Ils se moquent de qui?

...or, The Proverbial Run-Around (that's not a translation; read on).

Jason's cell phone service stopped. A recorded message said the owner information wasn't properly registered, and we should take it back to the store where we bought it. I did. They took all our details and reentered them into their computer, which promptly protested that it was already registered, so couldn't be reregistered. The lady with the long black eyelashes, Isabelle, there at the tech center of LeClerc, told me her "job was done," and she would leave me to call Orange and sort things out with them. She did let me use her phone, which was kind. But they were too busy to answer, and I couldn't get through.

So I called again when I got home. Orange customer service told me the phone wasn't registered, and there was "nothing they could do about it." They sincerely counseled me to return to the store to get it registered. Catch-22?

Fortunately, I happened to have overheard the direct number of Isabelle while waiting in the store, so I called her up and explained the "progress" of the situation, at which point the title of this post comes onto the scene. "Ils se moquent de qui?" she asked me. Which means, "Who are they kidding?" or "Who are they making fun of?" or "Over whose eyes are they trying to pull the wool?" I told her I didn't know, but could she please call her distributor customer service to see what was up with her registration problems.

She did, called me back, took my address and birthdate again (for the third time, if you count the original purchase), and told me in 48 hours the problem should be solved, if I just sit tight. I just want my son to be able to call me if he has an unplanned pick-up need (a teacher is sick, there's a weather red alert like the first week of school, etc). We'll get there, and in the meantime we'll make do with a wireless prayer connection. After all, my parents and I did perfectly well without cell phones the whole time I grew up...