Replacing an iPhone

If you are on Facebook, you might have seen the beautiful mess that was my iPhone.  On Monday, I left my phone on my car bumper, pulled out of a parking lot onto Ortega Highway and that was, well, that.  It wasn't until I got home, that I realized I didn't have my phone.  I retraced my drive, and as I neared the entrance to the parking lot, I noticed the pieces that looked a whole lot like myLifeProof case.  (Let me tell you this case has saved my phone many times, but I don't know of a case that will protect a phone from being run over!) Yes, pieces.  In the middle of Ortega Highway.  (If you aren't familiar with the area, this is a pretty busy place.)  I pulled off to the side, waited for the traffic to clear and walked out to pick up the pieces.  But I still couldn't find the phone.  Traffic started getting heavy again and a big rig slowed to a stop and put his hazards on, effectively blocking the lanes of oncoming traffic.  He got out and walked over to the middle of the road and picked up my phone.  "Is this yours?"

So now what?  At least I had the security of having the phone in hand, so no data breaches.  But now WHAT?  We were in between upgrades on our plan and without insurance.  Here's the thing: I google everything.  EVERYTHING.  And that's how I found the solution.  Maybe everyone else knows about this, but for the few of you who don't, here's a solution.  And it's how Apple won my loyalty (well, they already had it, but it got further reaffirmed) and how Sprint lost a HUGE market share of it.  

It's called the out of warranty replacement and you can find out more here.  You do need to have your iPhone in hand, but it sounds like no matter what happened to it, you can replace it for half the cost that your carrier will charge you. ($269)  I mean, really, my phone was run over by a car (or two or three) and I now have a brand new iPhone.  And I paid less than half of what my carrier, Sprint wanted to charge me.

As a veteran  customer of Sprint, (we've been with them for over 10 years) I gave them first crack at helping me out.  Especially since I was three weeks away from my upgrade eligibility.  I knew I had the out of warranty replacement and an appointment at the Genius bar at the Apple store for later in the day.  Sprint wanted to reconfigure my bill so they could hide a monthly payment for the new phone at over $600.  Yes, my bill was lower (because I would discontinue a service item) but ultimately, in the long run, I would pay over $600 for the new phone.  I even told them about the out of warranty replacement  from Apple, giving them an opportunity to meet or match it and create a happy customer.  (Additionally, I'd end up buying my new replacement LifeProof case at almost $100 from wherever I purchased the phone.)  The Sprint rep looked puzzled that I'd rather pay less for the phone.  And he let me walk out.  

I was in and out of the Apple store in 30 minutes.  My new phone fully reconfigured and ready to rock.  A happy Apple customer.  Yeah, I drink the Kool-Aid.  But so, so rightfully so.