Poor iPhone...

Did I mention that my iPhone broke? No? Well, Sunday night I was up feeding AJ at 4 am and I was perusing Facebook when my phone shut off. Literally the screen went black. I thought, "well, that's a little disconcerting." When AJ was done eating it still had not come back on and I couldn't figure it out. So I just plugged it back into the charger and went back to bed. Nothing good was going to come out of trying to fix my phone at 4 am.

Well, I woke up Monday morning and it seemed fine. Sometime between 4 am and 9ish my phone had turned back on and seemed to be in working order again. Fast forward 45 seconds. Screen goes black. Again. Grrrr. I decide that my best course of action (as any iPhone user knows) was to "Restore" my phone to its original factory settings and go from there.

Well, in the middle of restoring my phone, it shut off again and the restoration could not be completed. I grabbed my computer and got on Google to try and self-diagnose the problem and possibly fix it. No luck. D hopped onto Apple's website and suggested that I talk with one of their "Experts." Sure, sounds good to me. I set up a phone call on D's phone and a few minutes later was being informed that since I don't have the Apple Care Extended plan I don't have free phone support. BUT, if it is determined that my phone needs to be repaired or replaced they will do that for free since I'm still covered under my 1 year warranty. So basically, they'll fix my phone for free, but they can't tell me that its broken unless I pay $70 to talk to someone.

GRR. I decide to purchase said plan and they are able to tell me immediately that I have a few options.

Option #1: I can take my phone to the nearest Apple store. Nope. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the nearest Apple store is over 2 hours away. I'm not doing that.

Option #2: Apple can send me an envelope and then I can send them my phone. 5-7 business days later I will receive either a replacement phone or my fixed phone back. 5-7 business days? That's a long time to be without a phone. Not doing that.

Option #3: Apple can send me a replacement phone and the packing materials to send my phone back to them. The catch? They're going to charge the amount of the replacement phone to my credit card until they get my broken phone back. That amount? $600. Nope. I don't want to do that.

Option #4: I can drop my phone off at a UPS retail store and they'll pack and ship it to Apple. Then in 3-5 days I'll receive either my fixed phone or a replacement phone back. Okay, fine, I'll do that. Its only 3-5 days, right?!?

Nope. We can't do that because the UPS store in my location isn't able to do that. Basically I can be without a phone for a week or I can have them charge my credit card $600 and hope that they take it off in a timely manner.

I decided that since I'm going to be out of town next week that I don't want to take any chances and not have a phone for my trip. I'm sucking it up and forking over the $600 (even though I'll get it back, eventually).

Guess what. FedEx came on Tuesday to deliver the phone. Guess where I was? The commissary. Yep. And they couldn't leave it on the porch or with a neighbor because a signature is required. ARG! I ended up having to wait around the house all day yesterday until they finally came to deliver it at 3:00 pm.

Oh well. At least I have it now.

Have you ever had to deal with something like this?