Denied
So Ana gets home and I make my case about the phone and she relents (daily moaning about how I don't have a cool phone will do that). So I flash out of the door and down the street to go buy it. The woman at the store has the box in her hand, I have the credit card out - I'm THIS close to having the phone in my grubby little hands and then she asks me to call a number to get the offer code for the phone.
Buzzer. I already used this offer to buy my Alcatel late last Summer. I saved $25 on the phone back then and now I can't reuse the offer until 2004 (or said the robot in nice Spanish on the phone). OH NO! Crap, how much is the phone without the offer? 600 Euros. Are you kidding me?!? So by saving $25 ths Summer, I'm losing out on the offer to save 10 times as much money now.
But, the woman says in a sly, low voice, if you KNOW someone who has a Telefonica account that doesn't care about the offer, you can use their number if you want. Hmmm. I already used the offer to buy Ana's phone as well. DAMN! Okay, so as I'm dejectedly walking back home I call Ana and tell her about what happened and she says that her sister might be willing to do it. So she calls her sister and she's willing, but when she tries to dial the special number to get the offer (4499), the line is down. So Ana calls me back to double check and we do this back and forth like 4 times before a half hour later she says that her sister went through the whole process and that the robot said they'd send her an SMS message with the code.
Great! So I wait. Out in the street, then in a cafe... then finally I give up and go home. Still no message. Obviously, a BAZILLION people got this message today about the offer and are calling in to redeem their e-coupon and it'll be days before the system gets back to her, and her to me.
Ugh! Totally. Completely. Disappointed. (Say that last word like Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda).
-Russ