This is my Lost Phone Saga Actually, it includes my broken iPad as well. It began the end of November 2023. We were at our place in Arkansas and headed back to our home in Louisiana. about an hour and a half into the trip. I realized I didn’t have my iPhone. First we tried having my wife call the phone, hoping that it would be in the truck, it didn’t ring. Thinking that perhaps it was in the truck but not able to answer. We pulled over and hunted around the truck inside then it became clear that it was gone so we turned around and went a half hour back to the gas station where we had gotten gas since it was the only place I had gotten out of the truck. I looked around the place where I had pumped gas. then I went inside to see if anybody had turned it in. No luck.
We had started a bit later than usual. It was now about 5 o’clock but there was no choice. so we drove the hour back to our house in Arkansas thinking for sure I must’ve left it there. However, we did not find it after searching them all over the house. There was nothing to do but get back on the road on the way back we stopped at the gas station, one more time again with no success. We finally got back to our home in Louisiana about 1230.
While we were driving home, I called Verizon and went through the process of ordering a new phone through the insurance program that I had with them. The lady assured me I could pay for this by having it put on our bill and that it would be here in Louisiana the following Monday. I anxiously waited for the week to pass and did my best to go without a phone. On Sunday I had a call from my stepson he just called me and someone else answered the phone. We hadn’t been in touch and he didn’t know. I lost it the person who answered the phone, explained that he didn’t trust the people at the gas station where he found the phone it had been run over however, he plugged it in, and it was working. So I got his number from Ethan and I called the young man.
He was very pleasant, courteous and helpful. He offered to mail it to me, which was very kind since I was expecting the new phone the next day, and I didn’t really know what shape the old phone was in. I told him to mail it to my post office box in Calico Rock.
However, things did not go as planned. Monday came there was no phone Tuesday came no phone either so I called Verizon. They had no record that I made the order. It just didn’t exist so I thought I’d come up with another plan we were planning to go to Arkansas in three weeks. So I decided to see if I could buy a cheap phone with a few minutes to keep me going until then.
I discussed this possibility with a Verizon support person. He gave me a better idea if I bought a cheap phone that could take up Verizon Sim card then I could use my phone number and use my own minutes. This seem like a good idea and as I was going to Best Buy anyway I thought I’d see what they had to offer.
It’s time for a slight detour in the story to explain why I was going to Best Buy in the first place. The night before i’ve managed to drop my iPad. Yes, a new one and I had to get it repaired the good news and all that is that although I had not paid for the warranty, I still had three days to do that and even though it was damaged already, they let it be covered it. I got it back in three days that is to say I got a replacement back and that’s what I’m working on right now.
So back to the phone. I was able to buy an inexpensive Motorola android phone for $100. However, I mistakenly thought that the Best Buy people would be able to totally set it up, wrong! I had to take it to a Verizon store to have that taken care of.
So I went to Verizon. Very helpful. Young man took care of me and we got started and ran into a problem almost immediately because of all the phone calls back-and-forth. I guess the Verizon person on the corporate side had locked my account and I didn’t seem to have the information they needed to prove it was me and so, they put me on hold. They called my wife and my grandson who are also on the account. They finally figured out I was who I said it was and the service man managed to get me hooked up with my phone.
The saga continues.When I got home I settled onto back porch for a pipe and to explore my new phone. However, I couldn’t unlock the phone. I tried all which way finally, I decided I better call the store. However, you can’t just call the store. All of the people that work there have cell phones but there’s no more at the store than anyone answers. So I hop back in the truck and drove the 20 minutes back to town.
The fellow who helped me with still there. Greeted me with a wave,saying “ What are you doing back here?” I told him my predicament and questioned him regarding what password he put in. He gave me the right number so I had them the phone. He proceeded to dial in my password, and then he pushed an arrow on the bottom right of the screen. Presto, the screen opened. How many ways can you say stupid or foolish?
Anyway, I’ve got the phone it works. The story isn’t quite over because we haven’t gone back to Arkansas yet if I have to do something different with the old phone or if it really isn’t workable, there will be more to the story. I hope your phones don’t give you long troublesome adventures?