I recently switched from Sprint to T-Mobile and I am regretting it more and more with each passing hour.

I ordered 2 Android phones with a family voice, text, and data plan. I gave them the two numbers to port from Sprint. And I waited. The phones shipped a day later than I hoped, but that was not a big issue.

On the morning of the delivery day, problem 1 occurred. They ported my number off my Sprint account and to my new phone before it was delivered. For the next 6 hours, I had no cell service. It's been my experience in the past that you order the phones, you get them, you call to activate them, and the number is ported then. This was new... and annoying.

When the phones arrived, there was no indication which had which number. In fact, the Android phone identity screen in the settings said the phone number was unknown on both phones. I called T-Mobile and they told me to call #6# to find my number. This is where we encountered problem 2: they had ported my number, but had not ported my wife's. They put my wife's number through the porting system and got it from Sprint, but then there was an issue with the SIM card being "reserved" and they couldn't issue my wife's number to her phone. They said they could request the reservation be removed, but that would take 24 hours and might not work.

What were my other options, I asked. They asked if I had a spare SIM card. Yeah, I'm coming from Sprint which doesn't use SIMs, so how would I have a spare SIM lying around? I asked what I was supposed to tell my wife when her phone was basically out of commission for two or more days. They suggested I call Sprint and ask them to port her number back until they'd run the fix through their system. "Um, hi Sprint. I know I just tried to leave you, but could I come back for a day or two while T-Mobile gets their asses in gear?" Seriously?

I asked if I could go to a T-Mobile store and get a new SIM from them. Yes. So off I went to the closest store. First thing that happened was I pissed off the manager... not intentionally. See, web orders started 8 days before the stores were supposed to get the phone, but T-Mobile had told the manager they wouldn't be shipping until close to the store release date. Instead, I had mine 6 days before store release. But he assigned me a service guy who took the phone, put in a new SIM, called T-Mobile and got my wife's number put on the phone.

If only it had ended there...

Problem 3 occurred when we discovered that somehow in all that craziness from problem 2, my wife's data plan got stripped off her phone. We never really noticed because she mostly used the data features at home when the phone was getting its data from our WiFi, not T-Mobile. But when she was out with the kids on Sunday and trying to Google something, she was told she did not have a data plan and would need to upgrade to one.

I called T-Mobile that night, after we got back from "Captain America", and they told me that was correct. She had no data plan. I'd have to add one for $20 a month. I said I'd signed up for a family plan with voice, messaging, and data for both phones... just give me the plan I signed up for. No, they said, we had to upgrade her data plan. I gave in, figuring if the numbers didn't add up, I'd haggle it out with billing. They said it would take 2 hours for the data plan to kick in.

At this point, the stress of them switching my plan without my authorization and the rest of this bull gave me a massive stress headache. So when the 2 hours was up, a bit after midnight, I was still awake, because I had this terrible headache that wouldn't respond to ibuprofen and wouldn't let me sleep, and I could determine that it wasn't fixed. Luckily I was still awake from the headache at 3 a.m. when their east coast customer service opened for the day. I was too worn out to be upset, and yelling would have made my headache worse. I got on with a rep who tested various things, escalated it when they didn't work, and basically got it fixed. Somewhere around 5 a.m. I got to sleep, but I had to call in sick to work, and since I'm a contractor, I have no paid sick days.

Today, I checked my account to see how they'd screwed up my service and encountered problem 4. According to their web site, whatever messed-up stuff they'd done had raised my monthly charge by $40. So I got on chat with customer support. They said the web site was wrong and I was on the plan I signed up for at the rate I signed up for. So why was the web site wrong? Maybe I'd briefly been shuffled onto something more expensive, but it was corrected, and the web site can take 72 hours to update.

They also mentioned I had two activation fees pending. I said they should pay me activation fees for all the trouble I'd had to go through cleaning up their mistakes. They said they couldn't do anything.

I pressed. This had taken so much time, been such a series of screw-ups on their part, why shouldn't I just return the phones, demand my money back and be done with them? They hemmed and hawed, then said since they messed up the activation on my wife's phone, they'd give me a $35 credit for the activation fee, but that I was only allowed one "goodwill credit" on my account, and if I accepted it, I would not be able to ask them to compensate me for anything for the rest of my contract term. I tell him that it's not enough and their massive series of screw-ups demanded a greater level of consideration.

Then the guy addressed me as Richard (my name's Greg) and I asked him if he was trying, in a veiled way, to call me a dick. I demand to talk to his supervisor. He said his supervisor had reviewed the account and approved the $35. I reiterated it wasn't enough. He said that's all they would offer. I said it wasn't enough. He asked if there was anything more they could help me with, and I said "I think you've done more than enough to alienate me, Richard."

The problem is I love this phone. There is no phone currently on the market that presses my buttons like this one does. But I've got a 14 day return window that I'm only 5 days into.

T-Mobile insists on not only screwing up this badly, then low-balling me on the "goodwill credit" AND telling me that if I take it, they're free to screw up as much and as badly as they want and I can't ask for anything again.

I'd have to switch to a phone I wasn't as wild about on a more expensive carrier, but I am so gobsmacked by T-Mobile's unparalleled combination of incompetence and arrogance, it's really hard to justify staying. I mean when I had a problem with my DVR on Verizon FiOS, they comped me a whole month of my cable bill to say "sorry". They showed they meant it and I stayed.

T-Mobile says "sorry" too, but an offer of $35 to cover what they put me through PLUS a stipulation I can't ask for another credit if they screw up again? They're not sorry, and they're either telling me that I'm a grinder who they think will try to get a credit at every turn or they're so sure they'll screw up again that they want to make sure they cover their butts.

Either way, I've got 9 days to decide if I'm returning these phones. Unless T-Mobile has a serious attitude adjustment, I can't see why I'd reward this kind of mistreatment by keeping them.

It only takes a dollar to win a 300 million dollar lotto jackpot, but it takes 1.5 billion dollars that didn't win to get the lotto jackpot that high.

Times haven't been as tight in the Bulmash household lately as they were when I wrote my post on the amazing long-term low price of Top Ramen (even now, Costco's price is up less than 4% in 2 years and I've seen it as cheap as 7-for-a-buck at Fred Meyer in recent months). But while we didn't eat Top Ramen when I was battling long-term unemployment, we've been eating it for fun while I've been employed.

It all started when my Facebook friend, Ray Everett-Church, posted a link to a newspaper article on the growing popularity of small ramen shops. Unlike Top Ramen, these were noodle houses that slaved for hours to make the perfect noodle broth and were drawing a legion of American fans who were learning the difference between "real" ramen and the pale packaged imitation we knew here in America. It made me realize that I could make up some Top Ramen, "improve" the broth with a little soy sauce and ginger, and add some meat and vegetables to actually make it a passable meal that my two young sons might actually eat.

The general recipe is to warm a package of frozen broccoli, a package of frozen corn, and around a half pound of Chinese barbecue pork (chopped into bite-size pieces) in a mix of ramen broth and "improvements" while more broth comes to a boil and the ramen is cooked in it for a few minutes. Because my youngest is two years old and hot broth does not mix well with that age, the noodles are pulled from the broth pot and put in the veggies and meat pan to soak up the last of the improved broth and release a little starch to thicken whatever broth is not absorbed.

It's like porky, chickeny, Asian spaghetti, full of veggies, and the boys love it. I make it about twice a month as a special treat. Even my wife likes taking leftovers to work in her lunch. One day I'd love to step up my ramen game with a slow cooked broth and some higher quality noodles. But as a quick meal that's ready in about 20 minutes and gets my kids decent portions of three food groups, it's something I don't hate, and even though saving money isn't as high a priority as it was, it's still nice that the whole thing basically makes 6 portions for less than the cost of two Happy Meals.

Okay, if you haven't noticed, I'm an avid reader of The SuperFogeys. Forget all that nonsense about Jonathan Ross writing a movie about retired superheroes. This comic strip about them has been going for years.

It's awesome, but doesn't run often enough... or didn't. Recently, Brock Heasley brought on Spooky Doofus and Boxcar Astronaut artist Marc La Pierre to draw while Brock writes, so they could put out 3 strips a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)! Marc's really shown himself to be an incredible comics artist and Brock's an amazing writer. The combo means more fun for all!

Here's a teaser poster for the new team-up...

And don't forget I've started a little webcomic of sorts. My wife and I are publishing the doodles we draw on our son's lunch bags at LunchaDoodle.