Droid Rant

[Blue Hasia]

ok I am now on my 5th droid (Motorola) each phone i have been giving have been all having the same problems;

-1/3 of phone calls dont make a ring sound
-all icons disappear on the 3 home screen and need to reboot phone to get them to reappear
-my unlock screen gets distorted and i cant unlock the phone
- the call log history has wrong dates when the call was made
-screen goes black while i am using the phone
-icons get oriented in the wrong directions
-alarm clock does not work all the time
-pressing the stand by button doesn't put it in stand by some times.



this are most of the problems i have bee having with my driod phone a few others also. but I am now on my 5th one with Verizon and im about to go back and exchange for another...im sick of tired of getting the same broken phone I keep asking to trade for another phone but they will not let me.

I have been very patience with Verizon playing their games with the 5 exchanges, even with one new phone they gave i was told since i downloaded a few 3rd party apps like Pandora that they were blaming all my problems on that...they even called google made apps thrid party. how can they call google made stuff on a google made OS 3rd party! so what i did with one of the phones i got i never downloaded a single app at all, when i came into the store with my problems again they started saying "well we dont support 3rd party apps" i had to cut her off and show her i had no apps installed.

im at the point here if they refuse to let me exchange for another phone when i go into the store tomorrow i am thinking of taking them to small claims court to get my refund back I need a phone that can make an audible ring 100% of the time or i lose customers


grr so frustrated! what am I to do.....is taking them to small claims court my only option for a refund?

[lightning claw]

Well blue i would not own that type of phone if you payed me !

hears why

Every app you access every sight you view every credit card transaction creates a log file that the government has been known to obtain with out your knowing it A and B If a hacker where to get a hold of that device your life would be totaled.

[Akrion]

Well blue i would not own that type of phone if you payed me !

hears why

Every app you access every sight you view every credit card transaction creates a log file that the government has been known to obtain with out your knowing it A and B If a hacker where to get a hold of that device your life would be totaled.

That isn't very different from the internet. :P

[Steelclaw]

Be aware of the Magnuson-Moss Act. While this may not specifically apply to your case, it's good to keep in mind anyway. Basically, a warranty can't be voided or denied simply because you used 3rd party or aftermarket products or add-ons. The manufacturer or whoever has to support the warranty needs to prove that said 3rd party or aftermarket add-on caused the specific damage you are trying to get covered under the warranty.

I think the problems you described are known issues with early Android-based phones, so unless you get something new, you're going to have the same problem if the OS version stays the same.

Me, I'd get an unlocked phone that is known to be reliable and sign up with a carrier of my choice. For early termination fees, make enough trouble and they might be willing to negotiate a decrease or even waive them.

Finally, if you're going to take them to small claims, don't threaten to sue. That will make getting any sort of support or negotiation extremely difficult or impossible should you decide not to.

[Blue Hasia]

Finally, if you're going to take them to small claims, don't threaten to sue. That will make getting any sort of support or negotiation extremely difficult or impossible should you decide not to.

I have never done anything to threaten them every time I have gone in I have played things by their rule and have been agreeable with them, if they dont let me trade today ill take a new phone, but i will not menchen the small claims court until I file for it......6 broken phones is enough. all I want is a different phone I dont want to sue I just want my refund to buy a new phone

[Blue Hasia]

oh as an update me and the Verizon manger we both came to terms that we agreed upon. I was allowed an early upgrade and got 50% off all accessories at the store in a one time purchase spree.

I upgraded to the droid x and saved 100$ on accessories

[Dhalin]

I've seen these phones advertised on TV and such, and then a co-worker showed up with one.

Me and her got into talking about it and when it came to light that she spends a large amount of money (I forget what she said, $80/mo? $60/mo?) on her service, I was like "Woah... that's ridiculous".

She swears by the phone, but honestly, there's no way I'd ever pay that much for a mobile phone, even if I did frequently use phones like that (I don't).

These sorts of problems are fairly common to a new technology (like these "android" phones) which is all the more reason why I'd rather not touch it until it is more refined. That, and things are more expensive when they first come out.

My motto has always been "wait awhile, they will refine it and it will be cheaper".

A phone like that could be kinda cool, but just not worth it IMO. My older (but reliable) tracfone works perfectly fine for my needs, lol. Now, if only I could figure out why it doesn't want to turn on half of the time, that'd be nice. It seems you have to press and hold the "PWR/OFF" button for 2-4 seconds. Pressing it quickly doesn't seem to work, and holding the button in too long doesn't work either. Annoying to say the least. Otherwise, the phone does exactly what I need it to do and is a heck of a lot cheaper.

[Nidhoggr]

I pay 100USD/month... Blackberry and Verizon Wireless *runs off*

*sneaks back* thats the unlimited plan (internet and text) with 450 minutes.

They were demo-ing a HTC Android based phone and it crashed and they could get it to work again. I had already decided on a blackberry, but this Android hype is almost as bad as the Apple I-phone hype.

Blackberries are definitely not the most reliable phone either, but they have a lot of features (email) that I like. I also prefer interface and styling.

***

Now if Verizon only had 3G coverage in the area I work.

[Dhalin]

I pay 100USD/month... Blackberry and Verizon Wireless *runs off*

*sneaks back* thats the unlimited plan (internet and text) with 450 minutes.

$100USD/mo...

That's just out of this world. I think of it like this:

My internet is ~$50 per month, for unlimited transfer 300k/sec Phoneline DSL. I'm paying $30 for Istaria, and roughly $12 for WoW. That all comes out to $92/mo. I _was_ paying $15 for FFXI, but I plan on dropping that as I've given up on that game, and I might ponder FF14 when it comes out, depending on how exactly they handle the game. That would bump it up to $107/mo.

I couldn't imagine paying more for a phone than I do all of my internet hobbies combined.

[Nidhoggr]

Yea its expensive, but better than AT&T now since they dropped "unlimited" data plans for non-grandfather's accounts.

300kbps or 300KBps?

Well, I shouldn't be saying anything. I pay 69.00/month for 1.1mbps/768kbps WISP Internet. ****, rural area... I could get 15mbps/5mbps fios for that price or almost any cable package.

[Dhalin]

Yea its expensive, but better than AT&T now since they dropped "unlimited" data plans for non-grandfather's accounts.

300kbps or 300KBps?

Well, I shouldn't be saying anything. I pay 69.00/month for 1.1mbps/768kbps WISP Internet. ****, rural area... I could get 15mbps/5mbps fios for that price or almost any cable package.

300 Kilobytes, not bits.

As in, the number you see when you download stuff on the internet. hehe.

And yeah, living in a rural area sucks as far as internet goes... I wouldn't mind having fios myself.

The only thing with my DSL, though, is that I am borderline on distance from my server. In the summer, they told me that heat makes the copper inside the lines expand just slightly which extends the distance between my house and the server I "dial" into, which causes some stability issues, so I normally drop it down to 150k during the summer, and then when the weather cools down, I ask em to increase it to 300k.

[Riaken]

I miss the time when pagers were the shiznit.

[Dhalin]

I miss the time when pagers were the shiznit.

Dude, I remember when cellphones were kinda bleh, only a few people (wealthy businessmen) used them, and when texting was much harder due to the lack of alphabet keys, so people only did it when it was necessary.

Now, people have phones glued to their ears 90% of their waking time and it is just Ugh.

I work as a cashier on some days RL, and nearly half of all people that come through my line have a phone glued to their ears, or they have kids texting on the stupid things... I don't want to sound like the old grandpa on the rocking chair, but honestly, I think it is going too far.

I, and hundreds of people like me, got along just fine without having to communicate with 10+ people every 5 minutes, and never felt the need to tell the entire world what I'm up to every 10 minutes on Facebook, et. al.

And don't _even_ get me started with Cellphones and Cars.... I can only hope and pray they start getting _much_ stricter with those laws. Around here, it is already illegal to be using a cellphone and driving without a headset... I think they need to go the extra mile and not even allow that, as studies show that even headsets are too distracting.

[velveeta]

bah, i am so old i remember when only drug dealers and doctors had anything that could contact them at almost a moment's notice......
remember car phones? remember when they were as big as today's sat phones? watch an old tv show (early 90s is prolly old to most of you!! ) like 'the sentinel' to see!!

[walkerglassmire]

bah, i am so old i remember when only drug dealers and doctors had anything that could contact them at almost a moment's notice......
remember car phones? remember when they were as big as today's sat phones? watch an old tv show (early 90s is prolly old to most of you!! ) like 'the sentinel' to see!!

Or Leathal Weapon 1. When Danny Golver is talking on the briefcase cell phone on the bridge overpass.

[Glaciera]

bah, i am so old i remember when only drug dealers and doctors had anything that could contact them at almost a moment's notice......
remember car phones? remember when they were as big as today's sat phones? watch an old tv show (early 90s is prolly old to most of you!! ) like 'the sentinel' to see!!

I'm a geezer too. *shakes cane* I also remember when pagers were "cutting edge".

I have one of those no contract pay as you go type things from Virgin Mobile. I pay 21 dollars, US, per month for something like 200 rollover minutes, and I have nearly a year's worth of minutes banked since I only use the thing for calling a cab, or emergencies.

[Dhalin]

I'm a geezer too. *shakes cane* I also remember when pagers were "cutting edge".

I have one of those no contract pay as you go type things from Virgin Mobile. I pay 21 dollars, US, per month for something like 200 rollover minutes, and I have nearly a year's worth of minutes banked since I only use the thing for calling a cab, or emergencies.

The same reason I use a Tracfone.

I pay roughly $80 per year for 360 days of airtime service and since my phone came with a double minutes for life card, I also get 480 minutes with that $80. I've owned the phone for exactly a year (I just put another year's airtime service on it) and I have ~1300 minutes banked on it. I only use it to call in food orders while shopping, calling home from work now and then, and I keep it in the car for emergencies, etc.

[Spirit]

I still see that mobile phone contracts over there are over-priced... some of the figures I see are bananas. I'm paying £35 for 600 minutes and 700mb internet per month. I've never got near either limit even though youtube is used a lot. I could probably, and really should, change to the £25pcm one to cover what I use.

To be honest... I would never have gotten to 6 different phones. I would have kicked off and switched to another OS and give Android more time. I'm sure it'll be great, with the right implementation? You mention Droid X ... I guess that's it?

While I like how the iphone works, I've never gone beyond a simple ipod touch as I wanted control of everything that's on my phone so I can fiddle to my hearts content. I'm presently using an HTC HD2 (apparently Android version on the way?) ... running Windows Mobile with HTC Sense on top of it. Most of the time it's alright, but heavens forbid if you have to delve into any of the WM settings...

I also like that I can put whatever software I want on it, without having to go to any online store (itunes, etc...). I can slap whatever videos I want straight off my pc and play them with Coreplayer. While there are not many recent games for it, there are some good ones (Doom RPG for instance).

The *least* problems I had with any mobile phone platform was with Symbian, used by the Nokia N95, E90 and others... absolutely solid ... designed as a phone, and anything else added was designed to fit around that and not upset it. Even the Copilot satnav software I've installed on it keeps tabs on the phone status and will integrate with sms and calls. If I'm abroad I can set one quick option to stop the phone from ever using data. i.e. using wlan for internet, wlan connection drops, so your browsing stops working.

Compare this to Win Mobile... using wlan for internet/email/youtube, wlan drops for some reason, 3G connection fires up straight away and runs up ££'s of data charges very quickly before you can stop it. You can't stop it using 3G data unless you break the settings!!! Stupid... and Satnav software goes bananas if someone calls you while it's running... any full screen app, like a game, won't release the screen focus if a call arrives ... so the phone is ringing, but you can't use the touch screen to answer the call because the screen is covered in your app. It behaves like the phone part was the last thing they added to WM, and as such the quality shows.

Barring the new version of Android that I've not used, I can only recommend a phone with Symbian. If you want a good working phone, that happens to do other stuff too, it's hard to beat.

Good luck!

Rakku