I spent much of the day running errands. One of my errands was seeing if I was eligible for a new cell phone. My old one is rather large and unwieldy. I called Cingular Wireless and they said, sure enough, I was eligible for a free phone upgrade...all I have to do is extend the length of my service contract. I went, as directed, to the nearest Cingular-owned store, about 5 miles away.

When I located the store, it looked suspiciously bare, numerous empty displays, etc. Also, on a Saturday afternoon in a large mall, only one employee was on duty. After waiting around about 10 minutes while he helped a couple, he asked me what he could do to help me. I told him and he informed me that the store had just been open little more than a week and that he had no phones on the premises. He directed me to another company-owned store, about 15 miles away, and said I would be able to get a new phone there.

I drove the 15 miles, to another rather busy mall, and was informed that the phone I wanted, the free one, was on backorder and not a single company-owned store in San Diego County had one. Come back next week.

A couple of notes to Cingular:

First, what the heck are you thinking having only one employee working in a store on a Saturday afternoon in one of the larges malls in north San Diego County?

Second, why didn't this guy know that there weren't any of those phones anywhere in the county. I would suppose that he knew nothing of a shortage of these phones, otherwise he would have called that store first to make sure they had one. Why am I being sent 30 miles round-trip for nothing?

I'll get my free cell phone, eventually, but I'm a little ticked.