Since I rant enough to cover the vitriol quota for five normal men, I thought I’d once again switch it up by posting an uplifting story (of sorts) here on the ole Jux Entente.

As many of you know, my poor Original Gangsta Droid has been having some hardware issues. Namely, the sleep/wake button died this weekend, leaving me with only sliding the phone open as a way to rouse it from its sleep. On my way home from the office tonight I stopped by the Kennesaw VzW store to ask what my options were. I knew I didn’t want to upgrade yet, since the fresh crop of Android phones is coming soon, but I figured since it’s an 18-month-old phone I’d probably have to file through insurance rather than get a warranty replacement at this point, and have to pay for the privilege. I’d heard on Ars that the refurbs of the original Droids were long-since out of stock as well. I was desperately hoping they wouldn’t try to give me something godawful like a Droid 2 if I had to replace the entire phone. About the only thing I’d want from the current lineup, even for 6 months or so, is an Incredible.

All of that worrying was pointless in the end, though. This is what actually happened: I walked in, told them what my problem was, told them I didn’t want to upgrade yet even though I qualified for an early upgrade, and they said they understood. Then they offered to overnight me a refurbished OG Droid to replace mine, for free.

So for $0 out of pocket I’m getting a replacement OG Droid to continue surviving on. This is excellent. I’ll just swap in my SD card, restore my Ti Backup, and go. The whole process took less than 10 minutes. Amazing, really.