Turns out that the reason my BlackBerry 7520 can no longer take a charge is because I was a bit too rough on it.

I had suspected this- rather than a battle-fatigued BlackBerry battery - was the case.

As they told me at the shop yesterday (Communications Northwest), they see this a lot from customers who either push the charger into the USB port too hard, or yank it out with too much force.

I can't say which I did for sure, but tracing the problem, I think I can map it back to when I was packing to leave my San Diego hotel room last week, and yanked the charger out of my BlackBerry a bit too quickly and forcefully.

When I did that, one of the pins inside the USB port apparently got unsoldered (or is that de-soldered)?

The techs at the shop said they see this fairly often. Small comfort, because I am supposed to know about this stuff, and follow the finer points of BlackBerry care.

Fine example I set.

Now I gotta pay $35 for a new BlackBerry that the store should get tomorrow.

That I can handle, but then I got to call RIM and get them to transfer my stored messages to my replacement device.

One which I vow before all of y'all that I will treat gently.

I'll let you know how the BlackBerry replacement procedure goes.

Only because it can happen to you, too.