It would be interesting to have a breakdown by manufuacturer and type.

I bet phones with short battery life and cr*p user interfaces would top the list.

"Someone is running 116,000 handsets though the wash every year"

You'd have thought they'd learn after the first time...

Back in the day, I had a Motorola MR1 on Orange when they first came out. That was utterly indestructable. I don't think a toilet would have harmed it one little bit.

If the phones have the words motorola or siemens stamped on the front then they deserve to be in the bog

Is so old and pikey that people often shout after me if I leave it in a pub.

"Oi mate, you've left your shit phone!"

My phone didn't hold up to a dive to 60 feet for 25 minutes (although the SIM worked just fine). I didn't have insurance. My wife's phone fell off her pocket (you wouldn't believe how insecurely she has it). First was uninsured, cost me $100. Second was insured, cost me $50 for a deductible. Insurance is $5 a month. I paid it for 18 months. We were eligible for new phones but oh no, she wanted the same phone. We can afford it, so I'm dumping the insurance. Silly me.

Now she has Blue Tooth and backs her phone up on a regular basis, since she won't put every thing on her SIM. Which also means the next phone will have to be a Moto.

"Someone is running 116,000 handsets though the wash every year"

Sounds like other people have a misses like mine, 2 x phones went this way this year already...

I remember when i dropped my Nokia 952? in a 10L paint bucket... still worked afterwards!! they dont make them like they used to

i dropped my old nokia 5110 out of a 2nd story window (don't ask) which bounced off a roof gutter, hit the pavement and slid into a muddy puddle. Still works to this day. (no its not still my current phone :) )

Ah ... so I am not alone when my Nokia 1100 decided to do the triple-jump of death into the (recently flushed) loo.

Funny thing is, the thing still worked (mostly), but the ringer no longer worked. Then some repair guy lost the screws while "cleaning" it, so the vibrator would not work (and occasionally, my phone would fall into many pieces). Sad thing is, I had just got it repaired for free (girlfriend worked at a Nokia stand) and had even got a firmware update... the phone was failing constantly and unable to initiate or receive calls. I enjoyed like 1 week of crystal-clear calls until then.

Though my first Ericcson (ca. 1996) was much better. That one fell countless times, and almost got crushed by the subway once (don't ask).

Old Alcatel phones were built like tanks. They may have been horrendously bad (The menu item labelled "Do you want to deactivate the alarm telephone off" is a good example), but you just couldn't kill them. I left mine in my pocket while out in a storm, getting absolutely soaked. I then went out into the sea to bring a boat in. The phone was soaked through. A high-pressure hose-out and hairdryer later, and it started ringing with a job offer. I took the job and the phone lasted me another three months until the battery conked out.

My Nokia 1100 that I replaced it with went through the washing machine once. It appeared dead, so I left it to gather dust and bought the 6630 that I'd been promising myself. On the off chance, I put the 6630's battery in the old phone, and lo and behold, IT WORKED!

We used to have Motorola Timeport (Company) phones and when they stopped working (usually a daily occurrence) the only way of making them work was to throw them on the floor. The WORST phone I have ever used!

As for Siemens - why would anyone in their right mind buy Siemens?