Although Ms. Nugent Lee is certainly more aware than most of this particular drawback of the wireless world, she is hardly alone. And as cell phones become smaller, they are easier to misplace. While there are no readily available statistics indicating how many people lose their phones each year, a Yankee Group survey of 2,900 households with wireless phones last September found that 19 percent had bought cell phones in the last year to replace ones they had lost.
Most wireless providers offer insurance plans to cover loss, theft or damage.
But consumers who have tried to replace lost or stolen phones covered by such plans say they have some drawbacks. But the biggest complaint seems to involve the insurance companies' requirement that customers file police reports for losses or thefts. Those who have made a trip to their local station houses say the police are not always eager to handle this task. Bruce Hawkins of Santa Cruz, Calif., got a similar reaction when he lost his cell phone on a trip to Los Angeles and tried to file a police report. After another phone call to the police in Southern California, Mr. Hawkins finally got a case number to give his insurance company, only to discover that the phone he had lost was not in stock at the time.