Stephen Yeargin

I am exhausted from a long day of riding all over Nashville in “celebration” of iPhone Saturday. I have had this one on my calendar for a while because it means I got my first new gadget in quite some time. There are a few facts I learned today.

iPhones are pretty nifty - Mine is turned off for now to let the battery recharge, but the apps I picked out a while back work great and I am sure I will find a few more worth having. Other than test calling my wife, I have not actually used the phone portion yet.

AT&T uses Equifax to verify credit - Last December, someone broke into the Davidson County Election Commission and stole a laptop containing the private information of every registered voter in the city. We are among them. In response, we put credit freezes on both of our accounts through all three credit bureaus. AT&T uses one of them, Equifax.

The Apple Store is not accustomed to dealing with frozen credit files - If you go to purchase an iPhone (even if you completed the online process and it says your credit was checked), the store employee will have to go to a back room and call AT&T’s service line. The agent on the other end will ask for the pin number to temporarily access your records.

Equifax cannot unfreeze your credit on weekends - I was able to call the other two agencies and have the freeze temporarily lifted. Neither was the one that AT&T wanted to use. Equifax only processes such requests between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday - Friday.

We are not con-artists - Contrary to the uneasy looks we got the second time trying to complete our rather expensive purchase, we just wanted to hurry up and be done with the process. Even after driving back to Goodlettsville to retrieve our files, we were still unable to satisfy their credit verification needs.

The AT&T Store is slightly better prepared - Two failed attempts at the Apple Store put us right down the road to the AT&T Store. They were able to verify our credit through alternative means (we passed) and also merged our bills with our home phone and Internet service.

Debix will actually call you - While at the AT&T Store, an off-site credit analyst went about an alternative means to verify our credit. They called the phone number on file with Equifax, which was a line monitored by Debix. Debix took their information and then called me on my cell phone and asked for a security pin. After providing that, I was able to complete the rest of the process.

Lint and protective screens do not mix - Just ask my wife, who spent close to an hour trying to figure out how to de-lintify her case for the iPod touch. I dropped the static cling side to my pants leg while bouncing down I-65, so it ultimately winds up being my fault.

A margarita and a quesadilla takes the edge off a long day - We stopped by Rosepepper Cantina & Mexican Grille in East Nashville on our way home. I highly recommend it.