1. You cannot sign a two year contract and then come back in two months later and demand a new, free phone.
1. If you're too dumb to get insurance, don't complain to me when your phone breaks.
2. Renewing your contract (upgrading) doesn't get you anything when you haven't fulfilled your first contract.
   
2. There's probably a reason the phone's free.
1. These phones have been on the shelf for a while or they're trying to get rid of them.
2. The phone really isn't free.  Nothing is free.  Hence the need for a contract.
3. Spend the money on a new phone.  It's the only one you're going to probably get for a couple years.
   
3. I did not break your phone and I do not make it drop calls.
1. Don't tell me you didn't break your phone when there's a crack across the screen.  I really don't care how it got there.  But you broke it.
2. Do you take your car back to the dealership and demand a new car when your car breaks down?  Then don't come see me either.
4. It doesn't matter how much you pay each year or how long long you've been a customer.  If we can't do something, we can't do something.
1. There are a lot of deals just for new customers.  That's just how it is.
2. Don't threaten to leave.  Just leave.  Because at the same moment you're doing that, there are ten others at the other companies doing the same thing and will be coming over to replace you as a customer.
5. Everyone's going to have a bad experience at some point.
1. You can find people who love and hate the same company.
6. Go to a "corporate store."
1. Show some love to your local agent.  Don't add features online, let your agent do it.  It's the only thing we get money for pretty much.  You can even call us and we'll do it.  Support your local economy and not just the big corporation.
   
2. You may get a cheaper deal online or through an agent, but this is quite risky.  You oftentimes are getting a phone that's being sold as "new" but may have been used or even refurbished.  If it was under their "trial" period, it's still considered "new."
   
3. Cheaper deals have strings attached oftentimes.  Most of the time you have to sign a contract with that vendor.  That means you have 2 contracts now!  And you're most likely going to get slammed with features you didn't want or ask for.
   
4. You can't bring your jacked up phone you got online or at an authorized dealer to us to exchange.  Just like you can't shop at walmart and return to Target.  It doesn't matter that we sell the same stuff.
   
7. If you don't text, learn to.
8. Bluetooth
   
1. is free.  But that doesn't mean you can wear your headset 24/7.  This is being a "blue tool."
   
2. We will look at you funny if you're standing there talking on it. 
   
3. If you can't set it up, try the 4 step instruction book before driving all the way up to the store to ask me to.
   
9. Don't waste time.
1. Don't talk on your phone while someone is waiting to talk to you... in any situation.
2. The color of phone really doesn't matter.  So don't stand there for 30 minutes trying to decide.
3. Use a credit/check card.  It's really like the commercial.  You slow things down.  Cash is always good, but it's annoying.  And if you write a check, you should have your phone taken away and be beaten with it.
   
10. And never...ever...EVER be that person who is talking loudly on their phone in public.  You just look like an ass.  If someone can't hear you, talking louder isn't going to help.  Tell that person to turn their volume up.  If that doesn't work, send a text.
    

how's that for a title?  ooo-la-la.  in response to requests on the previous posts, i will attempt to tread lightly upon the ground of race.  and specifically my encounters with race inside the walls of the church.  i can only tell you my opinion from what i've seen and heard.  i am now pretty far removed from both the established white church and black church and so they may not ring true anymore.  in addition to this, generalizations border on ignorant racism.  however, perhaps some insights will ring near the truth.

my experience in white and black churches has led me to a couple of clear conclusions.  the first is that the color of your skin really doesn't matter how you behave in church.  what matters is the culture you are raised in.  this is everything.  it's not black, white, brown.  it's african american culture.  caucasian culture.  hispanic culture.  you can be white and yet grow up in a black culture and see the world quite differently.  the opposite is true as well.  skin color and genetic features only help to distinguish cultures.  it doesn't define the culture.  having said that, the chasm that exists between whites and blacks is primarily due to a clash of cultures.

white and black churches have a deep divide between them.  you see, it used to not be like that.  there was a day when whites and blacks worshiped together.  blacks even had special seats at the back of the church.  (there are even accounts where blacks would be praying in the white area and then be forcibly removed even after they agreed to move once done praying.)  but for some reason the blacks didn't like that after church they would have to go home and cook lunch for their owners.  but the majority of whites in my heritage, of southern baptists, saw nothing wrong with whites and blacks worshiping together like this.

after emancipation, blacks left the back pew in search of their own pews.  their churches became hubs of their community.  they met together to worship as well as discuss social issues.  and the black church became one of the central places where black culture blossomed. this distinctive culture is still clearly evident today.  dress, style of worship, preaching, and organization structures are all distinctly unique.  all of this is part of the culture of the black church.

white churches have had this awful tendency to think their style is "right."  you go back just a few years to a style of missions back in the 50's where they would go to africa (and other places) and tell the natives that they needed to dress proper and look like white americans.  the white church destroyed cultures in order to establish their own.  (it was all out of good intentions of course)  there was an inability for the white church to understand their own cultural context of doing church.  they had a distinctively “white” way… not so much the right way.

i finally realized this after my time in the black church.  one of the characteristics of many white churches today is to not talk about politics in church.  it's a HUGE no-no.  you just don't do it.  but of course there are more subtle ways of infusing politics.  (just like the way white people value measured responses, we're good at being subtle.)  some pastors will talk about abortion or homosexuality.  others will put voter guides in the foyer.  and of course they'll have the flags up, pledge allegiance, and sing patriotic songs.  all of these things are overlooked as no big deal and not political.

now let's flip to the black church.  these congregations see no reason to be coy.  they'll tell you when voting is and even tell you just about everything but "vote for this guy."  heck, the candidate may even come to the church and speak.  social issues are not somehow slipped into a sermon.  they are the sermon oftentimes.  but when i started going to a black church, i thought this was totally wrong.  but it was wrong in respect to the culture i grew up on.  the black congregation was and still is one of the only places where a segment of our society can gather and voice their concerns as a community about racism, injustice, and the things the predominant culture overlooks.

now once we understand that there are two distinct cultures at work in these churches, we can then begin to ask some questions that may get us somewhere.  why is it that there is still a sense of angst and frustration in many black churches?  could it be that some still meet in buildings where they held separate graduations for the black students?  could it be that many are still stuck in cycles of poverty and violence?  all i know is that there are many in this community that are still crying out that there's injustice.  my question is whether the color of our ear allows us to hear?

white churches really don't struggle with a race issue for the most part.  most whites don't understand why a rev. wright would be angry.  for heaven's sake, black people have welfare and affirmative action!  its safe to say that there is more than just a race difference, but oftentimes an socio-economic class difference.  we are blissfully ignorant of the systemic and social structures that conspire against both the poor and people of color.  instead of being indignant, we must be compassionate.  no.  we must move beyond that.  we must take action.  we must be in relationship.

and let's face reality.  racism is alive and well.  we're quite okay with other races as long as they worship in their own places.  but racism reveals its ugly head when we begin to intermingle and our own culture begins to be infringed upon.  we're okay as long as the minority will simply assimilate.  but assimilation should not be the goal.  and if we want to get even more personal, there are many that would have a problem with their child dating someone of a different race.  this is pure and simple racism.  (not to mention those who have a problem with mixed race dating even when they have no part in it.)  yet when was the last time you heard a conservative mainline denomination church talk about reconciliation and racism?  we can do better.  we must do better.

this is the state of our union.  one of pain, violence, racism, history, ignorance, and hope.  yes, hope.  hope is what i'll focus on without ignoring the rest.