Phone charging drama

I have an iPhone. They are infamous for vulnerable charging ports. I already once bought a new one for reasons of port issues. And the new phone also had problems. But when that happened, I moved to wireless pads. That sorted me out for a bit. 

After a while, my Halfords pad started to get connection issues. Unless the cable was in just right, the pad didn’t get power and wouldn’t charge. And even if it did get power, it would complain increasingly often that the phone wasn’t positioned correctly on it. I figured I might need a new one. 

One day, I was in a shop for other reasons, and I saw they sold pads as well. Great! I bought one. But did that solve things? No! I thought a pad would be a pad, but this thing proved they are not created equal. It barely charged anything. 

Before I dragged myself past a suitable shop, I ended up with an almost empty phone, and two pads that wouldn’t charge it. What a faff! So now things became urgent. I wanted to phone people. I wanted to write my blog. I wanted to take pictures. I wanted to do all sorts of things for which I use my phone.

On Monday morning, I made sure to bike past Argos and pick up a new pad. When I got to the office, I got it out of the packaging, hoping to use it straight away. Unfortunately, I hadn't checked whether it was actually compatible with the plug I normally use for that. It wasn't! I am used to charging on USBA but this was USBC. Bummer.

With my phone out of business and my computer still not having dictation software, I could barely get any work done in the office. I had been writing text so far by dictating to my phone, and then transferring the text to my computer. That was not going to work today. So I hadn't been in the office very long, but my best bet was to leave it again. On the way back I biked past Halfords to pick up a plug that can do both USBA and USBC. 

In the shop they handed me the box, with the receipt taped to it. That obscured the front of it. It was only when I got home that I realised they hadn't given me a normal plug, but a car plug. That was not what I wanted! That made me quite grumpy. I considered my options. And I decided to drive to Halfords to get the proper plug. Why am I burning fuel for that? But I didn't want to make the ~1.5 hr round trip on bike. I had more things to do.

The lady at the counter was properly apologetic. And I took the opportunity to pop by a big supermarket for groceries. Soon I was home, finally able to effortlessly charge my phone. I've chucked the first pad away. I might do the same thing with the second one. It only managed to get my phone up to 10% after a full night charging! That's no use. The third pad is just doing what it should do. It might be a while before I start taking that for granted...

The full set of pads