A Live One

"I went on a trip to Brazil, and while I was there I got my phone unofficially network-unlocked. When I got back to the UK, I had network problems. Please fix."

Really?

You think the phone is still in warranty now?

I have bad news; both your network and the Evil Empire stopped caring about your problems the instant you unlocked the thing.

And depending what Happy Paulo's House of Hacks did, your phone may or may not be repairable.

The result: the phone CAN be repaired, so we sent a quote for the repair. The customer didn't like that; phone was returned unrepaired.

Oh, the Adventure

I wonder who'll play me in the movie.
Allocations gave me a set of a very new model phone to refurb for O-Company. O-Company phones come in without batteries, and leave without batteries.
And it's new. I don't HAVE a battery for it.

So, I ask Allocations. No: only O-Company ones have come in so far, they have no battery for that model.

So I ask along the Evil Empire line. Nobody else has seen that model yet. No batteries.

So I ask the technical manager. He has no idea.

So I ask the line manager. She says to ask the technical manager.

So I go back to the technical manager. He says to go back to the line manager.

The line manager doesn't know, but someone named Jackie might.

I go find Jackie in QA. She has no battery. QA hasn't seen that model yet and doesn't have a battery for it either.

Jackie promises to go ask someone named Mark, and come back if there's any luck.

I stand in the aisle calculating how much I'm getting paid for standing there.

Jackie has no luck, but says that I could try to request a battery from Stores with a special form but 'they probably don't have one'.

I go back to the line manager, and ask to make the request from Stores. Line manager says yes, I just need the part number.

I open up the model's manual. There is no battery listed. No part number.

I go back to the technical manager. He doesn't know how to find the part number.

I fill out the form and take all the information except the part number to Stores, where I sniffle forlornly at them.

Stores has mercy, and goes to look for the battery part number and battery for me, the hard way.

And Stores succeeds! I get the only battery in the universe for that model! I immediately write my name and 'mine, back off, grrrr' on it in black marker.

Then, an hour after starting, I finally get to testing and refurbing the phones...