Asurion Announces Mobile Mishaps Contest Winners

"*#%&!, I CAN'T BELIEVE I _____ MY CELL PHONE!" Entries Illustrate Just How Precarious The Life of A Cell Phone Can Be

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Jul 28, 2011, 10:00 ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Asurion, the global leader in technology protection services, today announced the three winning entries in its "*#%&!, I CAN'T BELIEVE I _____ MY CELL PHONE!" contest, which invited consumers to submit peculiar, odd, outrageous, incredible and downright funny stories of how their cell phones met an untimely end. For their winning efforts, Jillian Middlebrook, Armond Gonzalez and Kris Anderson each received a 64MB Apple iPad 2 from Asurion.

Asurion provides mobile phone protection through many wireless companies. The protection covers consumers in the event of handset loss, theft or out-of-warranty damage, including liquid damage. Customers who file a claim by 11:00 PM Eastern most often receive a replacement phone the next day.

Throughout the course of the six week contest, a panel of judges reviewed more than 300 written entries, which were submitted through the Asurion-sponsored website, GottaHaveMyMobile.com, a source of information about extending the life of mobile phones, and about how to prepare for the possibility of loss, theft or damage. Judges looked particularly for those entries that conveyed an energy and enthusiasm for mobile devices, and that excelled in their detail and description of just how outrageous, and often stressful, losing, damaging or destroying a cell phone can be.

In her entry, Jillian Middlebrook from North Carolina recounted how mobile phones seem to mimic the properties of lightning in their attraction to water. "Darting around the house trying to get ready, I had the tub filling up with water and when I ran into the bathroom, phone in hand, it escaped my grasp and flew through the air," Jillian wrote. While Jillian may have, very briefly, held-out hope that her phone would make a safe landing, it was not to be. "The loud clunk that it made when it swooshed into the tub won't be forgotten. It was dead for good." They say every cloud has a silver lining, and for Jillian, it was true. It turns out she was already a customer of Asurion, and, as she concluded her entry, "And then Asurion saved the day and replaced it in a heartbeat. Thank you for that."

They also say misery loves company, and it seems Jillian's bathtub story has plenty of company. In fact, nearly one-quarter of all contest stories submitted involved damage or loss due to liquid, including swimming with, washing or flushing a phone.

Just 25 miles from Chicago, Illinois is East Chicago, Indiana, where the second contest winner, Armond Gonzalez, resides. Armond wrote about how, for his cell phone, a trip to a major league baseball game was no walk in the park. As he described it, and illustrated by also submitting a video taken that day by a friend, Armond was spending the afternoon with the Chicago White Sox, watching the action from seats in the lower deck along the third-base line. As he and his cousin returned from a brief visit at the field-level to their seats about 10 rows back, a foul ball headed their way. "It bounces off the stands above us as we are walking up the aisle," Armond wrote. "The ball goes straight to my hand like a bullet and blows my phone up to pieces!!!" The memory of that afternoon won't soon be forgotten. "The sad part is instead of picking up the baseball that everybody is diving for I pick up what's left of my phone!!!"

The third and final contest winner, Kris Anderson of Glendale, California, described the way in which a good day can quickly go bad. "I was juggling the usual suspects on my way into work one day – a latte, a pastry, a purse, a cell phone, a folder with papers, keys," Kris began. "I decided my cell phone was more easily stuffed into the open pastry bag than the snapped close purse," she continued. Feeling good about her "efficiency and brilliance," Kris "waltzed into the staff kitchen, thinking how nice my croissant would be slightly warm. I strutted past my coworker, taking a moment to soak up the obvious appreciation of my balancing act, and boldly, effortlessly tossed my pastry bag into the microwave." According to Kris, it takes 1.5 seconds to turn a fully-functional cell phone into one that is "completely, irrevocably toast."

"We want to thank everyone that entered the contest and again congratulate Jillian, Armond and Kris," said Bettie Colombo, spokesperson for Asurion. "Their stories, and the hundreds of others we received, remind us of just how easy it is to become disconnected. The fact is, nearly 600,000 phones are lost, stolen or damaged each year. That's why Asurion is committed to providing an affordable and effective mechanism for quickly restoring cell phones to those who find themselves without."

This contest is solely administered by Asurion and is in no way affiliated with, or endorsed by, Apple. GottaHaveMyMobile is property of Asurion. All other company or product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

About Asurion

Asurion, a privately-held company operating across three continents, is the global leader in providing consumer technology protection services. Asurion offers support to help customers derive optimum benefit from the usage of electronics; security to help ensure content privacy; and peace of mind through rapid replacement of lost, stolen, damaged or malfunctioning devices. As the premier technology protection provider, Asurion's 5,000+ employees specialize in fulfilling the needs of more than 95 million consumers through strategic partnerships with the world's top wireless and cable brands. For more information about Asurion, please visit www.asurion.com.

SOURCE Asurion