  I now could use my phone.  Wait a minute, are you familiar with the Lumia 920?  I asked.  Yes, ma’am, he said. 

 Can you make mine work for me?  They put in a micro-SIM but it still wouldn’t work and it had been a full week. 

Let me see it, ma’am, he said.  So he took it.  Tried a new micro-SIM from his phone.  Tried my own micro-SIM.  Tinkered with it a bit and voila it suddenly worked.  In less than 15 minutes suddenly I had two cell phones working.

 â€œYou’re an angel,” I said.  I have been to the provider’s shop so often.  I have threatened them with all sorts of things still they could not make it work.  How did you do it?  Did you study cell phone repair?

No, ma’am, I have a degree in nautical engineering and I’ve done my time on boats.  But then I decided to set up a business so now I’m here.

But how did you learn?

Patingin-tingin lang.  Pabutingting-butingting.  Just by watching and trying.

“Well, you’re a miracle worker, an angel,” I said.  “What is your name?”

 â€œArturo Ely Ellazar,” he said.

  Here’s my advice to all the readers of this column.  If your cell phone is driving you crazy, you can’t use it, you can’t figure it out, you dropped it, it needs repair, don’t waste your time with the social providers.  Look for Arturo Ely Ellazar.  He is at the second floor of Greenbelt 1.  Take the up escalator and look for Telecoms Center, right before CDR King.  He is in the second booth on your left.  He will keep you from going crazy.  He will make your cell phones work.

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