I broke my cell phone

[Turin39789]

I have a Sanyo M1 that I got last July. Nice phone, sturdy, handles internet pretty good for a clamshell and has good reception.

A week and a half ago, extreme rain, went to pick up a friend and the cell phone fell out of the car when I opened the door and floated a few feet down the street. Worked for a call or two, and now the microphone doesnt work Still good for text and internet, but needs to be replaced.


Can I get this repaired reasonably?

Cell phones are friggin expensive. I used to go for the basic basic phone, whatever got good reception. Now that I'm on sprint's Sero plan, I use it constantly to get online and text my fiancee a fair bit. I was tempted to move up to a pda like phone, I was looking at the motoq before I got the m1 but passed because it didn't support powervision/evdo. of course I could get it for $100 when signing up for a new contract, not getting any help now.

I'm looking on craigslist and ebay and it looks like anything decent is going to be $100 plus.

 

[Juno]

call asurion.

 

[TwiceOver]

Ebay and CL are your best bets. Going to the store is asking to get ass raped.

 

[Canai]

Always, always, always buy the extra insurance in your phone. It's well worth the $5 extra on my monthly bill.

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: Canai
Always, always, always buy the extra insurance in your phone. It's well worth the $5 extra on my monthly bill.

I 2nd that. It doesn't help your situation now unfortunately. You'll probably have to bite the bullet and either pay a decent amount to get it replaced, or get a cheap one to tide you over till your phone company lets you upgrade at a discounted rate.

 

[FDF12389]

Same thing happend to me friday, I was in a hot tub and let my friend use my phone, then some a-hole jumped over the side and she dropped it in. Of course me being shit faced didnt help because I didnt protest when she said she was gonna microwave it. Its dead now.

Anyways...

Replacecell.com
CL
Ebay

Check the esn before purchase.


I got a PPC6700 refurb for 100 from replace cell, bought the last one. Another than that they dont/didnt have much for sprint, esp. EVDO which is a must with my sero plan.

 

[Turin39789]

sigh. I think I'm just going to assault my niece. She got a new phone for her birthday, and was reluctant to give up her samsung upstage that she upgraded from.

 

[Pepsei]

extra insurance? never needed it on a cheap free when sign up phone....
but i would get one if i get a better phone.

when my wife's phone got water damage, the sprint rep told her to sign up to insurance that month and get it replaced next month, then cancel the insurance. it works... but good luck dealing with lock/line (the insurance company)

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Change your lifestyle.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Why do people alway insist on checking if their phone works after dousing it with water? It probably would have been okay if you had immediately removed the battery and dried the phone out properly.

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
Why do people alway insist on checking if their phone works after dousing it with water? It probably would have been okay if you had immediately removed the battery and dried the phone out properly.

There's actually a little sticker inside the phone and on the battery that changes color if the phone gets soaked. It's used for insurance claims and such.

 

[HannibalX]

Used phone from eBay is what I would do. My phone also drown to death in 2004. I got a used phone from eBay for $30.00. I've had it ever since.

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Why do people alway insist on checking if their phone works after dousing it with water? It probably would have been okay if you had immediately removed the battery and dried the phone out properly.

Very true ... I've had this happen to me a couple times & was able to save the phone on both occasions.

Originally posted by: Canai

There's actually a little sticker inside the phone and on the battery that changes color if the phone gets soaked. It's used for insurance claims and such.

Interesting & possibly relevent in terms of insurance coverage, but meaningless in terms of wether the phone will work if properly dried out with the battery removed.

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: FDF12389
Same thing happend to me friday, I was in a hot tub and let my friend use my phone, then some a-hole jumped over the side and she dropped it in. Of course me being shit faced didnt help because I didnt protest when she said she was gonna microwave it. Its dead now.

LOL

anyway, yeah, its too bad... replacing a CDMA phone is a bit harder than a GSM one, generally speaking.

Why do people alway insist on checking if their phone works after dousing it with water? It probably would have been okay if you had immediately removed the battery and dried the phone out properly.

QFT. this method has not failed me yet.

 

[Turin39789]

I didn't actually insist on checking if it worked. I just assumed it was off, and the fiancee was holding it. As I was driving 30 minutes later I got a call and discovered it was on. Turned it off after that, but too late. The phone will still receive calls/do everything but send noise. Actually if I hold the end of the phone in my mouth you can hear me, but faded. Holding the phone near the tv produces no sounds, but actually holding it in contact does, though it is a little muffled.

I probably use 70-100 of my anytime minutes in a month, but work has cracked down on interweb usage and its good for checking my gmail et all during work hours, and it's also my only phone(no landline) got a job offer today, have to call back tomorrow on the lady's cell.

 

[Raduque]

Get a new microphone from fleabay?


Edit: If it happens again, don't assume the phone is off. Pull the battery. If you have a bottle of filtered drinking water, rinse it with that to get all the minerals found in other water out of the phone, then dry it.

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
Change your lifestyle.

To be fair, I did have the 3l+ bottle of this in the car and was on my way to empty it with two friends, subsequently got lost in the rain and the bottle got saved to live another day. It's not that bad of a life.

 

[alfa147x]

Damn :beer:

 

[summit]

importgsm.com has some really nice phones.

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: Summit
importgsm.com has some really nice phones.

sprint cdma ftl



sero + 22% employee discount ftw!

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Juno
call asurion.

I wouldn't. I worked at a cell phone repair shop and most of the crap phones we got in bulk to repair were supposedly fixed by Asurion.

IMO, if you have a little knowhow with electronics (I got the job because I knew how to use a soldering iron) you can easily fix most cell phone problems. Your phone is waterdamaged, you already made it "less repairable" by not taking out the battery and allowing for a shortcircuit.

Step 1: Buy a new battery
Step 2: Take the phone apart, soak it in some isopropyl alcohol and brush it clean with a toothbrush, allow it to dry.
Step 3: If you can find a new mic from a place like cnn.cn order one; most cellphones have the mic on the mainboard itself, meaning you can't really fix it without replacing the most expensive component in the phone.
Step 4: ...
Step 5: Profit

 

[josh0099]

Originally posted by: gorcorps

Originally posted by: Canai
Always, always, always buy the extra insurance in your phone. It's well worth the $5 extra on my monthly bill.

I 2nd that. It doesn't help your situation now unfortunately. You'll probably have to bite the bullet and either pay a decent amount to get it replaced, or get a cheap one to tide you over till your phone company lets you upgrade at a discounted rate.

I beg to differ, as they won't even insure the higher end models hardly. For a typical two year contract you are paying 24*$5 so $120, then on AT&T at least you have $50 deductible. So you are looking at a cost of $120 if you don't use it and then a cost of how many months you paid into it + $50. When you can get a cheap phone to get you through the rest of your contract on AT&T for under $50 on ebay pretty easily, or get a better one for around $100...

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: mrSHEiK124

Originally posted by: Juno
call asurion.

I wouldn't. I worked at a cell phone repair shop and most of the crap phones we got in bulk to repair were supposedly fixed by Asurion.

IMO, if you have a little knowhow with electronics (I got the job because I knew how to use a soldering iron) you can easily fix most cell phone problems. Your phone is waterdamaged, you already made it "less repairable" by not taking out the battery and allowing for a shortcircuit.

Step 1: Buy a new battery
Step 2: Take the phone apart, soak it in some isopropyl alcohol and brush it clean with a toothbrush, allow it to dry.
Step 3: If you can find a new mic from a place like cnn.cn order one; most cellphones have the mic on the mainboard itself, meaning you can't really fix it without replacing the most expensive component in the phone.
Step 4: ...
Step 5: Profit

I started to try taking it apart to clean it up, but it's got strange Y shaped safety screws. need to find out how much the right screwdriver will cost

 

[jlfirehawk]

If you go to a sprint repair center and your phone is still in warranty period and doesnt look real bad they will replace it for $35 if you do not have the insurance. I have done it with a treo and my mogul. I dont know how they react if the phone looks like it was damaged but it is worth a shot.

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: jlfirehawk
If you go to a sprint repair center and your phone is still in warranty period and doesnt look real bad they will replace it for $35 if you do not have the insurance. I have done it with a treo and my mogul. I dont know how they react if the phone looks like it was damaged but it is worth a shot.

Going to try this out, don't know what the warranty period is(probably not a year) but I'll swing by and see what they have to say