Schmipple, Schmapple

I might've had a tantrum today. Or a hissy fit. Or white hot anger.

Ahem: Planned Obsolescence (as defined by Dictionary.com)
–noun
a method of stimulating consumer demand by designing products that wear out or become outmoded after limited use.
Also called built-in obsolescence.
Origin: 1965–70

I'm over it now.

Mostly. But...

Well, here's the sitch...the long and the short of it. I happen to have a first generation iPhone. She's not the 3G or even the 3GS, but she's mine, and I lurve her. I call her Apple, and she was given to me on my 39th b'day, 17 months ago. And I have only just begun to explore all her happy applications...like Twitter, and Facebook, and Google...

Apple has a ringer switch which has gone haywire. The switch has gotten too loose, and now it slides randomly between "ring" and "silent". You might imagine the problems this back and forth might cause. Because as many fun applications as you can buy for an iphone, they really are used also for p.h.o.n.i.n.g.

So given this problem, I made an online appt with the "Genius" bar at our local apple store. Understand that you cannot merely just go in and ask a question, since you're meeting with geniuses. It's technical. So...I made a 2:50 appt for today. After seeing my name on the flat screen "waiting room" as the number one customer in line and sitting at the Genius Bar for a few minutes, I was seen by a person who told me I needed to check in with the "concierge" (REALLY?). Okay. That done, I waited. Finally Vlad appeared.

After I stated the problem, he turned the phone over a couple of times in his hand and said, "Well, the only way to fix this is to get a new phone for $199.00."

Me: "No, no...you don't understand, it's just this little switch. Please just put a new one in and I'll be good to go."

Vlad: "I'm sorry, that's not how we do things here. Let me check your warranty. I see that it expired in March 2009. You would need to purchase a new phone. We don't open them to fix them."

Me: (taking it in...starting to reel) "So...I'm bringing you a phone which has a small problem, and works perfectly internally, and you tell me I need a new phone? Do all your phones expire after the one year warranty?"

Vlad: "Um...no. It's certainly your choice. Of course you can look up on the internet someone who might fix switches on iphones..."

Me: "So...really? Really, I have to use this broken phone or buy a new one, or find some random person who might fix a switch?"

Vlad: "Well, I see a scratch here, and a ding there. That might've caused it. I'd recommend a hard case."

Me: (also reeling that he was trying to sell me a hard case) "I know this isn't your problem, but that's shoddy workmanship, don't you think?"

Vlad: "You can take some time to think about what you want to do."

And that was that. So...I called my husband, and texted poor Sus to help talk me off of the ledge. You know why? It's not the money. Really. I'll save for another phone and make due. In our economy, getting a new phone just isn't the first place I want to place my cash. It's not the fact that I had to go to a shi shi "Genius" bar to have this inane 2 minute conversation, when I could've saved a trip and phoned--but no, you must make an appt, and you must go in. You must.see.a.genius. None of that talking on the phone stuff for a...phone issue.

What made me most mad and frustrated and upset...completely aside from the damaged phone...was that Vlad didn't give a rat's patoot about my dilemma. I was a number. A silly housewife with an out-dated iphone. In all our technical prowess of replacing and refining and slick headsets and matching t-shirts and concierge services, we sometimes forget that people, with feelings and needs, wishes and dreams are still a part of the total equation.

So, um...yeah. I think I'm over it.