I am just rebounding from what i can only term as a harrowing experience, my Droid died on a Thursday evening and Verizon Wireless informed me that I could not get a replacment shipped until Monday AM. I was shocked, appalled, and terrifed-how was I going to survive without my communications lifeline.

Okay enough drama.

What I quickly learned is that it is good to keep an old phone handy for times like these. The Verizon Wireless staff member that was assisting me looked up my account history and noticed that I was a longtime Verizon PDA customer. He asked me if I still had my most recently replaced phone (a Windows Mobile edition Samsung i760) to which I answered yes. Problem solved.

He gave me the activation steps required to bring all services online. I went home and charged the old phone, reactivated the service and reconfigured my email. I was back in business until my replacement Droid arrived that Monday.

I missed many of the applications (especially my Social Media apps) I use on my Droid, but in a pinch it was great to get my most important services (email, telephone, and web) operational within hours instead of days. When my new Droid arrived I simply did the same activation steps on the replacement all all of my services were restored.

So my advice to you is don't get rid of your old phone you may be surprised how valuable it can be!