<p>It’s looking more and more as if S#1’s cellphone disappeared into the bowels of an airplane last night on a flight from Boston to CA. He realized as he saw me at baggage claim that it wasn’t in his pocket, and the airline agent called the maintenance people who claimed they looked around his seat and didn’t find it. He called the lost-and-found at 11pm last night, nothing. They gave him the number in Boston to call and see if it turned up when they next cleaned the plane on the return trip this morning. Nothing.</p>
<p>At what point does one give up and buy another one? His current phone is not the requisite 2 years old, so he’d have to pay full price. Do cellphone companies ever make any allowance for lost phones from long-time customers? (<– wishful thinking, I know…)</p>
<p>Depends on the company, the plan, the customer…etc. Are you on a family plan? After my son lost his new cellphone I was able to give him my older one and get a new free one for myself (We have 4 phones on a family plan). I think I had to pay $25 for a new simcard. Then when he broke that one (argh!!!) I was able to upgrade another older phone for free and avoided paying for a new phone.</p>
<p>Son lost brand new phone in a parking lot. Notified Verizon immediately in case someone found and used it. Replacement would have been expensive :eek: and I wasn’t going to pay for it. Son lucked out because dad had an old compatible phone that he re-activated using son’s number. Ask around, maybe someone has a phone sitting in a drawer. And there’s always eBay…</p>
<p>First thing, whenever this happens: Call immediately to suspend that number. </p>
<p>Next thing: Consider having the line blocked for overseas calls permanently.</p>
<p>Then: Take a deep breath and call the phone company to negotiate. You will not be the first with this problem, and they may not have a decent deal. (IMHO, anything less than $50 out of pocket is decent…). If they don’t, start shopping - EBAY, craigslist or online. Keep in mind that the telco will still hit you for a fee for a replacement sim card, and that whatever phone you buy will need to be unlocked for your carrier.</p>
<p>Last, consider the carrier’s insurance. It’s not cheap, either per month or when you use it ($35 or more for a USED phone? gimme a break) but it is worth it just for the hassle savings, IMHO.</p>
<p>Insurance doesn’t always cover lost phones. And sometimes it doesn’t cover stolen phones, and if it is covered you have to have filed a police report.</p>
<p>Has he called his cell to see who answers? </p>
<p>Sometimes they are waiting to see whose phone it is (one can hope!). DS misplaced his at college and a very nice student/prof (not sure which) scrolled through his address book and called “mom” (aka, me) to ask what dorm S was in. Before S knew he’d lost the phone, it had been returned to him.</p>
<p>The carrier’s insurance? When does it not apply? Can you quote a policy declaration or other evidence? Personal experience, or just urban legend?</p>
<p>we didnt have ins( I know, I know- but I had , had a very basic cell before & I never had any trouble with it)
My phone was stolen- when my car was broken into and I had to go to ebay to get a replacement ( stay away from the ebay companies who sell refurb phones- not good experience)
I also have had to replace younger Ds phone, when she dropped it in a parking lot at a ski resort ( oh and once she washed it)
so we have really gone through the phones</p>
<p>BUt in Jan we can replace them again- using the upgrade every two year plan.</p>
<p>The phone is turned off and goes directly to voicemail, so calling it didn’t produce a useful result. :)</p>
<p>Given it’s been over 24 hours since he last saw the phone, we called the carrier and got them to suspend the number, so now if anyone finds/turns it on they won’t be <em>able</em> to call a random number to investigate. The phone is just an empty shell. The carrier has offered him a replacement phone (with a couple extra features, actually) for $39 so he’s going in this afternoon to pick it up and reactivate/transfer the number to it. The only loss is his phonebook of frequently called numbers. (And the $39. And the hassle and worry.)</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone – without this thread I wouldn’t have thought to call them and suspend the number. The carrier was surprisingly helpful in offering a discount for a new phone… AND they noticed my phone was ready for a renewal and gave me a $50 service credit for keeping it with them. (!) I guess the experience has been only a <em>little</em> bad, in total.</p>
<p>If you have Verizon or sprint, be aware that any phone you buy off ebay must be for those carriers, since they do not use simcards. Only GSM networks (Cingular, T Mobile) allow you to pop a simcard into an unlocked phone. </p>
<p>Good on your carrier to give him a replacement.</p>
<p>Logan is horrible if you’ve lost something. Trust me - I spent a while trying to recover a piece of Tiffany’s that had been on a coat from there. Lost on the plane - and no amount of begging and pleading could produce anything like a useful result.</p>
<p>mootmom, Glad that you had such a good outcome. We have had one washed cell phone (very clean, but not useful), and one lost phone. One mishap per child. We have also had one lost ti-89/child-or as they put it, one stolen ti-89. They claim that kids steal them at their school. They may or may not have been stolen.</p>
<p>My d left her PASSPORT on the plane on saturday, she’s PRETTY sure…</p>
<p>Did you know that most airports have 5-6 different lost and founds, none connected to the other, that some airlines have the lost and found open only 4 days a week, that you can’t find the lost and found # at the airport on the websites, so you have to go through voice mail he77, that the lost and founds are closed all weekend, and that if something is found, you need to know EXACTLY where you left it, cause if it was found in the bathroom, it goes to one place, if it was found at the security, opps, a different place, (not open on weekends, igh), in a restaurant, well, who the heck knows, if on a generic seat, the airport police COULD have it, or it could be in a cleaning crews office</p>
<p>that is how i spent my Sunday, and still no luck…</p>
<p>If you think dealing with the phone people is fun, try the airport lost and found non-system…nice enough people but no cordination whatsoever…</p>
<p>SO now, get to report the lost pastport, and id card, and funtimes, go through that to get replacements…blech</p>
<p>You can report the lost passport using the internet. And it’s a surprisingly easy thing to replace, especially if you have a previous passport that you didn’t lose. (D lost her passport last summer.)</p>
<p>mootmom, your son had a great outcome compared to some of ours. I’ve lost 2 phones and both times the people who found them made calls that cost me money. One called Mexico about 25 times (I hadn’t realized that I’d lost the phone and didn’t suspend the number for about 12 hours). The carrier (AT&T) would NOT waive the charges. The other guy called NY, and other long-distance areas after he promised he would turn the phone in to the nearest Cingular store that evening (yes, I did call my phone as soon as I realized it had fallen out of my purse outside of a Target, he did finally pick up and answer, and then he lied about returning it). </p>
<p>My S lost his cell on the BART last year and he bought one (not as nice) on eBay for around $80.</p>
<p>H left his phone in the x-ray security machine in the Library of Congress a couple years ago. We were on the plane home when he realized it. I called the Library and the security guard said they had a phone that matched my husband’s but then GRILLED me to prove it, as in tell him what the most frequent recent call numbers were, etc… But they Fed-Exed it back that day. </p>
<p>So, all in all, paying $39 for a new phone is great! (sorry about the hassle, though).</p>