Getting What You Pay For?

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I know My Mentor is shaking his head right now, but my cheap phone recently bit the dust, and for the life of me, I can't explain why. It was only a few months old. It just conked out. What's crazy is that it was working the morning and when I went to use it a few hours later, nothing. I was going to give it to N to dismantle and if not fix it, do something cool with the parts, but he said it might void the warranty. It was then that I realized that it didn't have a warranty, or at least it didn't seem to have one. Such is the case when you buy a $30 cell phone, you get what you pay for.

Naturally, being disgusted with such a poor quality product, I did what any sensible person would do - I bought another one. For $30, it's worth another shot. I actually really liked that particular phone, and if this new one dies like the one before it, then I'll have learned my lesson. We shall see.

Of course, there's a story to go along with it, as well. My phone died on a Tuesday, and I was going away that Friday for N's tournament. It helps to have a phone when you travel for countless reasons, one of which is just finding your hotel, not to mention places to eat. I looked online and saw that I could order the phone on Wednesday and get free overnight shipping for Thursday via Fedex, so I did it.

Well, wouldn't you know that a big storm would come in on Wednesday into Thursday, and Fedex wasn't able to deliver the package. We were leaving Friday around noon, and deliveries usually come in the early evening, so I probably wouldn't get it in time. I tried to simply have them hold it at the shipping facility, where they said it was being held, but they wouldn't let me. Also, I couldn't call them because when you try, you get some central routing location that has no clue what's going on at any specific location.

Since I had to take A to school that morning, I figured I had nothing to lose by simply going there when they opened and seeing if I could just pick the thing up. As luck would have it, I was just in time because the person said they were just about to load it onto the truck. She handed me my phone, I activated it when I got home, and spent the first day down at the hotel loading apps. Luckily with Google+, I could transfer all my contacts from my old phone, even though the thing is dead. Sure, some things got lost, but all in all, it wasn't too painful, especially for $30.

Let's hope this one last a little longer... maybe three weeks instead of two. Just kidding.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to robert zylstra for the pic.