Cell Phone Fiasco - My Battle to get a Proper Cell Phone

FYI, this is gonna be long...

There are four cell phone companies here: Digicell, Movistar, Claro and Mas Movil.

(They will be referred to as Company AAA, BBB, CCC and DDD in no particular order)

My story:

-> Bought a $15 pre-paid phone with a sim card from Company "AAA".

-> Bought phone cards (with cell phone minutes) and use them on phone.

(one month later)

-> Got tired of texting and the limits of the above phone, so I bought a full keyboard Chinese (fancy Nokia imitation) cell phone and put in Company AAA's sim chip. This phone becomes my new pre-paid phone.

(after a while)

-> Decide that I want a Blackberry cell phone because many folks *NEVER* have minutes on their phone, but they communicate through free Blackberry instant messages.

-> Blackberry phones are $300 and up, so I refuse to buy one. Instead I consider signing up for a contract and getting the phone for free or around $40.

-> Company BBB comes to my job and offers cell phone plans. Their plans and prices seem high, so I pass.

(one month later)

-> Company BBB comes back to my job again. This time their prices have gone up even more. So I wait.

(some time later)

-> I lose my Chinese cell phone and now I'm back to the basic $15 phone.

-> Company AAA comes to my job and offers cell phone plans. Their plans seem okay so I give them my info and tell them I want a contract. The representive assures me that he will come back on Friday with the phones and contracts to sign.

-> He does not come back on Friday.

-> He does not come back Monday.

-> Even though he says he will, never comes back. After 2 weeks of calling and waiting I give up on him.

(moving on)

-> Now I start checking into Company CCC and Company DDD.

-> After waiting for 1 hours in the store, Company CCC tells me I need to work for 6 months in Panama before they'll give me a contract. Even though, I have a formal letter from my job saying I'll be working in Panama for 2 years.

(so I try Company DDD)

-> They say yes! Great! No, not great! They won't accept my the proof of employment letter because its addressed to Company CCC.

-> I go home and "White out" the name Company CCC, then take the EXACT same letter back to company DDD. Company DDD unknowingly accepts the letter (the refused yesterday) and gives me a cell phone.

That folks is all the hoops I had to jump to just to get a cell phone plan here in Panama.