Sweet, bulging iPhone! Get thee to an Apple Store

We didn’t buy the studio apartment next to us for the closet it included, but the closet was a nice touch. It was clearly designed by someone more interested in their wardrobe than I, but I have put it to good use.

I must admit that there are some drawers which remain empty, and one I didn’t know what to do with. The skinny drawer seen here:

The face of drawers.

Now, I’m sure there’s a particular purpose for this drawer but what it is remains a mystery to me.

Worry not, for I have put it to good use by storing my technological relics:

A Kindle or two.

I had reason to open this drawer the other day to retrieve all my Kindles in order to convince my mother in law that we could spare one (after I piled them all on the table she got the idea).

Whilst I was gathering my Kindles I noticed one of my old iPhones doing that which you never want to see a gadget doing: having its battery bulging in such a manner in which the device itself nearly split in two.

I quickly popped it into a jar and Googled what the heck to do with this dangerous thing. The internet agreed that this was something that should be disposed of at once… but rather divided upon how one should do that.

It was late, so I decided to call Apple in the morning and see if I could just drop it off at the nearby Apple Store and be done with it.

Come next morning, I called Apple. The person on the phone was very nice, but they couldn’t guarantee that the store would dispose of my phone.

I figured I might as well risk it and popped the bulging battery-ed iPhone into a paper bag (offering not much protection) and walked to the Apple Store.

Now, I am not a big fan of the Apple Store but this was my best experience there ever. I walked in, told the first employee I saw I had a phone to recycle. He pointed me to the woman standing next time him. I walked over to her and told her I wanted to recycle a phone. She started asking me some routine questions as I pulled out the iPhone. I told her, “The only issue is that the battery is swelling.”

She took one look, said, “Put that back in the bag, it is scary. The people in the back will dispose of it safely.” I asked if I needed to do anything else and she said no.

I left the phone, with its ever expanding battery, on one of the Apple Store’s very expensive tables and went on my way.

Total time in the store: 3 minutes.

Good job, Apple!


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