A New Battery - Hooray

Jake and I actived our cell phones (different types) on Jan. 29th, 2006 and my phone is still within warranty, but lately it had been working horribly. It has slowly over the last few months held a charge for less and less time. By this week it would last maybe an hour after saying it was fully charged - if I didn't use it. It would only last about 1-2 minutes if I was talking on the phone. There were quite a few times that I would sit in my car with the phone plugged into the charger just so that I could talk to people. Pathetic. And it happened so gradually that I kept thinking it must be my imagination and that really I wasn't keeping track properly. Or maybe it was because I leave my phone on in the daytime when I'm at work where I don't get service. I didn't know.

So finally I realized that I had to do something. It just wasn't working. And for those of you who might wonder why this is a big deal, I don't have a home phone, and even if I did, I'm never home - so this is basically my only way to communicate with others.

Anyway, I called the phone manufacturer (LG) and explained the situation. They said it would take about three weeks to diagnose the problem. They told me to mail them my phone, but sorry, they can't give me a replacement during that time. They suggested that I ask Verizon if they could provide a replacement. There is NO WAY that I could lose my phone for what would likely be a month, so I decided to go into Verizon so they could verify whether the problem is the battery. If it was, I would buy a new battery, send LG the old one to get it fixed, and then I would have two batteries.

I took the phone in to Verizon, and the girl immediately told me that the battery had been recalled, showed me that it was bulging, and gave me a new battery IMMEDIATELY right then! I can't even explain how happy that made me. I just don't have time in life to deal with crap like that and I appreciated Verizon making the switch so easy. I know, I know, I'm much too busy if I almost told the Verizon employee that I loved her just because she gave me a new battery, but I really was thrilled.

My phone is now back to normal, lasting a really long time, not requiring itself to be plugged in constantly. Hooray for new batteries!