Buyer's remorse

My cell phone died. It happened slowly. A few weeks ago, the vibrate option stopped working. I used to never use it, but with K gone, it's become pretty important.

Last Saturday, I woke up, and the display that shows the time or who is calling me when my flip phone is closed was no longer working. It was just blank.

Sunday, my display when I opened my phone wasn't being cooperative. Many times, it just showed a solid blue screen. I could turn it off and back on to solve the problem. By Monday night, it was all blue, all the time. I couldn't see who was calling me or what time it was. I couldn't set the alarm on my phone. I couldn't see if I'd managed to sleep through K calling me last night, although I'm pretty sure I didn't. I couldn't see if I missed calls today when I stepped away from my phone for a second.

Clearly, this couldn't continue.

I went to the Cingular store today after work. Electronics aren't that big a deal to me. I like the look of the new Razor phones, but I just can't justify spending so much money on something when I can get a phone for much cheaper that pretty much does all those same things. I looked around at the different phones and decided on a Nokia cell phone that was priced at $119 (It was the second-cheapest phone there.).

Honestly, I'd always gotten the free phones before -- the ones that cost at first, but you get your money back through the rebate. Those worked just fine. The phone that died on me today I'd had for about three years. It had survived being in the chest pockets of my band uniform in 100-plus degree temps. It made it through freezing temps in that same pocket, as well as in my purse. It made it through being poured on inside my purse on the 4th of July. It survived sand and salty air on beaches in California, Hawaii and Florida (and Galveston, Texas, if you can call that a beach). It made it through many, many falls, including two very rough ones in the last month and a half -- one at the gym from the elliptical, falling first from the screen onto the hard plastic running boards and onto the floor; and just a couple weeks ago, falling from my overloaded hands onto the hard concrete and bouncing onto a stone step after a stone step after more stone steps before finally landing on the second-to-last step.

Normally I'm not so hard on my phones, but taking a phone with you everywhere you go every second of the day can wear it out. My phone was just too old to take it. It was definitely time for a new one. But Cingular doesn't have the free ones anymore.

The phone I decided on was actually $69 without this service bundle thing, but I got it because it was supposed to be cheaper. The phone was supposed to be $119 when I got the bundle, which included a car charger and a bluetooth headset, as well as a carrying case. I also got a $50 rebate on the phone if I got a service bundle. I figured I'd be getting a car charger very soon anyway, and the bluetooth is pretty handy, so why not just save in the long run by buying them now?

Well, somehow my little $119 phone cost $194 by the time all the fees and taxes were added. That's one-fifth of the price of my brand new, awesome, has-everthing-I'll-ever-need laptop AND printer combined! The crappy part is that I can barely hear out of the phone, and I have good hearing. Luckily, I have 30 days to return or exchange it. I'm pretty sure I'll be revisiting Cingular on Saturday. Maybe I'll even already have a new phone from online.