LadyGypsy.net – the blog of Kimberly Dowd of New Jersey

(image from sxc.hu)

WM’s iPhone decided to kill itself on Monday.

Its case flipped off of his belt and plummeted into the dogs’ water dish.

Ugh.

It was in there for less than 10 seconds, but it was enough for the water (and dog spit) to damage the external speaker. Which, you know, is where the RING comes from. Your phone can run a million apps, but if you don’t hear it ring, it’s just a PDA.

Bad, bad timing.

Panicked, I searched online for what to do and found this strange article on cnet: What to do if your iPhone gets wet. It suggested putting your iPhone in a plastic container with some packets of silica gel (that “DO NOT EAT” packet in your shoe boxes) or uncooked rice.

I was initially skeptical, but there were four pages of comments on how this really worked!

So I filled a small container with rice, buried the phone in it and covered it with plastic wrap. The container went in the oven with the oven light on, following one of the suggestions I read. That provides a dry environment.

Because I’m a brainless ninny, I taped big signs that said NO on the oven door and the oven’s temperature knob. I didn’t want to accidentally cremate the thing.

We left the phone in for about 6 hours. When we took it out (and blew off the rice dust) the speaker was back to normal!!

Obviously, the longer your iPhone’s been in the drink, the longer you need to leave it buried. Some of the comments on cNet detail leaving the phone in its ricey coffin for a week and the phone coming out perfect!

We also got rid of almost half a bag of the generic brand uncooked rice that we hated. So, win-win!

You should really read What to do if your iPhone gets wet just for the stories of how people have accidentally soaked their phones.

My mom got me an iPhone for Christmas two years ago.

It is the original iPhone, and about six months later, the iPhone 3G came out. A bunch of the movers & shakers jumped to that model. The 3GS came out this June, and a lot of people made that jump as well.

Me? I still have the original, which is fine except…

It doesn’t really work as a phone well anymore. I’m missing calls and voicemails and getting late texts, which is seriously bugging me because it makes me look like I’m blowing people off.

My signal is rarely strong anymore. I can be in Applebees with Mom, who’s also AT&T (regular cellphone) and she’ll get 5 bars and I have 2. I can be standing next to WM and his iPhone (3G) and he’ll have 4 bars and I’ll have 1.

I can’t help but think of my sweet little Samsung phone which worked like a champ for over 3 years and took much better photos.

Anyway, the purpose of this whine is that I’m wondering with all the hype over the 3G and the 3GS if Apple knew all along that the regular model was wonky.

I’m doing a system restore this morning. I hope it helps because I’m THISCLOSE to giving up the apps and geek cred and going back to a regular old cell phone.

Thursday morning, I was just getting out of the shower when WM knocked on the door. “Honey? There’s a problem!”

I dashed out and he pointed at the computer screen. Our cellphone bill is automatically deducted from my account on the 22nd of each month. And on Thursday, October 22nd, AT&T deducted over $900.

Luckily, I was paid on Wednesday and was starting to save up for rent so the money was in there to begin with.

I stammered and shook while WM got on the phone with AT&T. He’s very good with situations like that. Turns out, when WM got his iPhone in September, the data plan wasn’t added to his account. So once he went over the 1MB limit that his old plan offered, we were billed approximately $10 per MB transferred.

The representative was very kind on the telephone and understood that it was a big mistake. She arranged for the extra monies (over $770) to be credited to our wireless account. And it was.

Trouble is…that was RENT money. And weekend money. And grocery money*. I logged into ING and moved $1000 into the checking account. That’ll take effect on Monday.

So I called AT&T Friday afternoon and asked for my money back. The representative was, again, very nice and put in a request to have the money returned to my account. She said she would request it to be immediately transferred back, but it might have to come back to me via check. In any case, I’ll have a resolution by 11/3.

AT&T could have been assy about the whole deal, and blame us for not checking our account online a week or so after the iPhone purchase to make sure it was properly set up. They could have blamed me for not looking at the paper statement that arrives a week before the money is taken. (I never do, because it comes out of my account.) But they didn’t. And I appreciate that.

Edited on 10/27 to add: AT&T will be sending the extra $700+ back to my checking account within the next 48 hours. Yay!

*Even with coupons, in-store sales, and Wegmans brand products, we cannot spend less than $70 a week on groceries anymore. We’re eating more home-cooked things, which is better overall but I think it would be cheaper if we ate at Taco Bell & McDonald’s every day.