While on vacation for Thanksgiving, I accidentally pulled my iPod into the bath. It dried out and everything is operable except for the backlight. I purchased it at Best Buy with a service plan and figured it was time to find out how good their service plan really is - knowing full well the problem is completely my fault and not expecting anything should anyone find out that my iPod got to relax in the bath.

I'm not one for maintaining paperwork. While I know that my receipt and service plan agreement are safely tucked away in the file cabinet from hell, I wasn't in the mood to go digging. True to their word, Best Buy was able to pull up my purchase history and service plans just from my phone number. And in no time flat. Plus points for that.

While I thought had purchased a replacement plan, turns out I had actually purchased a service plan. I seem to recall that when I bought the iPod, the service plan was sold to me as, "The batteries in these die out. Get the service plan and the device gets replaced." In reality, the device gets sent back to Apple for repair and could be replaced at Apple's discretion. Minus points for that. The customer service rep kindly directed me to the Geek Squad.

So send in my iPod I did. Armed with my service contract number provided by the customer service rep, a Geek Squad representative took down my vital information, took my iPod and handed me a receipt. I could expect to see it again in about two weeks.

My good friend Dan informed me that most electronic devices have a little piece of white paper in them that turns red when exposed to liquid - starting at a light pink for little exposure all the way up to a crimson blood red for the most grievous of mistakes: allowing your electronic device to become completely submerged in water. Apparently we have a joint friend who can demonstrate this little "feature" across a number of Audiovox SMT5600 smartphones he has owned. I really don't what to know what kind of liquid is responsible for all of his "issues."

Today I got a call back from Best Buy, who was passing along the word from Apple that the device was subjected to "liquid damage" and is being returned "as is." About what I expected, but still nice to know that my iPod ran the gauntlet and Best Buy's claim of being able to always locate my service information is indeed true. Unfortunately, knowing that it was subjected to liquid damage I'm pretty certain the service contract is useless at this point.