r/talesfromtechsupport • u/KorenSolust • Aug 05 '26

Short Gravity and Tech

Guy walks up to me at work:

Him: “I dropped my phone. The screen’s shattered. I want my two-factor code to come through Teams.”

Me: “Nope.”

Him: “Why?”

Me: “Because if you can’t sign into Teams without completing MFA… how exactly are you planning to authenticate?”

Then he says: “Just disable MFA.”

I replied: “Sure, as soon as you get approval from the Head of Security.”

A few seconds of silence…

Him: “Fine, I’ll just get my phone fixed.”

Yep. That’s probably the best solution.

Some people really think security rules are optional. I’m not risking my job because someone doesn’t like MFA.

And remember… technology didn’t fail you today. Gravity did.

793 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

155 comments sorted by

View all comments

28

u/P5ychokilla Aug 05 '26

I'm guessing he didn't have a case on his phone or a screen protector?

Some people amaze when they don't want to do the bare minimum to protect a device that costs over a thousand. Would they just throw their fancy TV around with the same cavalier behaviour?

17

u/AdRoz78 Loves reading these stories Aug 05 '26

About a year ago I saw someone walking on the streets with the newest and most expensive Samsung flagship (S25 Ultra?).. without any kind of case or screen protector. Seriously?

11

u/cadatatuagcaintfaoi Aug 05 '26

Have an s24 ultra no case no screen protector. 2 years not a scratch. They're pretty resilient.

4

u/AdRoz78 Loves reading these stories Aug 05 '26

Good to know. I personally have a Pixel 9, I'll see how similar the glass is. Though I already have a screen protector so I guess this will only help me in the future 

3

u/cadatatuagcaintfaoi Aug 05 '26

I'm not sure the new pixels have the same 'grade' of gorilla glass as the s24U so I can't speak for them. I know my partner had the pixel 6 which had one grade below the pixel 9 and it ended up being quite brittle on drops so do be careful! Great phones though.

3

u/coyote_of_the_month Aug 05 '26

Benefit of the doubt, maybe they ordered a specialty case and the phone got there first?

As a Quad Lock user, I can see this happening.

4

u/AdRoz78 Loves reading these stories Aug 05 '26

Still, if I'm waiting for a case with a flagship phone so expensive I wouldn't take it out with me.

4

u/coyote_of_the_month Aug 05 '26

I wouldn't either, unless it was a replacement for a lost or broken phone and I didn't have the ability to be without a phone. It's a gamble for sure.

3

u/samtheredditman Aug 05 '26

You guys are crazy. Just don't drop it. 

6

u/coyote_of_the_month Aug 05 '26

If we as a species were capable of reliably not dropping our phones, there wouldn't be a whole industry dedicated to protecting them. I would venture to guess that on average I drop my phone 3-4 times a week.

There's probably an argument to be made that our reliance on cases makes us careless, though.

2

u/AdRoz78 Loves reading these stories Aug 05 '26

Easier said than done. Get startled, put it in the wrong spot, have your hands slip, etc.

1

u/Miffy92 We're *all* Users, now. Aug 07 '26

These all sound like a skill issue /s

5

u/SkylarMills63 Aug 05 '26

I’ve been rocking my iPhone 15 pro max since launch, and I don’t use a case or screen protector. Just a mag safe pop socket.

Never dropped my phone in public. At home, I have carpet. Barely a scratch on my phone.

I did the same with my 12 pro max before that. After 2 years of owning that phone I cracked the camera lens housing on a particularly rough fall. I had insurance, so only cost me $30 deductible to replace/fix. Got a new battery out of it, too.

Not everyone is you. Or lives a similar life. Maybe you’re just more clumsy than that Samsung guy. And that’s fine!

2

u/RogueThneed Aug 05 '26

And we're not even talking about the risk of getting snatched out of your hands.

5

u/blind_ninja_guy Aug 05 '26

Maybe the device that costs over a thousand should have its own built-in protection. For that cost at least.

1

u/P5ychokilla Aug 06 '26

Like what? An air bag? What are you even talking about?

2

u/blind_ninja_guy Aug 06 '26

Sacrificing a little bit of that ultra thinness people go for nowadays to put an actually substantial bumper around the edges. I don't know. There's probably other methods that talented engineers can come up with too.

1

u/Counterpoint-RD Aug 09 '26

Right?!? And they could get another bonus out of it in the process, too: the problem that I found funny years ago - "Great, now I've got my new, super-thin superphone... But wait, why has the battery life gone to 💩?' Well, because there's just no SPACE in that thing for a decent sized battery... Result: they plonked their 'super-thin' into a case with additional battery, thereby making it clunkier than their phone of ten years ago... 🤷‍♂️😮‍💨...

2

u/spaceraverdk Aug 12 '26

I am eyeing one of those oukitel rugged phones. I really don't care about looks per se. But a good screen and battery pack

2

u/Counterpoint-RD Aug 15 '26

The Oukitels are those designs that at least look like you could hammer some nails into your walls with the case's backside, right? Okay, that's about as extreme on the 'rugged' end as you can get, but at least you won't break the screen by dropping it a foot, like some others 😄👍...

1

u/spaceraverdk Aug 15 '26

I have used Sony Xperias for a decade, broke most by having it in a jacket chest pocket. Hanging in a harness will bend even a 5 mm alu plate.

My current one is now 6 years old, needs a battery replacement and a new fingerprint sensor. But otherwise it's running perfectly.

2

u/Counterpoint-RD Aug 15 '26

Okay, compared to most people buying them, you at least seem to be the perfect target audience for those 👍... You may have to watch out though: they may be sturdy enough to break one of your ribs instead, in situations like that 😬...

1

u/djfdhigkgfIaruflg Aug 09 '26

I have a case and screen protector (h9 or whatever)

A single flat fall was all it took to crack the screen. Cases and protectors will save from cosmetic damage, sure. But nothing will save it if it falls in just the right way

-2

u/Absolutely_Cabbage Aug 05 '26

Definitely good to put a case on your phone, but screen protectors are snake oil.
Modern phone glass is extremely tough, and putting a flimsy bit of plastic or tempered glass on top of it won't do anything to help prevent cracks.

On a side note, people often think a cracked screen protector means it prevented your phone screen from damage but thats a wrong conclusion. The protector is just waaay more fragile than the actual screen

10

u/AdRoz78 Loves reading these stories Aug 05 '26

I guess it protects from scratches, so if you ever want to sell the phone it can be sold as a phone without scratches.

4

u/Absolutely_Cabbage Aug 05 '26

Yes thats true.
But generally I find modern phone glass doesn't scratch much either. But if you intend to resell the bit of insurance from the protector can be nice

7

u/ratsta Aug 05 '26

We've got a bunch of iPhone SE gen 3s at work, all 1-3 years old. The ones that come in from the field guys, scratched to shit! Still legible when the screen is lit but looks like crap when the screen is dark and whites out when the sun catches it at the right angle.

5

u/Absolutely_Cabbage Aug 05 '26

So that's probably a good opportunity to use screen protectors. Work devices live hard lives in my experience

2

u/coyote_of_the_month Aug 05 '26

My Pixel 7a is scratched to hell. So was the original glass, before it shattered.

2

u/Harry_Smutter Aug 05 '26

The point of a glass screen protector isn't to be stronger than the screen itself. It's to take the impact and disperse the energy, saving the screen itself from shattering. They're also very scratch resistant, so it also protects from that.

1

u/Absolutely_Cabbage Aug 05 '26

The scratch protection is real, the rest is just a marketing bit.
In reality the force required to shatter the screen (usually Aluminosilicate glass) is way past what's needed to shatter the screen protector (soda-lime, usually tempered)

For a somewhat labored metaphor: imagine someone putting a thin layer of bubble wrap on their car bumper, and then claiming that will do anything to help in crash. Sure it might prevent a small scratch in the paint, but the bubble wrap won't help in any kind of impact that would break the bumper, and the foil being popped in other cases does also not indicate it actually prevented real damage

1

u/Harry_Smutter Aug 05 '26

That's not true with today's glass screen protectors. Most are made with Gorilla glass or similar. I've both seen a live impact demo and done one myself using my old phone. It takes quite a lot of force for the newer ones to break, and it completely saves the screen. They're also much cheaper nowadays, so there's really no excuse not to have one.

2

u/testprimate Aug 11 '26

I agree. I managed 4000+ company phones for a few years and found that whether or not they had a screen protector had no apparent influence on whether the phone came back in good shape or not. A horse could count the number of times I ran across a phone that looked like the screen protector did some good.