Droid Drama Update

I'm adopting a new philosophy: "The universe loves me and just wants me to have an interesting life."

I posted awhile back about dropping my Droid and cracking the screen all to pieces, but then learning that I could order a new digitizer and our office computer guy would put it in for me. So I ordered one from Ebay (as recommended), it arrived promptly, and our computer guy installed it.

The "back" soft key didn't work. Well, now, that wasn't entirely disastrous, but it was hideously inconvenient. Do you ever notice how much you use the 'back' button on one of these phones? It's the main way to navigate in and, more importantly, back out of menus and many applications. If it would have been something dumb like the 'search' soft key, I wouldn't have even cared, as I never use that one. But the 'back' one was difficult.

I eventually learned work-arounds for most things, though it was annoying and tedious, and in a few instances there is no work-around except to shut the phone off and turn it back on, to restore a certain app or function to its main screen.

The computer guy said there might have been a tiny piece of dust on the contact or something like that, and that he'd take it apart, check it, and see if that helped.

He did that, and it didn't help. Both he and Greg suggested I contact the seller. Initially I wasn't going to, as I thought, oh, it's just one of those things, it won't do any good. But then I saw where Ebay has "Buyer Protection" now - if you have a problem and can't resolve it with the seller, they will refund your money.

I'd already decided to buy another digitizer and see if that one worked (the loss of that 'back' key was annoying enough that I decided I'd risk another $40 to try to get it back), so I thought, well, it can't hurt to try. I sent the seller a message last night, very polite, explained the problem, and said I just wondered if he knew of any fixes, or had any more digitizers he might be willing to swap.

He wrote back and, while he was extremely polite, basically told me 'too bad, sorry to hear it,' and went on to say that he "knew the soft key didn't work" and hoped I could "figure something out."

Huh. Because his original sale page description said: "Product is brand new and tested to guarantee it works.

Well now. So I initiated a claim under the Ebay Buyer's Protection thing, and they sent him notice of it. Then we began exchanging emails. The first thing he said was that he had made a mistake, and confused me with another buyer, to whom he sold an actual Droid phone (not digitizer) on which the back key doesn't work ... so he thought I was them. Then he figured out I had only bought the digitizer, and he assured me - again - that it worked fine when he shipped it to me.

I replied that it arrived well packaged and didn't appear damaged in transit, I had an electronics expert install it, and it still didn't work ... so I'd beg to differ.

After a couple of very polite exchanges, in which he continued to insist it worked when he sold it, he offered to refund half my money as a compromise.

This got me thinking. His emails struck me as sincere, he was truly apologetic, and I believe that he truly believed the thing worked when he sold it. I also don't know for a fact that it's not my phone, instead of the digitizer. The bottom line is, there's no real way to tell what happened.

Meanwhile, I'd ordered a new digitizer, through Amazon - it's from an outside seller, but a reputable electronics store with a 5-star rating, so I figure if there's another problem, I'll have a good chance of having some buyer protection there as well. And it was the same price.

So a plan occurred to me. I was concerned that if I continued to be persistent, and Ebay Buyer Protection refunded my full purchase price (which I assume they'd go after the seller for), and then I got the new digitizer and discovered the back button still didn't work, I'd feel like a real moron - because it wouldn't have been the digitizer after all, but my phone.

So I made the seller an offer. I told him that we'd put the matter on hold for a week - if my computer guy installs the new digitizer, and the back button still doesn't work, then it was my phone, not the digitizer he sold me, and I would ask for no refund. However, if the new digitizer works 100%, then the problem was his digitizer, and since he is so sure it worked when it shipped, and there's no way to prove when or where the damage occurred, then I would accept his offer of a refund of half my money.

He was happy with that, and - in a telling statement - even said to me, after apologizing again for my phone problems, said he sincerely hopes the new digitizer works out for me. Well, if he gets his wish, he'll owe me $20 - whether he remembered that or not when he said it, I don't know. So it just renewed my belief that the guy's honest, not trying to rip me off, and actually hopes my phone gets fixed. So I do think the guy's being sincere. But maybe I'm just a big schmoo. Doesn't matter, I'll feel better about it this way, and that's what matters.

Meanwhile, the other night my SD card died. Just died, no reason. At first I thought it was another malfunction with the phone, but then I tried Greg's card and it would recognize that one - just not mine. So I went out today and picked up a new one, and it is fine.

I thought I was safe because I'd downloaded a file manager program awhile back that lets you sync your phone with your computer wirelessly, and backup all your data, and I'd done that when the screen cracked. Well, funny thing - I cannot figure out any way to get the data back onto the phone. I tried everything, went to the website looking for help (nothing at all useful there), zip, nada, zilch. The only thing I was able to recover was my pictures and music (very important, though, so a good thing!) but none of the apps I had installed solely on the sd card.

Well, that wasn't the end of the world, because there weren't that many, and I've been able to replace most of them. A few are acting incredibly squirrelly - I re-downloaded them, but they still won't work. Whatever. I'm tired of screwing with it.

Meanwhile ... one of the black plastic strips that makes up the 'back' of the phone (the back isn't a solid back, but a couple of different flexible black plastic pieces that basically stick on with double-sided tape) fell off and disappeared somewhere yesterday. My computer guy warned me that might happen, after removing and reinstalling them several times. If I'd have known when it happened and got the piece, I could just put it back on. But since I have no idea where it happened and haven't found it yet, I now have a 'raw' strip on the back of my phone that isn't covered (well, it's partially covered with the old double-stick tape, but that's ineffective), I have to try to cover it with something.

This phone is rapidly turning into a paperweight. In another moment of 21st century irony, last night, while sitting downstairs with Greg, when I first discovered that the strip was missing off the back and the sd card was also fried, I looked at him and said, in great frustration, "Well now it's nothing more than a phone." Huh.

But anyway ... I'm hopeful. That the new digitizer will work right ... that I'll find something appropriately quirky to cover up the phone's raw bit on the back ... that I'll fix the broken apps and the new sd card will be fine ... that in a week or two it'll be at least somewhat back to normal, and no longer "just a phone."

(Actually I'm facetiously exaggerating - in fact, most everything does still work ... email, Twitter, games, camera, music, texts, Kindle ... oh, and the phone ... so it's not really that bad).

I also picked up a padded case for it today - it's actually a tiny camera case but it works. If I can get this thing fully functional again, I'm going to baby it like a Faberge egg.