Cell Phone Insurance Question / Strategy

[tuq]

Couldn't find this on search going back a year.

Over the weekend I effed up my cell phone's screen. I have a Nokia 6102i, decent phone. Well, except now the screen is whack because I inadvertently mashed it between two things (a golf ball in my pocket and something else evidently...I think it was the pop-a-shot console at a sports bar, some bitch said he could beat me so I had to throw a few bucks in there to prove him wrong). Bad news, it's functional but bone ugly and unacceptable long-term. I'd take a picture of it to show you but the complication of setting up a series of mirrors to get a picture of my cell phone FROM my cell phone is too much to bear.

Anyway, it's insured. Previously I'd had two insured cell phones replaced - one dropped from three stories and fried the screen, the other had some liquid spilled on it and fried the screen. The insurance people grilled me to make sure I didn't do stuff like drop it from three stories or spill liquid on it but eventually relented and sent me new phones.

This one though is kinda obviously my bad. Has anyone dealt with insurance on this (AT&T/Cingular is my carrier, beat) with a busto screen and did you get your phone back? I also have to go to a Cingular store later today to buy a new charger - left mine in a hotel room...as much as this may imply that I was a shitfaced mess during all of this, I really wasn't, just consecutively stupid. So I'll be at store level and was debating just signing a longer contract to get a newer phone.

I'll Google this too but I'm also interested in specific community experiences, since the average reader of this forum seems to burn through about a phone a month. Thanks.