My Phone Died 1,500 Miles From Home. Here's How I Handled It

It was a beautiful October wedding some years back.

I was glad to have myiPhone 5to snap some photos.

We don’t get to Arizona often, since it’s 1,500 miles away from our Seattle home.

It slipped through her fingers and smashed to the hot sidewalk.

Now, it was my phone that was the zombie.

Hey, we all gotta go sometime.

This was my phone’s time.

The screen was a shattered mess.

That Arizona cement does not play.

Just touching the screen stabbed my finger with a tiny shard of glass.

Here’s what I did, and some other ways to handle a shattered phone.

The solution

When my iPhone hit the sidewalk, I figured I was done for.

He bet me we could get it fixed before even trekking to the airport.

Didn’t I just pay you?

And kind of a large amount?

It seemed like a good risk.

(It costs more if you spring for theft and loss coverage.)

I’m sure I still resented the cost when we paid for it.

But boy, was I thankful for it as the wedding danced on.

And then, we got lucky.

But somehow, the Scottsdale store had a next-day appointment.

Aside from one other not-so-visible chip, the rest of the phone was fine.

Not all my experiences with Apple have been this smooth.

Not ideal when you’re a writer who depends on your machine for work.

I had the phone back in time to use it for our online boarding passes at the airport.

I think we paid $29.

Without AppleCare Plus, it surely would’ve been hundreds more.

But what if we hadn’t had AppleCare Plus?

It’s going to depend on your situation.

Another company,Asurion, offers insurance for smartphones, tablets, consumer electronics and more.

But damn if AppleCare Plus hasn’t saved my butt on more than one occasion, including this one.

This wedding had a happily-ever-after ending after all.