When the Five Second Rule Doesn't Work
When the Five Second Rule Doesn’t Work
April, 2003
You know the five second rule, don’t you? Food that lands on the floor and stays there for five seconds (more or less) is fine to pick up and eat. I tried to apply that rule in another setting, but it does not translate. After cleaning the stalls this morning, I filled the dogs’ water bucket, a nice stainless steel one, and carried it out to their pen. Upon setting it down, I heard splash, clunk. Looking down, there was my mobile phone at the bottom of the bucket fully submerged under six inches of water. I quickly snatched it out of there, ran inside and dried it off, but it was giving wacky messages on its LCD.
Time for the emergency room for wet electronics. I got out Marian’s hair dryer, took the phone battery off, dried everything I could, and blew hot air on it until everything that I could see was dry. Well, the triage was to no avail. When turned on, nothing happened at all. When plugged into the charger, it went through several berserk things like wailing, telling me that the phone was out of range, and other not-very-helpful messages all cycling without me doing anything but watching in horror. So, it was toasted, so to speak (drowned?).
Luckily, I had bought a service policy from BestComputerCircuit when I got the sucker a little under three years ago. I gathered up the original box, manual, charger, and the phone and took all of this stuff with my service policy to my local branch of the store. No problemo, they told me. After filling out some paperwork, I was told that I would get credit on any new phone in the amount I had paid on the old phone.
The young woman at the Sprint counter told me that the phone I had originally bought (which I had replaced due to breaking off its antenna about a year or so ago with a totally different phone) cost $200. Boy, howdy. Phone prices have come down, so I could get a goody. Options that met my needs for something that can stand up to barn and outside work meant that there were two choices: $130 or $299. The only difference, really, was the higher-price phone had a color screen. I told her that the $129 one would be fine since I did not want to pay the extra $99 if I bought the other phone.
Now comes the strange part, and it’s all good. I told her I needed a leather case and a car charger. She told me that if one bought two accessories when buying a phone, the cost of the phone was cut in half. Thus, I could get the $299 phone and not pay anything extra. Fine. She also sold me a two-year service plan for $40.
So, I went to the register with her with a $299 phone, service plan $40, car charger $30, and case $25. Got that? I fully expected to pay for all the extra stuff, just get the credit for the phone. Total bill was $34. I didn’t ask for an explanation, just left the store. Love those service plans!
April, 2003
You know the five second rule, don’t you? Food that lands on the floor and stays there for five seconds (more or less) is fine to pick up and eat. I tried to apply that rule in another setting, but it does not translate. After cleaning the stalls this morning, I filled the dogs’ water bucket, a nice stainless steel one, and carried it out to their pen. Upon setting it down, I heard splash, clunk. Looking down, there was my mobile phone at the bottom of the bucket fully submerged under six inches of water. I quickly snatched it out of there, ran inside and dried it off, but it was giving wacky messages on its LCD.
Time for the emergency room for wet electronics. I got out Marian’s hair dryer, took the phone battery off, dried everything I could, and blew hot air on it until everything that I could see was dry. Well, the triage was to no avail. When turned on, nothing happened at all. When plugged into the charger, it went through several berserk things like wailing, telling me that the phone was out of range, and other not-very-helpful messages all cycling without me doing anything but watching in horror. So, it was toasted, so to speak (drowned?).
Luckily, I had bought a service policy from BestComputerCircuit when I got the sucker a little under three years ago. I gathered up the original box, manual, charger, and the phone and took all of this stuff with my service policy to my local branch of the store. No problemo, they told me. After filling out some paperwork, I was told that I would get credit on any new phone in the amount I had paid on the old phone.
The young woman at the Sprint counter told me that the phone I had originally bought (which I had replaced due to breaking off its antenna about a year or so ago with a totally different phone) cost $200. Boy, howdy. Phone prices have come down, so I could get a goody. Options that met my needs for something that can stand up to barn and outside work meant that there were two choices: $130 or $299. The only difference, really, was the higher-price phone had a color screen. I told her that the $129 one would be fine since I did not want to pay the extra $99 if I bought the other phone.
Now comes the strange part, and it’s all good. I told her I needed a leather case and a car charger. She told me that if one bought two accessories when buying a phone, the cost of the phone was cut in half. Thus, I could get the $299 phone and not pay anything extra. Fine. She also sold me a two-year service plan for $40.
So, I went to the register with her with a $299 phone, service plan $40, car charger $30, and case $25. Got that? I fully expected to pay for all the extra stuff, just get the credit for the phone. Total bill was $34. I didn’t ask for an explanation, just left the store. Love those service plans!
posted by Bud Hirsch at 9:37 PM
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