Orange

Another story along the same lines as what Shira posted about earlier. On Friday, Shira decided that we had to get cellphones. We have so much to do this week that she wanted to get one thing out of the way and we weren't really doing anything else. Yeshaya was sleeping at my parents' apt so we figured we could get away. My father came with us in case we needed a teudat zehut (people had warned us that if you weren't Israeli it would cost more). We went to Orange (the cell phone company) and took a number. It was our turn after about a half hour. We got a very helpful lady who told us about a new plan that would be good for us and only required an 18 month commitment even though most plans required three years. It would cost us about 20 shekel a month but we wouldn't have to put any money down upfront for the phones. She had to keep checking with people on the details but seemed to have her story straight when she suddenly said that we had to switch agents so we got another guy.

This guy seemed helpful too but he was busy flirting with various people and checking his cellphone. After a few more minutes though he gave us cellphone numbers and then he reviewed the charges. He said that we had to lay out 750 shekel for each phone because we were paying with an American credit card. My father didn't have an Israeli credit card so we were stuck. I pointed out that we'd be there for almost two hours already and were told the costs and we were upfront that we didn't have an Israeli credit card but we were told it would be a lot less. He said he'd call over the boss. The boss came and confirmed that he was correct. I asked the boss why the original lady told us differently and he said that she was new and made a mistake. I told him that she asked two other people and he said that they just made a mistake. I said that this mistake just cost me a lot of time and I was really upset (the fact that I was extremely tired wasn't helping) and I stormed out of there with Shira and my father.

I figured that was the end of it and I'd have to go cellphone shopping. Then while we were out yesterday, the manager called my parents' house to tell them that he felt bad and he "remembered" another deal that we could get and he'd come to the house so we wouldn't have to shlep out there. We called him back and he came to the house to give us the cellphones on the new plan. He stayed there for two hours to get everything sorted out. He did have some trouble in the end but luckily my mother had an Israeli credit card so we put it on her credit card and that took care of the problem (had we known about the credit card on Friday we wouldn't have had to go through any of that). I was shocked that they called and I really wasn't expecting it but it was a nice gesture and now we have two cellphones at pretty good prices ... even better than the prices we were quoted originally. As Shira said, "you ask for something, the answer is NO, you ask again and the answer is YES."