My phone was Japanese

Have you ever been conned?

I wrote a little story on this blog, titled Trials and Tribulations, on 10 July this year. In it, I mentioned the drowning of my phone in a Galway toilet and being ripped off purchasing a new phone in Donegal Town a day later. I have more to tell and it’s so ridiculous that, instead of being furious, I’m nearly insane with merriment. Is that hysteria?

So, to remind you, I bought what I thought was a new 128GB iPhone and got a 32GB used iPhone. As impossible as this might seem to a tech-savvy young person, to a panicked solo-senior (well, nearly), it’s understandable. It was like watching a magic show where a coin turns into a rabbit! The magician (mobile phone repairer-salesman con-artist) was so kind and helpfully offered me the phone at a good price, cared about what colour I had, threw in a protective cover and set up the basics for me. Relief and gratitude flooded over me as I clapped wholeheartedly.

And then the truth was unveiled. The rabbit was a mirage and the coin had devalued!

I had to learn to use the iCloud for storage, the only up-side of this story. But my phone storage was still showing FULL, so it was with some frustration that I went along to my local Apple store in Sydney and asked why. They were very helpful. Apparently, I have an excess of music and it was suggested I get rid of some if I want to free up some space. No way! I then proceeded to tell the twenty-year old girl the tale of the Great iPhone Rip-off. And she offered to look up the phone’s history. In just a minute, she had it.

The phone was was full of Japanese writing and she asked, does the camera make a shutter noise even if on silent? Yes, I said. That’s so annoying when you’re trying to take a sneaky photo! These two things told her it was made for the Japanese market. (It’s illegal to have the camera silenced in Japan.) Ok, interesting, right? But wait, there’s more! The phone has been exchanged in Japan twice before turning up in Ireland to be bought by a gullible Australian in June. The last time was in April 2017.

So, the phone wasn’t remotely new, spoke a language I didn’t and had been intimate with two others before me! I was shocked, hurt and flabbergasted. Ultimately, I was utterly entertained.

What a story! What a show! I’ll never believe in magic ever again!