cell phone

As they say, timing is everything. That saying came to mind recently.

I've had my cell phone for almost 4 years now and the battery performance had been decreasing slowly over the past 6 months and then last month it just dropped off a cliff, so to speak.

Originally I could use the thing all week long before recharging. After 3 years it was down to lasting 5 days, 6 months ago it'd last 3 days, and 2 weeks ago it would only last about 10 minutes. The time had arrived for me to replace either the phone or the battery.

Being me, I checked into the pricing of both strategies. A new phone, which of course would include a new battery, ranges from free to a couple of hundred dollars (when you sign a 2 year contract). A new battery at the Verizon store was $25 + $1.50 tax. Not bad but it was time to look online as well.

The place I liked the most, and ended up buying from, is called Cell Phone Shop and it's based in Hong Kong.


I assumed that they shipped from a USA affiliate--but as you can see from that shipping envelope, I was wrong. Yet, despite me buying just a few days before Xmas, and the products being shipped half way around the world, I had my battery in just 6 days. Amazing.

The reason I decided against buying at Verizon was that instead of paying $26.50 for the original type Motorola battery I got it from the shop in Hong Kong for $15.99 --- I also bought a backup battery from a third party provider for $9.99 and a car charger for $4.99. All told it was $30.87 and orders above $30 had free shipping.


So for $4.37 more than at Verizon I got an additional battery and a car charger. Nice.

As for my initial comment about timing--well, for the first time since I bought my phone I forgot the damn charger and since I forgot it at my parents house having the extra battery and the possible use of the car to recharge the phone came in very handy. Hell, I'm not even going to bother having them mail me the charging unit. I'll just wait until my next visit there.

Timing is everything and Dell sucks. Still.

Comments

rosemary said…
Good shopping, Dave. I've never been able to keep a phone that long....disasters happen to the phone.
Unknown said…
It's good you saved all that money...you may need it for unexpected (phone) bills!

Dell sucks forever.
Nina said…
As I have previously stated, you are a shopping wizard. I don't know how you do it.
SassyAssy said…
cellphoneshop.net rocks! I think I actually gave you a lead on that ages ago when you started up with the ridiculous talk that you were going to get a new cell phone.

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