Reboot Part Deux

Ok, so a little longer since my last post than I intended. My physiotherapy takes up so much time that I have little time for other things. The physiotherapist has me doing exercises that take half an hour per session (approximately). I have to do these about five or six times a day (as many times as possible). I am making some progress but it is slow, painful, and frustrating.

I promised to mention the “fun” I had getting my new phone. Actually, it was not so much getting it that caused the hassle, but activating it and getting my number transferred across.

I had made sure to get a PAC (port authorisation code) from my existing operator before the phone arrived so that I could get everything transferred as quickly as possible. However, when I phoned T-Mobile to transfer my number to them I ran into problems. The man on the phone was saying that there was a credit problem and that I needed to give my CIFAS password. When I expressed confusion at this he got me to give the serial number from my phone and then said that I needed to fax this to them.

At this point I need to digress for a moment.

Just over a year ago someone attempted to gain two store cards in my name. I was alerted to this when I received two letters in the mail rejecting my application for said store cards. I wrote to the credit companies in question stating that this was a surprise to me as I had never actually applied for these cards. These companies involved CIFAS (a fraud prevention service) and I had to provide a password. I was told that now and then I would be asked to provide this password when applying for credit to prove I was me. I then promptly forgot about it.

It took several calls over about four days before I spoke to someone who was able to give a coherent enough explanation of CIFAS to jog my memory about those events. (It actually happened when someone asked if I had been the victim of fraud in the past.) Finally the penny dropped and I tracked down the password and faxed it to them so that I could get the issue resolved. I guess it was partly my fault for forgetting about CIFAS, but you would think someone could explain it properly in the first place. The first person I spoke to had me believing it was the serial number in my phone!

I will try to review the phone and MP3 player soon. Just don't hold your breath! :-)