Samsung delivers official statement regarding Galaxy S3′s Android 4.3 update issues

[pizzapablo]

My email is lighting up, with reply notices for the threads "Samsung delivers official statement regarding Galaxy S3′s Android 4.3 update issues" and "Samsung GS3 Battery Drain after 4.3 update", but no solutions, just more customer complaints and vzw rep replies, offering silly suggestions or "follow me / follow you / direct message invites.

[SC-Claim]

Add me to the growing angry mob about the battery drain with 4.3 update.

There  are times I can't be near a charger so how am I supposed to depend on  my phone being available when it's needed?  This is simply eff'ing  ridiculous.  You can watch the battery life drain simply by holding the  phone in your hand.  And it takes twice as long to recharge.

As  a comparison, last night my neighbor went out to a restaurant, I have  the S3, he has the S4.  While we were out, we used his phone to browse  the web and to look at several videos.  I used my phone to text my  wife.  After 3 hours, my phone was down to 50% and his was still at  90%.  I'm Verizon, he's on Sprint 4G. 

If you can't make our phones better with updates.....do us all a favor ------------------ DO NOTHING! 

Hurry and fix this defect.

[vzw_customer_support]

Thanks for keeping us posted jadefu! Glad to hear a replacement is on the way. Please update us if any issues arise with your replacement. Have a great afternoon!

MatthewS_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSUPPORT

[vzw_customer_support]

Carleecat1221
We don't want anything to affect your job. I would love to look further into this issue with you. I am going to follow you, if you could follow me back, I will then accept that request. Once we are following each other, please send me a direct message. Hope to hear from you soon.

KevinR_VZW

Please follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[vzw_customer_support]

Reeny1026,  I understand the importance of having the bluetooth working. What I would recommend is to power the bluetooth and the phone off all the way. Once the phone is powered of please pull the back cover from the device, pull out your battery as well as your sim card. Leave everything apart for about 1 minute. Once that minute is up please place the Sim card, battery and back cover back on and power on the cell phone. Once the cell phone is powered up all the way then turn on the bluetooth and try to repair the two. What bluetooth do you have at the moment? I hope to hear back from you once you have tried these steps.

KevinR_VZW

Please follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[aka-neo]

I went into a Verizon store today to discuss options. The rep first acted as if he knew nothing about this 4.3 update issue. Later into our conversation he slipped up confirming he knew about the issues. Once the cat was out of the bag he had a tough time getting back on track. I was offered a refurbished GS3 with no guarantee it would have 4.1.2 on it. I declined as my S3 is in immaculate shape and I did not want a refurbished phone. I checked all of the S3 floor models and oddly enough they all had 4.1.2 on them. Hmmmm.....I wonder why (Unlike 4.3 it works…). My other option was to hop on the new Edge program which was tempting. However, my S3 worked great prior to this update so why should I ditch a 1 year old phone and pay even more for my monthly service? I'm trying to hang tight and hope a fix is rolled out soon. I'm tracking this discussion and my email is blowing up with all of the users posting their issues. It would be nice if someone from Samsung and/or Verizon would come forward and acknowledge the issue and inform us of the next steps. Right now I'm still seeing posts about Factory data resets, turn off settings, reboot, update apps...etc. Most of the time all of those suggestions do nothing. Come clean....admit the issue guys. I'd rather hear the truth than be smoke screened. Bottom line….DO NOT install 4.3 at all costs…if you do you cannot roll back to 4.1.2.

[pizzapablo]

If I were heading to a vzw store, for this, I would print out ALL of the pages from, the threads, here and on other user forums, as well as a google search page with "within the last week" selected.

I'd slap him with it, when he tried to play dumb.

[Steve91313]

Like Rob DeStefano says, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE INSTALL THE ANDROID 4.3 UPDATE. If you do, you will only be hurting yourself.

[Davidoo]

I guess it just depends on the device as someone said earlier.  I have not had any problems, and as you can see I'm getting excellent battery life.  It was actually at 82% as I was getting ready to take the screenshot then I got about a 20 minute call and it lowered to 77% remaining.  For almost 9 hours I would say that is excellent battery life. 

[ExSpectator]

The 4.3 update has turned my previously very nice Samsung Galaxy s3 into a piece of junk.  I get serious lag when trying to wake my phone up from sleep - sometimes it takes a full minute.  Battery is draining faster than it used to.  My flash starts going off when I get text messages.  It is really just a disaster.  How could Verizon have approved this update as is and what are you going to do to fix it??