One would think that the Gods Of Technology, having bricked my new laptop (bought in January 2025) and caused me to have to buy a new one, would have done fucking with me.
One would be wrong.
Last week, I picked up my phone, to feel and see this:
Yup. The old case, she splody like an IRA bomb or Al-Qa’eda IED.
“Oh,” said the T-Mobile tech person when I brought it in to the store, “that’s the battery. They do that. How long have you owned the phone? That long? Wow, and the battery only went phut now? You’ve been lucky. Anyway, you’re going to need a new one. No, not just a new battery — a new phone, because they stopped making this model about four years ago.”
Fortunately, I long ago made the command decision to pay a little extra on my monthly bill for a replacement phone deal, should Bad Things Happen.
So I picked up the New Phone yesterday. Why only yesterday? Because these phone stores no longer carry any actual stock, you see — unless you’re a New Customer, in which case they’ll whip one out and empty your bank account in a flash. But a replacement phone for existing customers? Oh no, we’ll have to order that one, and it’ll take a week or so, sorry about that. At least I got an upgraded model, for no extra cost.
Blessedly, the transfer of all my stuff from Old & Broken to New & Shiny only took about 5 minutes, mostly because I didn’t bother transferring any photos (having already backed them up).
I guess that 5+ years usage out of one of these “smart” phones isn’t that bad — although considering that I barely use the fucking thing (compared to everyone else in the universe), I would have thought it would last much longer.
But back to my store visit… I wanted to have a clear screen protector installed. Sorry, we don’t keep those in stock — but we can order one for you. One of those rubber-like protective cases? Nope, sorry, but if we order those for you, they’ll get here in a week or so.
For fuck’s sake: what happened to the concept of one-stop shopping and customer service?
(I should add that the staff at said store were helpful and knowledgeable in the extreme — even for Southern Nice People, they were exceptional. They’re not to be blamed for policy decisions like in-stock items.)
Anyway, I have the new thing, and it seems to be working okay. Let’s just hope it lasts longer than that godawful ASUS piece of shit laptop.
And the next time I go to a mall (2026, if my existing shopping trend continues), I’ll just swing by one of those little kiosks and get the screen protector and safety casing there. Life is too short to worry about shit like that.
Don’t wait until next year to get a case and screen protection. By then you’ll have an ‘old’ phone and the kiosks won’t have anything for it. Or not anything an Olde Phartt would want. Think Hello Kitty.
You say that like it would be a bad thing. I suspect most people here would chortle with glee at the the thought of Kim fuming over a pile of remaindered Hello Kitty phone cases. 😆
A couple of phones ago, my wife didn’t like the Verizon store offerings for protective cases and left without one. Before she could get one from Amazon she had dropped and damaged her phone. If you have prime Amazon can deliver you one in a day.
Which is precisely why retailers no longer stock anything but expert advice.
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” The old case, she splody like an IRA bomb or Al-Qa’eda IED.”
Or a Hezbollah pager…
Yeah, for a moment there, I thought… what the hell have I done to piss off Mossad?
You should be thankful it didn’t go any further. Also, water won’t put out lithium battery fires as lithium chemically reacts with water, producing hydrogen.
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we got new phones about three months ago. We went from Iphone 8 to iphone 15. The AT&T store of course didn’t have them in stock so we ordered them online. We also ordered cases at the same time. A couple of days later they came and we transferred the old data to our new phones. Mine took about 3-4 hours to transfer pictures, music and podcasts. I’m getting to the point where I’ll go back to a land line and an answering machine.
That’s odd. No iCloud backup?
Should’ve started restoring the moment you logged in.
I went from an iPhone8 to 16 and did nothing. The phone was up in no time.
That’s happened to me with nearly every phone. I’m usually years behind the technology curve.
I had an iPhone 5 forever. It did what I wanted and I liked the size. When it went kaput, I got a refurb iPhone 8. I think that one was replaced by another refurb when it went the way of all good things.
I can honestly say I’ve never darkened the door of a T-mobile store. Every time I’ve had an issue I’ve called in, or just took the thing to the apple store. Last time I went was because my phone wouldn’t hold a charge. They were super pleasant and told me – mournfully – I’d need a new battery. I braced for impact. How much?
$50.
Sold. Do it. I was out of there in an hour or so.