I come from a small town and one of the perks of this is knowing shop owners and employees, sometimes like they are family. Not that I would call Knoxville TN a large city, but in comparison to Corry PA it is a major city! The nice thing about Knoxville though, is it is small enough to still get that hometown feel depending on the area you live in.
My cell service is with a regional company that offers national coverage. I have been with US Cellular for around 10 years now and one of the things I love about them is they are a smaller company and the service is more personal. Sometimes I see complaints on various stores in certain areas but only have kudos for our two corporate stores near me. We have a large number of agent stores as well but I always prefer to deal with the ones actually run by US Cellular itself.
If you live in or near West Knoxville then the Turkey Creek store on Parkside Drive is the one to use. These guys (and gals) are awesome! They bring back those hometown memories for me. They know me by name and are always treating me like a long lost friend that had come home. I know I have been with them awhile but personal change from time to time and I see them treating new customers the same way they treat me.
I really miss Cory but wish her all the best as she is now in Nashville in a new job adventure. Amanda, Brandon, and Markie are still at Turkey Creek however and are great people to deal with....friendly, helpful, knowledgable, and always ready to help the customer with their needs.
And unfortunately we sometimes need a little help on the tech front and they don't get any better than Zack!!! He really knows the phones and the ins and outs of technology....and goes above the call of duty to keep our phones in Knoxville up and running. They recently had some tower issues in the area and he even called me later to make sure the phones were working properly!
I know it sounds like an ad but for people in my area looking for a helpful and friendly bunch to help with their wireless needs....the Turkey Creek store is the one to go to! A shout out to the gang....Amanda, Brandon, Markie, Zack, and any new associates that I have not met yet! Im sure I will.
Jen, feeling at home as a US Cellular Customer Crew Member in Knoxville, TN
One of the first rules of happiness is the ability to laugh at yourself! I consider myself pretty tech savvy though I do need help from time to time. When it comes to problems with a smart phone the first rules apply....pull battery (providing its a phone with a removable battery), reboot, put in airplane mode briefly, hold power button......then call tech support.
My almost brand new Samsung Note ll failed me when I went to Georgia for the weekend. I noticed while driving that my signal on the bluetooth in the car was gone. I got to the hotel and tried all the tricks in the book......sigh....call tech support. The first day after being on wi-fi at my house the phone didn't go back on data by itself when out of range and the local tech reset it when I called him from work. I thought I was dealing with the same problem.
Now, being in roaming and being a 4G phone, resetting it to the network was going to be a problem. Well I was transferred to Charles....a roaming tech. What a brillant guy...we started with looking in the settings......I was thinking to myself, yea right....ha ha shows you what I know. Im not sure how, but I'm sure I had something to do with it but my Note ll was set on HOME ONLY under data selection....one of the first things I normally do with a new device is go into settings and put everything to my preference. Not sure how I did it but the tech and I had a good laugh. He wasn't going to laugh until I did and told him that normally settings is one of my first stops when buying a phone. Without Charles and his knowledge that this happens more often than we "smart" people with our smart phones want to admit, I would have been out of touch all weekend!!!
A friend called me a week or so ago asking to look at her tablet because the internet wasn't working...she had accidentally put it in airplane mode. Of course she knows very little about tech stuff....and apparently I know enough to be dangerous!!!!
So my advice for this week is.....be humble.....laugh at yourself when necessary, and always be willing to call the great tech support at US Cellular!!!!
This is why I love this company and being a member of the Customer crew!
In a recent blog I had mentioned having a few people in my life that don't have smart phones yet. I am still trying to figure out how I lived without one myself. Not just easy access to all the social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Google plus, but having the world at my fingertips. We aren't computerized at work and if a client would like some info on an illness or a certain breed of dog or cat...I can whip up a reliable webpage for them before they go home and get the wrong information. Then I email or text the link to them. To me phone books are obsolete....a co worker and I were both looking up a pharmacy to call in a prescription and I had the number in seconds on my SG3.
We have a co worker however that hasn't crossed the line yet. Her name is Sharon and I have a great starter smart phone to present to her before the holidays. It is the Alcatel onetouch Premiere from US Cellular. I had my friend Frankenhead help me out with a video as to why Sharon will like this phone!!! It will make an easy transition for her into the world of smart phones and I bet in no time she will be addicted like I am!
Sharing the love of great phones and service is why Im a member of the US Cellular Customer Crew!!!
My Dad was a Doc....back in his day (60's, 70's) the General Practitioner did it all.The GP was just that....now you have different doctors for different needs. GP's no longer do surgery, ob/gyn, pediatrics, internal medicine, cardiology, emergency care, etc....it is the nature of the beast and Veterinary medicine is starting to go that way as well. Is this bad? NO....however, growing up with this kind of doctor in the family, I have a certain expectation from my doctors. My Dad took care of Amish and homebound families as well as the community. He had a dynamite sense of humor and was a very personable person. When he retired in the 80's I remember him telling me that between the government and insurance companies telling MD's what and what not they could do, practicing medicine was becoming more about the bottom line and less about treating the patient. He hated that and was glad to be getting out of the field.
I have had the fortune to have good doctors over the years.....despite the changes in medicine my father complained about. I had a wonderful GP in Oklahoma that was old school. He was on call at the ER when I was seriously kicked by a horse....my boss asked him if he was going to prescribe me pain killers....his answer was "no....I want her off that leg for seven days....if she has pain killers she will be working tomorrow"...how funny...I was anyways...but that would have been something my Dad would have said. The Veterinarian I now work for has the same mentality...the clients love him and he is a wonderful boss....but bedside manor is everything.
In Tennessee I had a couple great doctors as well.....they knew I didn't have insurance and helped me out. I was happy to see Drs that weren't all about the bottom line. A couple of years ago my boss and I picked up CoverTN. a good preventative insurance and though it has limits has been both affordable and decent.
I am not able to keep this short and to the point..sorry...doctors are not evil....they do care and having families themselves and being tied to the current system...they are human. I had to change GPs due to the one I have used for years wasn't didn't take CoverTN. I miss Dr. Murphey as a GP because she understood my financial situation and still provided good care. But why pay full price out of pocket when I can pay a co pay..... I do get defensive sometimes when I hear people bad mouth physicians. That is due to my Dad being one but my new GP office has walk in hours and have taken care of me just fine.
Getting long I know but a history was important for my point. In January I had appendicitis....didn't know it at the time but went to my GP office Saturday morning on walk in hours.....they sent me to the ER...the ER doc was great....the CT scan personelle was great......the GI doc on call that did my appendectomy was great....he is now my regular GI guy. Dr. Rangnekar was and still is a good physician and personable. (and did I mention that great vet I work for....I called in sick and he handled the whole morning single handed....)
Because of the CT scan for the appendix other issues were found. I always used my GP for annual female issues as well but found myself needing and OB/GYN surgeon. Dr. Rangnekar's office referred me to Dr. Glover and Bullen. Not only did Dr. Bullen take me seriously but addressed my concerns and was very interested in doing what was best for me. That meant sending me to another specialist in robotic surgery who was just moving his practice. Dr. Bullen had called me twice after hours to keep communication open, personally called Dr. Fields about my case, and that resulted in another great physician caring about my health. Dr. Fields is a primary surgeon in robotic surgery in this area and he and his team had taught several other physicians around the country. Dr. Bullen is new to robotic surgery but with Dr. Fields on hand will tackle me and my not-so-easy case....I feel confident about my future surgery with these two on hand. Dr. Fields is young for his expertise ...in his early 40's....but he is an expert and working with Dr. Bullen to make sure my care is right.
BOTH these guys at the end of a long day, took the time to call me after hours to follow up with my case....I have great faith in them and wish my Dad was still around so I could share with him that there are still good Docs out there despite the direction medicine has gone. I am about to go through a surgery that could have been more evasive and dangerous without the current Drs taking care of me. And when Dr. Fields called me tonight (two hours after his office closed and the day before a holiday) he informed me that Dr. Bullen already had dates in mind for my surgery....don't think for a minute that there aren't doctors out there that care!!! Dr. Bullen could have just said "we are going to cut you open and you will need two to three months recovery time".
Sorry so long....and this is my tech blog but being a Dr's kid I feel strongly about having great care!!!!
As a continuation of my last blog on how I have come a long ways from my first cell phone to the wonderful world of smart phones, I often get into conversations with people as to how we ever got along without these little computers/phones!
Not only can we keep in touch with all our social media sites but also find phone numbers, google for information on about anything, pull up maps, get directions, etc, etc. Our lives are certainly easier since indulging in smart phones. Plus my friends and I can compare phones and see who's is faster at pulling something up.
However there will probably always be someone that stays in the dark ages. My boss keeping his almost 10 yr old flip phone I understand...he doesn't text and rarely even talks on it. My sister on the other hand I don't get. She is a texting fool on her old flip phone but why have to hold and peck to make words when you can swype or have a great touch screen keyboard? Not to mention that when she is with me I am being asked to look things up or pull up directions somewhere. She has a camera on her ole flipper but I am asked when on vacation to take pictures and videos so that I can send them to her...NO I see no need for her to indulge a little and get herself a smartphone...LOL.
I tried to get my sister to play with mine but some people are nervous about moving forward. I know that once she played with one for awhile she would love it. She has played games on my tablet in the past and she has to fire up her laptop to play her online games. With a smartphone she would be able to play anytime! I will continue to show her the way. But then again she may be afraid of getting my addiction. I always seem to need something better and faster! Oh well, you can't blame me for trying. In texting alone I think she would have a blast once taking that leap! Then she too would be asking how did we ever survive before smart phones!
Smart phones are just part of why I am a US Cellular Customer Crew member!
In a recent discussion in one of my cell phone related Facebook groups, we were discussing our first cell phones and where we got them. Some folks had bag phones for their first but I was a little late arriving to the party. About nine years ago I left a long time relationship and went back out on my own. I decided then that a cell phone was a more logical choice than a land line. There was an authorized agent for US. Cellular in our local Wal-Mart store and my mobile journey began!
My first was an Audiovox digital 1x....woo hoo! It made and received calls...it might have been capable of texts but I wasn't! Then I had a very durable nokia that was internet capable but it was costly. I then entered the world of smart phones which now I change almost as often as my clothes as newer and better models come out. I have had five different ones and a couple of tablets since my first smartphone, the Samsung Acclaim. One could say that I have a slight addiction to new technology!
My latest is the Samsung Galaxy S3 and I liked it enough to buy two! I originally bought the 16g thinking I would have more than enough room on it but it didn't take long to venture on to the 32g....with a 32g sd card.
I will continue to move forward with the newest and brightest as they come out. Technology moves at a fairly quick pace. When I got my first phone we still had dial-up internet! Now I not only surf and email, but share and keep up with friends and family via the internet....both at home and on my mobile devices through US Cellular. Yes there are other carriers out there but I don't "fix what aint broke" so I will stick with them.
Pictured are my first and latest mobile phones....yes I have come
a long ways baby from that first device!!!!
Im Jen and Im a member of the US Cellular Customer Crew!
I was one of the many people who pre ordered the amazing new Samsung Galaxy S3 phone. With the 4G capabilities and coming out of the box with the next Android operating system on it...ice cream sandwich, I was in full anticipation of the phone's arrival! I skipped a couple of the new phones when they came out to stay with the Motorola Electrify. I love a lot of the Moto features but this new phone has some new and fun features that enticed me to order it. I even cashed in some belief points to push my upgrade date up.
The first few days with my SGlll it wasn't love at first sight....ok it WAS love at first sight...this phone is sleek, thin, lightweight, and beautiful.......but it wasn't love at first use. My Moto had some things that I wasn't sure I was ready to give up. One was being able to go directly to my advanced photo editing apps or make a pic a profile pic for Facebook & Twitter, from the photo itself. After a few days on the SGlll I decided I could live with the fact that I need to open my apps then choose the pictures I wanted to edit. And I have to admit...the camera on the SGlll takes better pictures than the Electrify.
One of the biggies for me was the email presentation for hotmail.....it was not user friendly at all....but I found away around that too....bookmarked the desktop version.....
There were some other things too but I already forgot. Every new phone and change of brands has a learning curve......this SGlll just has so many cool things about it that were not on my other phones the learning curve was just a little bigger I guess. The first few days I kept going back to my moto......now Im doing so less and less....I AM falling in love with this phone just as I figured I would. Thanks to the few I vented to about it early on....now Im convinced I love more than I miss on the phone.
Some of the great things are with ICS I can now use Chrome for my browser, which syncs with my laptop version. The internet is now more like my laptop. I love the "swipe of the hand" screenshot feature....the fact that if I am reading a page the screen won't time out because the phone uses its front camera to know when you are looking at it!
I don't think its a lot faster than the Electrify but it will be when 4G hits here (which will be soon) and I have to admit.....it is a good thing US Cellular gives its customers that 15 day window to return phones. If I had only had two or three days....it would have gone back....now I highly doubt it!!!!
So the moral of the story is......this old dog can learn new tricks and will enjoy her new white phone with its pretty cases. (still may go to the store and check out the blue SGlll though...) and Motorola, I hope you have a great new phone on the horizon for later......
once again, a happy and proud member of the customer crew signing off. (now where did I put that SGll at)
