One of my favorite interview questions is when the interviewer asks me to tell her (or him) about my faults.
I have a great list of prepared faults that I can choose from.

- I overwork myself
- Once I start a project there’s no stopping me
- I never want to take the credit for my successes - I always want my boss to take the credit.

But my favorite is:

- I find it a real challenge to work with stupid people. I force myself to do so - but I really prefer to be working with the best and brightest.

Earlier this week I had a chance to talk to a cell phone customer who had ordered a Motorola Razr v3 from us and had had an issue with the FedEx delivery. His issue was solved and he seemed happy with the customer service we provided.

He happened to mention to me an ingenious solution to a problem that has plagued our industry for some time.
You see, the low-priced cell phones like the Treo 650 for Verizon which today hit $149.99! or the T-Mobile Razr V3 whose price is so low it can’t be printed (says who??), these offers are only for NEW subscribers. So if you are a subscriber of Cingular with a Blackberry 7290 and you are tired of that phone - you have a problem. Even if you are ‘out of contract’ you still cant take your number with you when you open a new line of service. The only way to port your cell phone number from your old phone to your new phone is if Cingular does teh upgrade. Which costs a lot more money than buying a new plan - with a subsidized phone.

Along comes this brilliant customer and tells me how he did took his old Cingular number to a new Cingular line without any trouble. The trick is that number portability is the law - carriers have to let you take your number with you. So my buddy simply walks into a Walmart store and buys a prepaid T-Mobile phone - they have a Nokia with a color screen for about $35 - including 20 minutes of free talk time! then he calls T-Mobile customer care and asks them to plese port his Cingular number - and with that he closes his Cingular contract. A day later, once the number is successfully ported, he orders a new Motorola Razor Phone online (Free after rebates, instead of $450 after rebates from Cingular!). While ordering the phone he includes a porting request and has the number ported from T-Mobile to his new Cingular phone. Voila! We have a ~$35 way to port your old Cingular number to your new Cingular line and save at least $400 by becoming a “new customer”!

The beauty of this porting plan it should work with any carrier. You simply buy a prepaid cell phone from another carrier - or you can even port the number to an old cell phone that you are not using - then port it to the new phone!

Anyway - if you can play by the rules and save a heap of money that’s usually a good thing!