The Cell Phone Chronicles

Everyone has heard or experienced a different, equally frustrating, variation on the story. One woman, anxious to get home after a particularly tedious business trip, was settling into her seat on the plane. She reached for her cell phone to call home before taking off. After searching her entire bag (three times) an image of her phone on the back seat of the cab crystallized in her brain. Another person recalled being part of a teeming, jostling mass of people trying to get on the subway. Someone bumped him, causing his phone to leap out of his hand and slip under the train, never to be seen or heard from again. Then there are the, well, slightly more embarrassing tales of cell phones slipping out of one's grasp into the toilet. Or being backed over in the driveway after its owner left it on the roof of the car. Or, our favorite, dropped into a pile of fresh manure.

The upshot is that each year, 1 in 4 cell phones will be lost, stolen, or accidentally damaged. Replacing a phone, not to mention the data stored on it, is a frustrating and costly experience. eSecuritel offers Handset Protection Programs that can significantly reduce both the cost to the consumer and the hassle of phone replacement to the carrier. But enough about us. We are dying to hear your stories of love and loss. Or, at least, your funny, maddening, and even sad stories of how your phone was lost, stolen, or damaged. Participants at CTIA Wireless 2008 who stop by our booth (#4208), share their story via a comment on this post, and sign a release allowing us share your story with others will be eligible for a bunch of really cool prizes. So without further ado, settle in for a minute and share your most memorable tale of cell phone woe with us. And we should mention that by posting your story here you give us permission to share it with others.

Comments

[David Leach]

Fairly humdrum but my phone fell out of my pocket as I was picking up driftwood on the lake from my boat...didn't work too well after that...

[Joe Oliver]

I manage the cell/data phones for my company. The best story - or not as the case may be - a brand new Blackberry 8830 (2 days old?) fell off an associates belt and he drove over it with his car.

[Phillip Luebke]

Was walking on the rocky shore in Northern Michigan and slipped on the rocks. My LCD cracked. It cost $150 to fix.

[Sasan Vossough]

I dropped my cell phone in a puddle and Cingular said, "Good Luck".

[Akbar Jaffer]

Was at a trade show working the AT&T booth and went through all the features of a device with a woman interested in purchasing it - the multi-media capabilites, camera, other applications, etc. - for about 30 minutes. The woman decided to purchase the device and as she was paying for it, asked if it was a phone as well.

[Jerry Fortenberry]

A lady brought in a phone for us to repair and we saw it was water damaged. When I asked what happened, she said that she had dropped it in her glass of wine at dinner.

[Alan Kaplan]

I ran over my phone with my jeep.

[Tamara Bratland]

I had just gotten my new BlackBerry. I spent the morning getting it working with our corporate network. I went to our work cafeteria and put my phone in my front pants pocket. I was standing to open the door to the cafeteria, someone came from the other direction and the door edge bumped into my leg. The screen of my blackberry was cracked all the way across and became non-functional. Next step was I had to get the BlackBerry replaced. I had no insurance plan and the replacement price was huge (ouch!!).

[Bernardo Portilla]

My 2-year old kid basically 'placed' my blackberry on my 3-year old kid's head. The blackberry bounced on the ground, hut the floor.....

[Teddy]

I once damaged my phone just after i had purchased it, it was a phone that I had been saving for. It was about a total of 6 months and i finally had the amount i needed to buy it. The model was a Nokia N95, which costs about $895.00. Just after i purchased the handset i took a picture to test it and put it down on my car, i forgot to get it as i drove away and heard it hit the ground. now i only use cheap phones or the phone provided by my company.

[Ed Camacho]

Dropped it in the beer bucket at a steakhouse.

[Ravi Jain]

I lost my first ever mobile phone on an airplane five years back. Since then, whenever I get into an airplane, I miss that first love.

[Jim Soucy]

Ran over it with my car. I was glad. :)

[David Happel]

I was loading my two girls into their carseats and needed an extra hand so I put my cell phone on the roof of the car. By the time I got them secure in their seats, I'd forgotten about my phone. When I drove off I heard a clunk on the car on the car and looking in the rearview mirror to see my phone bouncing down the road. I did a u-turn and went back to retrieve it, but before I could get to it, a pickup truck ran over it! I did get to retrieve the pieces.

[Kwun Ho]

I was driving a rental car with my phone on the dash and the windows open. On a fast turn, my phone flew out the window.

[Mario Benoun]

I left my cell on the back bumper and drove off. It was there for a week until I heard it ring. Then I dropped it!

[Steve Wilkes]

I had a phone disappear from my hotel room in Thailand. Lost? Stolen? I'll never know!

[Nick Martinez]

While traveling in Mexico, a gorilla attacked me. To scare it, I threw my phone at it and knocked it out. Unfortunately, I ran the hell out of there and forgot my phone.

[Dan Outcalt]

My dog ate my phone!

[Charles Vieau]

My wife, bless her heart, was scaling a puddle of water with a baby in one hand and the phone in the other. As she prepared to land she found out it wasn't such a good idea as she was loosing her grip on our first born. It was either the baby or the cell phone, guess who lost out!