What do I do about my phone?…

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Ugh!!  My cracked Droid Razr Maxx HD smartphone cracked in the upper left corner.

The day after our anniversary and subsequent injuries from the fall on the collapsed steps, I dropped my Droid Razor HD Maxx on the cement walkway.  More concerned about my injuries at the time, I dismissed it with a plan to deal with it later.

Later has arrived.  I’m almost fully recovered, working out again today for the first time since the fall, and ready to resolve the phone issue.

If we were in the US, I’d drive to the Verizon store or a cell phone repair shop, drop it off for the day to pick it up later in the day.  Most likely the cost for the digitized touch screen replacement would have been in the $200-$289 range.

Not the case now.  On a whim, when we stopped at the local office supply store in Placencia Village on Wednesday for a squishy envelope, there was a cell repair station in the back of the store.  My hopes soared.  The enthusiastic repair guy looked at the cracked screen shaking his head, “no.” 

The office supply store in Placencia, Belize has a cell repair shop.

“It will take at least a month for the repair parts to get here,” he explains, handing the phone back to me. “But I can’t even guarantee that it’d get here in a month.  You, know, the mail…” he trailed, looking sadly disappointed.

“Yes, we understand,” I said equally disappointed. 

Decided not to give it another thought at the time, we continued on with our shopping.  Later, at my computer, I started researching my options which include:

Plan A

  1. Wrap the phone in the padded envelope with a prepaid UPS label (using our UPS account, our trusty portable printer, and our roll of clear shipping tape) and giving it to our kind Minnesota friends who are returning to the US on March 22nd. 
  2. UPS will pick it up at their office on March 25th. Within four days (roughly arriving on March 29th), it arrives at the Motorola Repair facility, where it takes five days to repair (roughly arriving on April 3rd).  Motorola ships it to our mailing service in Nevada (roughly arriving on April 7 and is placed in the box with our other items being shipped to us on April 8th to a UPS store in Miami Beach. We’ll be there for only eight hours on April 13th.  That’s a tight time frame.
  3. This plan leaves me without my Android phone for 22 days, which I use as my reading device. I pick it up to read at night when we go to bed, during the night if I can’t sleep, during the day on the veranda and out by the pool.  To be without it for 22 days is challenging. My laptop is too bulky for such reading.  Yes, I know a tablet would have been handy, but we were trying to keep the digital equipment at a minimum (kind of).

Plan B

  1. Find a location in Miami Beach to repair the phone while we wait during our eight-hour layover between cruises.
  2. Upon researching cell phone locations somewhat near the pier in Miami, most indicated either an exorbitant cost of upwards of $300 or they wouldn’t fix it in a few hours.  I contacted several repair shops by email and chat to become further frustrated with their responses.  All asked to be paid upfront so they could order the parts. 

Plan C

  1. Keep the phone in my possession since I still can read on it. We’ll arrive in Dubai on May 21st after our cruise through the Suez Canal and to visit to the Pyramids.  With a 13 day stay, we’ll have time to take it to a nearby repair shop for a replacement screen.  If it takes a few days, no problem. With our 95-story high rise close to the downtown area, there appear to be multiple options within walking distance.
  2. Keep the phone in my possession since I still can read on it.  We’ll arrive in Italy, staying in Tuscany for 2 1/2 months with a rental car.  We’ll have plenty of time to get it repaired.

In reviewing these options, we have to recall our motto, “Wafting Through Our World Wide Travels with Ease, Joy and Simplicity.”  In other words, which of these options produces the least amount of stress?  It’s clear to us, Plan C.

A possible obstacle to Plan C?  The phone continues to crack (highly likely) and becomes unreadable. Solution: Bite the bullet and purchase a new unlocked smartphone at one of the many ports of call along the way. Also, we’ll be back in Miami for one day again on April 20th, the day we leave to travel across the ocean to Barcelona.  At that time, decide on the repair or the new phone.

For now, we’ll put aside the cracked screen issue and go about enjoying our remaining 24 days in Placencia Belize.  Our big concern for today is, when will the sun come out? Nice.