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about that Cricket eSIM lockout
Monday, March 2 2026
location: rural Hurley Township, Ulster County, New York, USA
Gretchen went off to a normal shift at the bookstore, leaving me alone to do my usual post-trip data consolidation tasks. At some point I managed to get a human on the Cricket support chat so I could discuss what had happened with Gretchen's phone while we were recently in the Caribbean. As I later mentioned in a debriefing conversation I had with ChatGPT, this supposed human was significantly more robotic than a large language model. After explaining what had happened, the tech support person ("Rafael") said that the solution was to unlock my phone. I replied that I thought this was impossible, since the phone was within its 180 day intro lock period (something Cricket imposes as a way to make sure you don't get their subsidized phones and immediately switch to a different carrier). Once Rafael figured out which phone I was talking about, he agreed that it was locked and could not be unlocked for the time being. Why then, I wanted to know, did it also refuse to connect to WiFi while I was in the Caribbean? I didn't get a straight answer for that, as there is no reason WiFi should be affected in any way by the state of the compatibility of the eSIM card. But apparently it is perfectly normal for a Cricket phone to lock up completely when it is out of the region to which it is locked. I grumbled about this and even said I would be making a YouTube video about it, as if perhaps Raphael might be sensitive to bad publicity. But he was too low on the totem pole for that; hell, he occupied the tranche just above their 1990s-style AI. He asked if there was anything else he could help me with, and when I said I guess I needed a new phone provider, he disconnected and disappeared. That's the kind of service you can expect from a budget cellphone provider. Later when I discussed this with ChatGPT, it agreed that locking down the whole phone for an eSIM incompatibility was extreme and unnecessary, but it's the kind of thing a cellphone provider can do. And, since we're locked into a contract with Cricket, there isn't much that can be done about it. What makes this worse is the fact that we'll be traveling overseas again sometime in the 180 day window during which her phone will remained locked. But next time we'll be better prepared. (As it was, Gretchen not having access to internet for ten days or so while we were in the Caribbean didn't end up being a problem.)
The weather in the Hudson Valley is about as cold as it was just before we left for the Caribbean, and I haven't had reason to go outside to do anything much more than piss. This afternoon I tried taking the dogs for a walk, but neither wanted to come. Then proceeded to make one of my low-effort chilis. Since we didn't have any rice, I boiled up a pot of campanelle pasta instead. Meanwhile, Gretchen got some vegetables and other groceries after work and cooked up a pan of asparagus when she got home, and these were a great addition to my stand & stuff tacos (I ate five of them!). After Jeopardy!, I took a nice bath with water that had been partially heated by the sun. The days are longer now and it's possible to collect a lot of hot water.
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