But I want one.

In my neighborhood, the AT&T cell service sucks. But, alas,  I was not one of those lucky AT&T customers who received a letter offering a free 3G microcell to help with a poor signal at home. And I use my cellphone as my business phone, and CONSTANTLY drop calls on an average of 2-3 times per call. Since I do a lot of remote and phone support, this is  a very bad thing. So I called AT&T and spoke to a very nice agent, who listened patiently to my troubles. I  explained that I felt that this bad phone behavior was costing me business. She put me on hold to check with her service supervisors, and said that AT&T was planning to put a new tower in my area.

 Great! I said, when? October of 2012, she answered. So, I asked her, in 18 months I can expect to have great service at home?

Yes, she replied. When I asked her to please try to get clearance for me to get a 3G microcell for FREE, she confirmed that she could not do that, but that I was free to go into one of the stores and buy one for $199.

The part about going into an AT&T store to get one sounded great. But I was not interested in paying ANY money for it. So today, I walked into one of the AT&T stores in my neighborhood and talked to a guy named Brownie who was from Coffeyville, Kansas,. When he found out that I was from Kansas City, we started commiserating on the poor selection of BBQ in the East Bay. When we finally decided that the only way to get the slabs of ribs we were craving was to go back to the prairie, it was down to business.

I prepared to give him a very involved account of how I only get  "less than one bar at home, dropped calls, etc." I did not get more than two sentences in, when he went to the back, came out with a microcell, and said, "This will help you". No arguments, no pleading, no whining. He helped me register the 2 wireless numbers we have at home, printed out my receipt, explained the terms of the device contract (does not affect your phone contract), put it in a pretty bag, and sent me on my way.

Wait, what? I actually got a solution from AT&T? Well, I got one from Brownie at the AT&T store. Tomorrow I'll hook it up and report on any improvement. And I might just bring Brownie one of my bottles of Gate's BBQ Classic Sauce. I order that by the case.