You've Lost Your Cell Phone - Now What?

Even if your cell phone is a pinch behind the times such as mine, you still develop a certain attachment to it. When you go to use someone else's, you find their method of accessing their contacts convoluted, their text keypad cumbersome. So it can feel like the end of the world when yours is lost, stolen, dropped in a toilet, or any other catastrophe that renders it gone or useless. Being without a mobile phone is hell on earth, so you're eager to rush and replace it the nanosecond it's gone.

But hold the phone (pun intended) - if you're already locked into a plan with your carrier, buying a new replacement phone can set you back. Way back. So unless you got lucky like I did and found an old phone that you thought was lost forever, your options are limited. However, here are a few good strategies for replacing a lost or destroyed mobile.

Retention Departments

It's no secret that American cellular provider Sprint has a shoddy track record for providing adequate service. However, this carrier does have a dirty little secret that was revealed on SprintUsers.com - the retention department.

Sprint and various other carriers have an inbound call center dedicated to receiving calls by users who want out of their plans due to disappointing service. And at these call centers, the employees' main goal is to prevent you, at any cost, from leaving their company. And by at any cost, I mean by offering you more minutes for what you're already paying, or an upgraded phone.

When you lose or destroy your phone, the carrier will indeed be able to see that you have not been making outgoing calls and may get suspicious. However, if you call the retention center immediately after using the phone and make complaints about how you are not pleased with your cellular service, you may get lucky and receive an upgraded phone. And let me tell you, a lot of these phones are nice. They aren't necessarily just going to send you a bare bones cheap mobile.

Are you an honesty is the best policy type? Buy a cheap replacement and then give the retention a call anyways. Remind them that you've been a loyal customer, paid your bill on time, and you resent the fact that you had to pay for a replacement. If this is legitimate and you indeed have been a dutiful user, there is a very good chance that you will either have a rebate sent to you or put towards your next bill.

The Little Red Dot

Have a Razr? Go ahead and take the battery out and look underneath. Do you see a little white dot? Ever wonder what it meant, or did you just assume it was another cellular mystery?

That little white dot stays white until your phone gets wet, at which point it turns red. This is a tool used by cellular companies to catch you in the act if you try to tell them "my mobile phone just all of a sudden stopped working" when what you really meant to say was "I got drunk last night and dropped it into the punch bowl."

Almost all cellular companies will indeed replace your phone if it stops working if it was no fault of your own. However, if you cause the damage to your phone, your warranty is thus null and void.

"This is one of the biggest cell phone scams off all time" A friend who turned me on to this phenomenon explained "Most computer companies are somewhat understanding about this, but cell phone companies need to be stricter because this is where they make their real profits."

Unless you live in a completely warm and dry climate where moisture is rare, the weather is constantly attacking your mobile. An ear piece, a mouth piece, and slight cracks where the back piece attaches to the phone to cover your battery - there are just so many open spaces where sweat, rain, or any liquid can seep in.

"You would be shocked, absolutely shocked, to know how many people drop their phones in the toilet. It's ridiculous. I'm personally too embarrassed to have a conversation when I'm on the throne, but I guess most people don't have my shame." An acquaintance who is employed as an electronics repairman told me. He continued, "It is indeed cheaper to have your phone repaired than to buy a new one, but not by much."

So, coming back to the little red dot and the friend who told me about it - "I only know about it because it happened to me. I wasn't even being careless, it was raining. All of a sudden I heard static and my phone went dark." She explained. My friend, by the way, is an artist with a full studio. Lots of white paint and delicate rice paper. Do you see where I'm going with this?

"I discovered the whole white dot thing when I was Googling how to fix a wet phone. I took out my battery, and sure as heck, my dot was red. I just thought that was so silly, because as soon as I looked at it I knew I could make it look white again. I lifted it with a tweezers and made a new dot. When I took it to the store it was the first thing they looked at, and after a glance she told me that she could replace the phone. In fact, they actually gave me a nicer model as a courtesy." She said, smiling as she retold the tale of her mobile cunning.

I asked the electronics repairman about that. He shook his head. "I don't care if she's DaVinci. I would have known right away. You can't fake something that was put in place by a robotic assembly line in a factory. Individuals don't have that sort of precision." He said, almost in a manner that suggested he resented her for pulling a fast one.

Sure, an electronics repairman who spends his many hours hunched over broken apart pieces of technological equipment can catch something like that. But a clerk at a mobile shop who's making a base wage and has seen hundreds of phones that day? Who knows? The people who take care of you in the stores may have a lot of mobile facts in their head, but few of them are experts. My friend is proof that pulling off the little red dot scam may just be plausible, if you have a lot of white paint and a steady hand.

Ebay

Ebay won't surprise anyone as a source for a quick replacement phone. But how to look and what to watch out for certainly will.

The biggest and most crucial element of buying a used or refurbished phone is the seller's return policy. Many sellers will use a stock photo and describe the phone's factory features with a flair and enthusiasm that leads one to believe that this is the best phone for the best price imaginable. However, remember that not all phones are compatible with all plans, and some phones have lock codes. If you buy a phone only to find that it is locked, a seller who specified no returns will not owe you anything if they never mentioned that the phone was locked. Omissions are a part of online auctions that keep crooked sellers in business.

Furthermore, unless you are buying from a refurbished phone vendor that has a good track record, remember why most independent sellers auction off their phones in the first place. Many sell their phones because they were too broke to pay their bills and decide to give up and just ditch their mobile. Now, if you purchase the phone and the delinquint serial number is still linked to an open account, you will be unable to switch the phone over.

Now, if the phone you're purchasing utilizes SIM card technology, then you know very well that all you need to do is pop your card in and it doesn't matter who the phone itself is linked to. But in that scenario, if something goes wrong with the phone, all the seller needs to say is that the phone worked fine when they put their SIM card in. It's a slippery slope, and processing a complaint with Ebay can take months and often result in a meagre penalty of the seller getting a bad review. Big whoop; a bad review doesn't diminish the fact that they have your money and you are now stuck with a defective phone.

Ultimately, while it may seem like a cheap alternative, I doubt the safety of purchasing a phone on Ebay or Craigslist. Yes, these are often the venues where refurbished phone companies do the lion's share of their business. Yes, you can score a killer deal for super cheap. But you still don't know where the phone is coming from. At the end of the day, the old adage rings (another pun intended) painfully true - you indeed get what you pay for.

Count Your Losses and Switch Carriers

When a phone is lost of destroyed, sometimes that means that someone up there is trying to tell you that your carrier is no longer right for you.

Now, I know what you're thinking. You can't just tell the carrier that you've lost your cellular phone and would very much like to switch; indeed, if that were the case, all cell phone customers would be happy and all cell phone companies would be less rich. However, if you are in the market for an upgrade anyways, this can sometimes be a more alluring and savvy alternative. Think of it this way - buying a spiffy new model phone outright would be very costly. Paying the fee to get out of your plan is costly, yes, but pales in comparison to the cost of a brand new upscale mobile.

Yes, it can seem like a waste to pay a cancellation fee, where you're just throwing money at the company for doing absolutely nothing. But regardless, you yourself will end up saving money, so who cares? This strategy can end up being a good way to upgrade even if your current phone is fine, just a little less than what you consider ideal.

Even If Your Cellular Phone is Gone, Carry On...

Hopefully this guide will help you in your quest to replace a lost or damaged mobile phone. Losing it or destroying it may seem like the end of the world, but try to remember that it's just a phone - no matter how tragic the situation may seem!