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Cleanest iPhone in the West
Nov. 4th, 2012 11:32 amNote to technology-people out there - if you happen to be doing laundry, and said laundry happens to be all in a giant pile on the floor of your bedroom, and your husband happens to have shed his pants and snuggled down for a nap, and also happens to have a habit of leaving his pants pockets full, and you happen to halfway-notice his pants going in to the wash - take a moment and check the pockets. Or you might happen to notice a strange metallic thud coming from the washing machine, and that might happen to cost you a good $450+.
So...yeah. iPhone + wash cycle = not a happy phone. Tried putting it in a bag of rice for a day, but I'm guessing that between the good half-hour soak and the percussive aspects, it pretty well fried itself - the only sign of life was the flash turning on when we tried to power it up.
Frustrating, but not the end of the world - we figured we'd just have to renew Brian's Verizon contract and get him a new phone, and hey, it was an excuse to upgrade to the iPhone 5. Unfortunately, upon arriving at Verizon, we were informed that his account was not eligible for renewal for another six months. So that meant our options were either [a] pay for six months of service with no phone, then upgrade (not really feasible even aside from being non-ideal - Brian needs a smartphone for work), [b] buy another phone at full retail value (which was $450 for another iPhone 4s, or $650 for a 5), [c] try to find a used one on Craigslist or eBay (that had to be a Verizon phone, despite the architecture being the same in all of them, as their software wouldn't activate one that wasn't in their system) and hope that it wasn't stolen, or [d] pay the $250 early termination fee and effectively be SOL. And, I might note, these were presented as our 'options' after three years of being the perfect customers - no heavy usage, payments made completely on time, never needing much in the way of support.
I've always claimed cell phone companies could put most supervillains to shame. And now I have my proof. Assholes.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), everywhere in the area (and everywhere in Tucson that Brian called) that supposedly sold Verizon iPhone 5s was either sold out or only had one or two, and none in the model Brian wanted. So after some frustration, he called up Sprint, since I've had them for several months now and their service has been perfectly decent. (They're not as strong in the really rural areas as Verizon, but Brian's managed to get the remote tower sites he used to have to visit regularly to be self-sustaining enough that he only goes out there once every few months now instead of several times a month.) And the dude on the phone there informed him that not only had they just received a shipment of 500 iPhone 5s, but they'd get him a $100 discount on his second bill to help offset the Verizon ETF if he made the switch.
Well. That made the decision pretty easy.
It still wasn't entirely painless, and I'm 100% certain that if we find ourselves in a similar situation with Sprint we'll be faced with the exact same set of options, but my frustration at the expense and hassle was mitigated somewhat by the vindictive satisfaction of leaving Verizon behind. Also helpful was finding out that putting the both of us on a shared plan meant paying less per month than we were for the two separate ones; and even better, once Brian gets the paperwork done for his government-employee 15% discount, that'll apply to the whole thing. And they gave him $50 in credit for his bricked iPhone 4s, which is probably less than the raw materials are worth but still better than it sitting around being a very expensive paperweight. So things could definitely have turned out worse.
Still not washing his pants ever again, though.
So...yeah. iPhone + wash cycle = not a happy phone. Tried putting it in a bag of rice for a day, but I'm guessing that between the good half-hour soak and the percussive aspects, it pretty well fried itself - the only sign of life was the flash turning on when we tried to power it up.
Frustrating, but not the end of the world - we figured we'd just have to renew Brian's Verizon contract and get him a new phone, and hey, it was an excuse to upgrade to the iPhone 5. Unfortunately, upon arriving at Verizon, we were informed that his account was not eligible for renewal for another six months. So that meant our options were either [a] pay for six months of service with no phone, then upgrade (not really feasible even aside from being non-ideal - Brian needs a smartphone for work), [b] buy another phone at full retail value (which was $450 for another iPhone 4s, or $650 for a 5), [c] try to find a used one on Craigslist or eBay (that had to be a Verizon phone, despite the architecture being the same in all of them, as their software wouldn't activate one that wasn't in their system) and hope that it wasn't stolen, or [d] pay the $250 early termination fee and effectively be SOL. And, I might note, these were presented as our 'options' after three years of being the perfect customers - no heavy usage, payments made completely on time, never needing much in the way of support.
I've always claimed cell phone companies could put most supervillains to shame. And now I have my proof. Assholes.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), everywhere in the area (and everywhere in Tucson that Brian called) that supposedly sold Verizon iPhone 5s was either sold out or only had one or two, and none in the model Brian wanted. So after some frustration, he called up Sprint, since I've had them for several months now and their service has been perfectly decent. (They're not as strong in the really rural areas as Verizon, but Brian's managed to get the remote tower sites he used to have to visit regularly to be self-sustaining enough that he only goes out there once every few months now instead of several times a month.) And the dude on the phone there informed him that not only had they just received a shipment of 500 iPhone 5s, but they'd get him a $100 discount on his second bill to help offset the Verizon ETF if he made the switch.
Well. That made the decision pretty easy.
It still wasn't entirely painless, and I'm 100% certain that if we find ourselves in a similar situation with Sprint we'll be faced with the exact same set of options, but my frustration at the expense and hassle was mitigated somewhat by the vindictive satisfaction of leaving Verizon behind. Also helpful was finding out that putting the both of us on a shared plan meant paying less per month than we were for the two separate ones; and even better, once Brian gets the paperwork done for his government-employee 15% discount, that'll apply to the whole thing. And they gave him $50 in credit for his bricked iPhone 4s, which is probably less than the raw materials are worth but still better than it sitting around being a very expensive paperweight. So things could definitely have turned out worse.
Still not washing his pants ever again, though.
