Verizon does have a rather nasty habit of making its technology user-unfriendly. All I wanted to do was add Mobile Web 2.0 to my cell phone family plan's primary number (i.e. mine). I didn't have it or VCast activated when I bought our phones and signed on for the plan, although mine has those capabilities. I still don't want VCast, but for an additional $5/month, yes, I finally think it's worth it to be able to upload and/or email pictures etc. from my cell phone to either Verizon's web-based pix/flix server or anyone's email. Minute charges will apply for web-based services, such as this, but shit, I almost never use the phone anyway, so how much airtime am I going to use up for it?

I really wanted the email feature. Without it, I can't upload or email any pics I take on my camera. The "Get It Now" feature was unavailable from the phone, so I had to order the hard way, through one of Verizon's websites. What the enrollment doesn't tell you is that the "dash plus five digits" at the end of your mobile account number from your bill is really your zip code. I discovered that by accident, just by getting an error message a few times, and trying my zip code for the heck of it, because I knew the first nine digits were correct. Then it worked so that I could actually place the order.

Now it's going to take 2-5 days to activate the service? I have a phenomenal picture I took of what QA did to Liz's cube today. She was on vacation this week. There's a tradition of doing odd things to people's cubes in that department when they are away for a week. They always occur on a Friday afternoon. QA must have used 2-3 rolls of ordinary Scotch tape to horizontally weave a crosshatch of tape across the cube at desk level, then rig another set of it in vertical bars across the entrance, as if it were a jail cell.

Naturally, just as I was getting ready to race out the door, they flagged me down to come take a look. Oh, this was so picture-worthy. I pulled my cell phone out of my briefcase and snapped a picture of it, but then realized that I hadn't signed up for the Verizon services necessary to email it to myself or a picture hosting service. At least Verizon's Pix/Flix hosting service is free, although it only holds up to 75 items. That's more than I would use, anyway.

Why should it take 2-5 days to turn on the damn service on my phone? The receipt/order confirmation talked about shipping me a box. Of what? A user agreement? Then why does it talk about reading it before opening the box that contains my new equipment? There's no new equipment to ship. I've had the phone for almost a year. Fucking beam it out to me, and send me a text message that it's been activated. Verizon sends me a free text message when I pay my bill online, so why can't it do something similar in this case?