The Hunt For a New Charger

My mobile charger was giving me trouble for the past couple of weeks. Initially, it would work only on some plug points…and I thought that maybe there was something wrong with the others. Then one fine day, all the plug points at home stopped working - for my mobile alone. My wife's phone was charging just about fine. I did the next obvious thing. I shook my charger to see if there was something running about inside. Sure enough, there was something doing the rounds inside. It did not sound like anything big, but i guess that was big enough to screw the charger up. I felt pretty bad, as the mobile and the charger were all pretty new. My big bro had magnanimously gifted it to me when i'd crossed over from my hell hole in Riyadh to his oasis in Dubai. This crisis called for a very painful step - spend money and get a new charger.
My initial thought was to get a duplicate charger. The real one would cost around 300 bucks I thought. We've got a thriving bazaar near our place called Chalai. You get almost anything there...fruits, fish, vegetables, electronics, clothes..just about anything. I stepped into the first mobile store I saw- a rather small and un-posh looking one. Asked the storekeeper whether he had a Sony Ericcson charger..he said he had..and showed me a non-descript and shady looking thing.."160 Rs" he said..it wasn't the real Mc Coy, but a very poor cousin..Putting on some airs, I asked him if he didn’t have the original. He didn’t but he said that this would work out just fine. Moreover, the charger had a one-year guarantee. I gave him my phone to check out if it would work. He plugged the charger to my phone and connected the other end to the switch. It charged alright. I decided to buy that one, to hell with getting the original. And then he tried to pull the charger out..the jack of the charger, the part that was hooked to my phone, came out as two separate pieces..he mumbled something about the charger having some vague complaint and took out another fresh charger..this one had the same problem. It came out in two when he tried taking it out. "Aah..these chargers are like that only" he finally said..”this is how they are made” I offered a lame apology and I walked out. The neighbouring electronic store had the same kind of charger..a different brand..if at all something called “Super Charger” could be called a brand. But this one too came out as two. This wasn't working out well I thought..It was better to spend around a 100 bucks more and get an original charger. So off I went on my bike to the nearest authorized showroom.
Now this was more like it. An air-conditioned showroom, lots of attractive models on display (phones I mean!) and there was even your must-have good looking female customer with your equally must-have three shop attendants waiting on her. Consequently there were only two guys behind the counter and I asked the guy who was free for a new charger. He said that they only had the original Sony charger. I half-thought of taking offense at his hinting that I couldn’t probably afford the original but I let that pass since his hint was equally half-true. I told him that I was looking for the original itself. He then looked around and retrieved a spanking new charger – packed in an air-tight plastic pouch. I asked him how much it was. “ 490 Rs” was the reply. “ How much???” I enquired politely again..as though I didn’t really hear him the first time..I didn’t want to rule out the possibility of having probably misheard him. “490 Rs.”came the equally polite and firm reply. After having pointedly asked him for the original, I couldn’t possibly pull out now and lose face. So I told him that I would take it and I asked him to test the product for me.
He plugged one end in and hooked the plug to the switch..It worked alright. “ You have to be careful while disconnecting the charger from your phone” he said as he was taking it out. “ You have to bend the jack like this, and then pull the charger out of your phone.” And he bent the jack that was connected to the phone and pulled it out. “ Is this a new model, the charger?” I asked. I didn’t have to do this for my old charger after all. He said it wasn’t. All Sony Ericcson chargers had to be pulled out like that..even the headphone apparently had to be bent and then pulled out. I was quick to disagree and pointed out, “But my old charger comes out easily enough without bending it”
“Oh it will come out if you yank it, but then the charger soon loses the lock it has and then it becomes useless. Didn’t your dealer tell you this?” I sure didn’t remember the dealer telling me anything at all..except handing over the bill to my brother. For the six months that I had this phone with me, I had been yanking the cord out of the phone every single time. No wonder it died a premature death.
I’ve often wondered if anyone really ever read the user’s manual. They probably didn’t. I didn’t. As I walked out of the store, 500 bucks poorer and mobile charger wiser, I decided to pay more attention to those boring booklets hereon. You should too. They can, as they could have in my case, save you a fortune..

Cheerio folks..

Shain