So my wife's Pixel got all fucked up in the microphone.

I looked it up and found out it was a known issue and was covered under warranty.

I called Telus (our carrier) and explained it to them. They said that the warranty was only on for three more days...

... but it would have to be taken into a Telus store and they would send it in.

They said that the store would give us a loaner until the phone came back. There are a couple of places in Fort St. John, BC, but it's an hour and a half by the time you get to the mall and there are too many people there, so we decided to go the forty-five minutes to Chetwynd, BC and deal with Cardinal Telecom. We had purchased our weboost Drive there, and that had gone pretty smooth. That was about a year ago, and it still works as good as the day we got it.

So we book it for fucking Chetwynd and take the phone in. My wife asks about getting a loaner and they say that they will do that, but all they had was an old iPhone 5. She told them it was fine and then we waited an hour for them to find a charger and get it charged up enough to transfer it over. There was a $100 deposit before they would send the phone out and give her the loaner, so she paid them and we went for some lunch. She also had to sign a loaner agreement.

When we came back, the phone was ready so we made sure it was working before we left. On the drive she found all of the previous user's personal text messages and other info, so she was a little concerned about their professionalism.

They had told her that the reason it was going to be an hour was that they had to wipe it clean before giving it to her. Obviously, that didn't fucking happen.

So a week later she gets a message saying that there was a brand new Pixel waiting there for her. She asked if they meant a refurbished one and they assured her it was brand new from the factory.

We boogied back to Chetwynd to get her new phone.

Well, it was a refurb, which is fine, but why argue that it was brand new? Then they told her it was $39.77 for the rental cost of the loaner phone.

We were both taken aback by this statement. I asked why they didn't call it a rental phone, but there was just a bunch of "It's company protocol" bullshit. It sucks because I had an old Cat phone that she could have used for free and it would have been just as good as the iPhone.

At this point, I'm trying to wrap my head around an iPhone 5 being $5/day.

Anyhow, after a lot of questions with no answers, my wife said to just take it off the hundred dollar deposit. This is when they tell her that they can't issue her deposit back and that when the bookkeeper gets back the following Monday there would be a cheque written out, but they want the rental fee now.

Luckily she already had her phone in her hand and politely explained that under no circumstances was she giving them any more money if they weren't returning her deposit. She also politely explained that this was a very poor way to conduct business and let them know how unhappy she was with the policies of the company and then we left.

I was proud of her for not losing her shit because I sure would have.

Later, when we were in the Fort St. John mall, she popped in to the Telus store and asked about their loaner phones. The clerk said that they take a $50 deposit, but you get it back when you bring the phone back. She said they never charge for loaner phones.

Needless to say, we will not be taking any more business to Cardinal Telecom.

Now for the whoring

We are quite happy with the weboost Drive that we got, but wish we had of got it on Amazon instead. It's $50 cheaper than what we paid, and now that we no longer wish to support that particular business, the cash would have been better in our pocket. If you ever find yourself in need of a cellular booster and don't have a reputable local merchant to buy it from, you can click this Canadian affiliate link weboost Drive and Amazon kicks a little cash our way without it costing you any extra. Actually we get a cut on anything you buy after clicking the link if it's bought within a day of clicking. If you aren't Canadian, here's the Amazon.com link weboost Drive

Thanks for reading all the way to the fucking bottom.