Lost Cell Phone--How to Get a New One, Fast?

Sorry to hear this. To get you through tomorrow: have your hotel call a cab to get you to the airport. Do you have the capacity to print out your boarding pass at the hotel, if not you will need to go to the desk at the ticketing counter, show ID and they will print out your boarding pass--unless it's a budget airline and then they will charge you. Before you arrive in your new city, write down the address for your hotel and show it to a taxi driver in the official taxi rank area and check in at your new hotel. If your new phone is waiting for you, great if not go buy a mobile phone with a data plan. It might help to know what country you are headed to after Paris so people can give you specific phone plan ideas.

Believe it or not vacationers used to travel without functioning phones in Europe all the time and some still do!
Good luck.

It's hard to believe that 10 years ago, there were no iPhones. People actually had to resort to paper to remember what they were going to do and when to do it. Ah, technology!!!

As Mona did, I advise taking a cab to the airport tomorrow and then find your way to your lodging at your destination by taking another cab. After that I guess you could just hide under the bedcovers until a new phone arrives.

Thank you so much! Your reply is very helpful and reassuring. I am staying in an AirBnB rental and my hosts are working long hours, so are not available to allow me use of their phone. I do have Skype on my laptop, however, and probably can use that to call a taxi. It is the airports that concern me most but am feeling more assured that this will work out.

I've thought of buying a small cell phone, however, to get by. My replacement phone will not arrive to my hotel in Spain until the 14th of this month.

And, I am traveling alone. In Spain, at least, I can communicate passably in the language. In France, not so much.

By the way, my iPhone was also my camera for this trip.

Any possibllity you can get a replacement at the Apple store in the carousel at the Louvre instead of Verizon sending you one?

@dkhb: If you are from the US, be careful with buying a phone in France because it may not work in the United States.

"Any possibllity you can get a replacement at the Apple store in the carousel at the Louvre instead of Verizon sending you one?"

That's not likely to happen since Verizon doesn't have a corporate presence in France, and their warranty may require a phone supplied from a U.S. source. You'd be dealing with the local networks and I doubt they will honour the warranty from Verizon. If you wanted to buy a new iPhone at the Apple store, you'd likely by paying full price at about €1000!

One other point which is mentioned in the previous reply, is that there are slight differences in the iPhone configurations between each country. The U.S. models may not have all the data frequencies on the European models, and vice versa. There may be slight differences in the voice frequency bands or other parameters also.

A few things you could consider......

• Make one more attempt to contact the Uber driver. If he doesn't respond, submit a blistering review on his performance in this matter to Uber. He may not be an Uber driver too much longer!
• If you must have a phone, you can buy an inexpensive PAYG model at any phone shop. However if you want a model with data, there will be more cost associated with that. Also a smartphone won't have any app's on it, so it may be of limited use.

One other important tip for future reference..... always pack a small P&S camera on future trips. Relying on one device only is a recipe for disaster, as you've found out. At least with a backup camera you'd be able to have a few memories from your trip.

I am amazed and grateful for the responses! Thank you very much.

I've ascertained that there is no point in trying to replace the iPhone here, for the reasons outlined in the last message. Exactly right!

I'm uneducated about what type of phone to buy here and I appreciate the advice given on that subject too. Today I resisted the temptation to buy a new one, opting to wait until I get to Seville. It may be unnecessary there, as the city is not as massive as Paris and I'll not need to navigate as much. I'll see about picking up some kind of camera though! I left my DSLR at home, on purpose.

Cannot imagine a better forum for a traveler in a pickle.

Since you have your computer, you can order a taxi through G7 Taxi, https://www.g7.fr/en/, for your trip to CDG.

Very thoughtful!
To order online, I must have a phone number.
I've just acquired a Skype number to use on my laptop, reactivated my Skype credit, and called G7.
Yay! I have a taxi scheduled!

Ken is right about leaving a bad review for the Uber driver. They live and die by their reviews.
So sorry this happened to you, I'd be lost without my iPhone. I hope you have a great rest of your trip!

Progress. I just received a reply via email saying that they will contact the driver.
They wanted to give him my phone number to call and discuss it directly...hahaha! I don't have a phone and he barely speaks English (at least as important, I barely speak French!). Anyway, At least I'm getting a response from Uber Support now.
FYI, Uber Support also has a Twitter account and, believe me, I've tried that too.

Interesting. The driver indicated that the trip ended at 11:23 PM last night. I have received records from Uber that show I first attempted to contact him at 11:20, and that I provided my host's phone number. I did this again three times over the last 24 hours.
In addition, I provided him with my Skype name and my email address.

You are right that it is unfair to assume (merely because of his unresponsiveness) that the driver has taken the phone, and we may never know. I've not rated him yet. My own rating is shown as an aggregate, and it is five stars.

I still believe Uber is better than a taxi where we know nothing about the driver and no one cares if they provide good, or courteous, service.
I took a taxi in Paris 10 days ago and he took a longer route than was necessary. I pointed it out to him (I speak French) and he was surprised how well I know Paris. He assumed I didn't. It's not the 1st time that's happened to me in Paris in a taxi.
I much prefer Uber.
There could be a valid reason why you haven't heard back from the driver yet.

My son, who just left Apple after 4 yrs for a new job, says you can buy a new iPhone at the Apple store in Paris that is Verizon compatible that will work well in the US. Did not used to be the case, but it is now. I realize the cost is prohibitive though.

dk,

It sounds like you're making some progress with your iPhone issue, and hopefully the Uber driver will find the phone and return it. Even if it's returned to your home address by mail, at least you'd have your photos. Just curious, was your phone locked with a password? If so it will be difficult to resell.

It's good that you're not going to try and replace the phone in Europe. Aside from the prohibitive cost, a European phone may not be fully compatible with the Verizon network. As you can see from this list, there are a wide variety of frequency bands assigned to different phone models and Verizon is in a separate category from other U.S. (GSM only) networks.......

http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

There are different iPhone models for GSM vs CDMA networks. Some functions on Verizon may still use the older CDMA system, and therefore a European GSM phone may not be configured for that.

While a phone purchased in Europe may work on Verizon, it may not be capable of accessing all functions or frequency bands.

Per my son, who just left Apple, and for others who may read this who have lost their iPhone in Europe:

European iPhones are 4/5 the same as US iPhones. It will work, but won't always be as fast as a US model 20% of the time. If you need a smart phone, and can't just use a cheap €30 phone to hold you over, be sure to go to an Apple store and review apple.com/iphone/LTE with them. It's also considerably more expensive to buy Apple products overseas.

CDMA and GSM bands are found in all iPhone models now and have been for years, actually. The issue lies with the band frequencies found in each model-- iPhone 7 launched with something like 96 different part numbers worldwide to cover the different colors, memory capacities, and radio frequencies to cover the world.

Think of it like a radio programed to accept 20 frequencies your carrier (Verizon) uses to connect to your phone. If you buy a phone in Europe made for another carrier (because Verizon doesn't exist), you'll share most of the frequencies but not all. Therefore you'll virtually always have a working phone, but you might not have the fastest 4G LTE connection if you're near a radio tower transmitting a different frequency than your European phone knows.

The ultimate resource is www.apple.com/iphone/LTE

Make sure you go to an Apple store to ensure you get someone who really knows the product and make sure they review that website with you. If they can't explain that website confidently to you, ask for someone who can.

Keep this in mind from Susan's helpful note:

It's also considerably more expensive to buy Apple products overseas.

She's not kidding!

I am sorry you left your phone in the Uber car.. and it is possible that the ride after you found it and kept it.. so I don't think we can assume for sure that the driver found it and kept it..

I just want to reassure you.. it is entirely possible to travel all over , with NO language abilities and without a phone.. I do it all the time. Last years trip was London, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Paris and Amsterdam.. 4 . 5 weeks..

I do get how losing the photos would hurt though!!! That to me would be the worst thing.

And,, you do have your laptop so can access your email and look up info ( how to get to places etc.. then just write down the instructions on paper) . Almost every hotel has brochures with paper maps too.

I would be so tempted to not invest in a new phone in a strange city when under pressure.. they aren't cheap.,, why not make do for next week or two and then buy exactly what you want and need when back home.

Yep. I thought I might buy a little pre-paid phone, the idea of buying an iPhone here having been proved pretty unreasonable. Now that I'm in Seville for a few days, I think I'll get by without it. A few years ago I traveled in rural Mexico (Copper Canyon) with no phone, and no laptop. I just researched and planned a lot ahead of time. Having no phone with which to navigate on this trip has made me nervous, especially since I've not slept much (these problems are incredibly time-consuming). I feel very safe where I am now. Even made the acquaintance of a local woman a little older than I am here in Sevilla tonight. She gave me her contact information. I've an AirBnB host here who has time to be more available to answer questions. And, not inconsequentially, I speak a lot more Spanish than French.

I am trying to look at it this way: I've managed before by charting my path ahead of time. I can do it again. No way of calling Ubers or Taxi's, but I don't feel compelled to rush around anyway.

With some sleep to fortify me, I'll probably be thinking more clearly pretty soon.

By the way, the reason I said I've no way to call for car service is that Skype is down. Microsoft, its parent, is experiencing difficulties.

Ladies and Gentlemen, there is news:
For two days I've had messages from Uber Support saying that the driver claimed not to have my phone. Today is Wednesday and I left it on the back seat of his car on Sunday. And today I have a new message. The driver says he just found my phone. Given that it had a case that would have stood out against the interior of his car...

My reading of this is, relentless pressure has paid off. I contacted Uber via four different approaches: I contacted the driver, I contacted Uber Support in two ways (the link for lost items and the link for problems making a payment), and then via Twitter.

Read it how you will, I really can't see it any other way but that the pressure has paid off. He doesn't want the trouble anymore.

Now I've offered to pay for him to ship it to me in Spain. The communications and payment would have to go through Uber. I'll keep this wonderful forum up to date.

Thanks again,

Me too, MrsEB! Uber Support says the driver will bring it to their office in Paris. They, in turn, will ship it to me via DHL

Every day, a new twist in the drama!

Just received a message from Uber saying that the driver thought the phone he found was mine, but it wasn't.

Judge and jury must find him innocent.

dk,

It's great to hear that your problem is almost resolved. I say "almost" as I wouldn't consider it fully resolved until I had the phone in-hand. Hopefully by the time you read this, DHL will be knocking on your door!

Enjoy the rest of your holiday!

Right? I give up. My new phone will be in Girona when I arrive on the 14th. Meantime, writing down directions before leaving my lodgings and taking scant photos with a disposable camera.