My old cell phone was a beloved Nokia Mural. I've had it for years,
and I loved it. It was one of the last generation of cell phones with
web access before i-Phones became an instant phenomenon. I had used it
to take pictures at events for years. I had even downloaded holiday
ringtones for Halloween and Christmas. My favorite feature of the phone
was that I could change the colors of the lights, so the phone would
ring in different colors. My phone was usually green, but sometimes
orange, and sometimes purple, and sometimes blue. My screen saver was a
picture of a waterfall somewhere in the mountains, and the ring tone
was gentle chimes.
Alas, all cell phones eventually
die. I'd replaced the battery twice in the last three months. Even
with the new batteries, the charge was only lasting for 4 to 5 hours at a
time. I could turn off the phone and the charge would last longer, but
that didn't really help when I was expecting calls or messages from the
kids.
So, yesterday I bit the bullet and invested in a
new cell phone. I wasn't thrilled with it, but the price was right.
$10. You know, the price should have tipped me off that all was not
well with that phone. I bought the phone and paid for a two year
contract. Brought it home.. and that's when the problems began. The
charge on my new cell phone was already gone when I got home. I charged
it again, unplugged it and took it with me grocery shopping. Wouldn't
you know? The thing shut down because it had no charge while I was
driving to the grocery store. In the 24 hours I possessed this phone, I
charged it four separate times. After the 12 hour overnight charge, it
shut down once again as soon as I unplugged it. Did I mention that it
was hot? Hot, hot, hot. The phone felt like it had been sitting on the
dashboard of my car on a hundred degree day at high noon.
I
took it back to the store this morning. It turns out that I bought the
phone from an independent contractor for my cell phone company. I took
the phone to the corporate store, but I had to go back to the
independent contractor in order to return it. Thankfully, someone at
the corporate store talked to me before I left, and gave the go ahead
and directions to me as to what I needed to ask them to do.
I
went back to the independent contractor to attempt to return the phone
with it's "30 day, no hassle return policy." Turns out it was a bit
more of a hassle than they advertised. They kept trying to get me to
exchange my phone for another phone of the same model. I'm sorry, but
in my experience when one particular batch or model of electronics is
defective, typically all of them are defective. It wasn't until I
pulled out the name of the person I spoke to at the corporate office
that they sullenly took care of me. Then and only then was it a
no-hassle return policy.
Here's the worst part of the
return... my phone got so hot that it melted the little metal squares on
the back of my SIM card. That's pretty darn hot. We're lucky that the
phone didn't catch fire while it was charging overnight. I am honestly
expecting that we'll be hearing of a house that burns to the ground
sometime in the next month due to a cell phone bursting into flame while
recharging.
After I left the independent retailer, I
went back to the corporate store. Half an hour later, I walked out of
the store a proud new owner of an i-phone. I had tried to resist the
lure of the i-phone, but none of the little flip phones that I love can
access the internet, text, take pictures, and store my music. Even
better, my photos and music are stored in the i-cloud, so I can access
them again from the cloud when I get a new phone.
We've
been playing with my phone all afternoon. I think I'm more fond of
this than I was of my Nokia. I do love Nokia phones, I've used them for
over 10 years now. But... this little i-phone is a really impressive
piece of electronics.
I am very impressed by the ability I'll have to keep track of everything in one place.
I hate to admit that I'm impressed by the i-phone. But.... I am impressed.
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