my darling toddler dropped my cell in the toilet (yes it was clean) and now i cant hear anything. i can still make and receive calls but i cant hear a darn thing.

i went to verizon and they told me that i have to buy a new phone. BUT as i was choosing a 39.99 phone, the lady told me "oh no, you cant buy a promo phone, you have to buy a regular retail phone and the cheapest one is **$149.99***

she told me "its in your contract that for two years you will use your phone before upgrading. so since you can no longer use this phone, you need to upgrade, therefore you have to pay for a reg. retail phone which is 149.99!!!

someone PLEASE help me figure this out. is this right? my god, there are like 7 phones all under 70 bucks in their store.....and im not allowed to get one? i dont want to upgrade i want to *downgrade* and not have a stupid camera phone anymore!!!

do i buy one off of ebay? this is my first cell phone and i dont know how these things work....HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That happened to me(but my dd dropped mine and I couldnt hear) and they(Sprint) told me the same thing but I told them that I thought it was crap that new customers were getting a better deal then someone that had been with them for years and they gave me the new phone at the "sale" price or whatever they call it. I'm thinking of getting my next one off of Ebay but kinda leary because I want an expensiveone(like $500)!

__________________
Stephanie

When did it get dropped? if it was only today or yesterday I would take it apart and see if you can dry it out and maybe it will work then. I had dropped a phone in the sink and after letting it dry out it worked fairly well. Otherwise I would look for one on Ebay. Too bad I dont have verizon becuase my dh upgrades our phones every year with tmobile. I have like 4 extra phones hanging around and I would send you one but I dont think they will work with verizon. I would maybe try a cell phone store that is not strictly verizon becuase they may have something cheaper if you are looking to just buy a phone. Maybe try Best Buy or an electronics store too. They might be cheaper for just a phone without service.
I hate how cell phone companies do that. They price the phones for new service and if you just want a replacement it is like $100 more.

Same thing happened to my dh. He dropped his in the bait tank on his fishing boat. Cingular told him the same thing. He spent about $150 or so on a new phone.
ARRRRHHHH! I feel your pain!!! GOOD LUCK!!!

You might just put out the word to family and friends to see if they have an old cell phone that will take your SIM card. You can switch that out yourself!! My dd doesn't like her phone, and her boyfriend had an old one that she likes better. So, this is what they did. Then, dh dropped his and broke the flip part, so he put HIS SIM card into dd's old phone!! I also agree with give it a few days, if this happened. We have had a bathtub incident, and after a week of sitting it all out, pulled apart, it dried and worked fine.

__________________

I have no idea what other options you have, I just wanted to say that I completely feel your pain. DH goes through cell phones about a new one every two years. I despise the cell phone companies with a passion. I actually long for the days of the old avocado green rotary dial phones that hung on the wall. :D

What's a SIM card and how do you replace it? I thought you had to have the cell phone company reprogram it.

This happened to a friend of mine but she bought one off ebay and the cell phone company said they wouldn't activate it (program it whatever) and she didn't know anything about a SIM card so she ended up buying one from the phone company too.

__________________

We went through this with verizon a year or so ago...my phone got WET...I opened it and the contacts were RED (this means it's dead...no hope) If you open it and the contacts aren't red...give it a few days to dry out and see if it improves.... I went to verison and they told me I couln't get a new phone at the promo price b/c I still had 18 months on my 2 year contract... I'm not going 18 months without a phone so I just re-upped my contract for 2 years (Technically it was only adding another 6 months onto it) and got the phone at the pomo price.
DH just got new phones through work and all they do is switch out the SIM card (I didn't know that's what it was called...I call it 'the chip' (same brand phone).

__________________
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass~ It's about learning to dance in the Rain

This happened to our phone too and I'm sorry to say it was a lost cause. Be careful buying one on ebay because some phones are locked and will only work if you have the same service plan and or your service plan may only work with certain phones. We buy all of our phones out right now because we're happy with our plan. DH says it saves us in the long run. Good luck.

__________________
Nadene

Did you get insurace for your phone? if so you should have said it was lost or ran over by your car and they would give you another phone.

__________________
www.myspace.com/sassy143


Alex & the spider monkey