This is NOT your SIM serial number

    So we quit re-upping Dad's Net10 cell phone and its phone number expired. The sibs felt that it needed to be revived, so they called Net10 Customer Support and asked what's the deal. The deal, it turned out, was that Net10 would send him a new SIM card, we would put it in, then go to the website or call Customer Support again. The task fell to me. Note: never call a Luddite to a 21st century technology situation. Nobody winds up happy.
    The SIM card came attached to a bit of plastic with a number on it ominously captioned, "This is NOT your SIM serial number." There was also another number which presumably WAS (and turned out to be) the serial number. But all this rigmarole was unnecessary anyway since once you get the SIM card in, the phone knows the serial number anyway.
    The directions were useless as they supposed that the card fitted behind a door that could be opened. It turned out that on this phone, nothing like that was the case. You slid out the old one; you slid in the new one. Simple!
    Then things stopped being simple. Or rather, I started being simple. All I had to do, as it turned out, was call up, read them the SIM serial number, read them the PIN from an Add Airtime card, and we would be done. But I just couldn't grasp this and made a total ass of myself. It did not help that the people I was talking to were very, very far away and did not speak English clearly at all. I think the whole deal would have worked better keyboard to keyboard in a Live Chat session. This is how Earthlink handles technical problems, and though I generally don't have great love for their customer service either, in this instance it worked well.
    Anyway, I came off 100% Ugly American, about which I am ashamed, but in the end we achieved a happy result. And now, after two straight technology-related posts, I hope I can go back to being a Luddite in peace.:)