This is partly (OK, mostly) a rant, but it may also prove helpful to someone.
A while ago we called Cingular (where I ended up after they bought AT&T Wireless) to change our service plan. My wife and I have phones, and we gave a pair to my parents who are both in their 80s. We were informed we could upgrade all of them to Nokia 6102 phones for free, so we agreed.
We got four identical boxes that already had SIM cards installed. We called last night to activate mine and my wife's, and we told the agent the SIM numbers we wanted turned on. Beep-beep, activated, all happy.
The trouble began when I started scrolling thru the menus and found the "My number" entry in the address book: it was my Mom's number, and it's only viewable, not editable. The phone answered to the correct number, but it's annoying to have the wrong number appear in the display, so we called Cingular back. That was the real disaster. Eventually the manager came on the line and got worked up into such a froth that I had to tell her to stop talking so I could get a word in. Eventually I told her I'd take it to a store.
This morning I used the all-seeing eye to search for an answer, and lo and behold, it turns out all you have to do is find a compatible phone (either same network or unlocked) that has an "edit my number" function for the address book. My officemate's Motorola has the function (which he hadn't even seen up to that time), so we put my SIM card in his phone, edited the address book, and returned it to mine. Presto! Reality and picture coincide again.
Why my phone doesn't have an "Edit my number" function -- I don't know. Maybe it's hidden in the guts of some menu somewhere. But calling Cingular support was a complete waste of time. They had no idea what I was even talking about, and just managed to muddy the issue.
So here's some google bait in case anybody's searching for this problem:
