Thunderbolt is CRAP!
scrappy9074
Newbie

I went to our local VZW store to review the new phones to decide on a new smart phone.  I talked to the very helpful and unusually knowledgeable sales rep about the differences between the Droid X and the Thunderbolt, which hadn't been released yet.  I decided on the Droid X as there were a lot of unanswered questions about the TBolt and the sales rep told me that if I wanted to exchange the phones when the TBolt came out it would not be a problem.  A week later, I went back to the VZW store to take a look at the TBolt.  Unfortunately, I spoke to another sales rep.  It was discovered that the phones supposedly are the exact same except the amount of memory in the Tbolt, the second camera, and the 4G access.  I decided to exchange the phone. 

 

The unspoken:

The Tbolt is not the exact same phone with upgrades.  It does not operate the exact same.  Now I have a laundry list of problems with the phone.  I called the VZW store I exchanged the phones through, and asked them to go back to the old phone.  They told me I was out of luck, despite none of the four associates who set up the phone telling me there was no way back.  I talked to VZW National Customer service who pretty much told me the same thing.  You can't go back, despite the fact that I now have a phone I absolutely hate.  VZW has released this phone with all of these issues, to include lack of support for their own Verizon V Cast Media Manager and Verizon's mobile app.  How is it possible that they could introduce a phone with a total lack of technical and software support.  Even better was that information was conveniently omitted during my transaction otherwise I would have stuck with the phone I knew I liked. 

 

The problems:

The car dock is cheap and it requires a "hammer" to get the phone in, and a "pry bar" to get it out.  Once you exit out of the car dock app to access other apps on the phone, you can't re engage without muscling it out of the dock and back in.  The auto rotate feature has stopped functioning for the home screens.  When I plug the usb cable into the computer to link the two devices, everything freaks out and locks up.  I get several drive error messages, and VZW Media Manager doesn't recognize the phone as a Tbolt, instead it shows up as an Incredible.  The headphone jack is touchy, sometimes it plays in stereo, sometimes not.  When I finally got the computer and phone to communicate, it duplicated everything several times, so what started as about a hundred pictures turned into 600.  The weather widget gives me the weather for several surrounding cities as the current location.

 

Overall, if you have the ability to stay away from this piece of junk, pick something else.  4G isn't as great as everybody says, and VZW isn't anywhere close to getting that network fully up and running.  There are several phones on the market that function much better and have much better support.  This is the second time VZW reps have talked me into a phone I hate, and I will seriously be considering a carrier change after several loyal years with them. 

 

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Re: Thunderbolt is CRAP!
AZSALUKI
Legend

sorry for your experience. in the future i would suggest coming to these forums before you buy anything. most of the peole on these forums can tell you more pertinent info than a sales rep. the motorola and HTC have entirely different user interfaces so they will never be essentially the same device. the tbolt is made by htc and the X is a motorola. they are simply different in many ways. you are allowed one exchange for a new and different device. the reason they do this is because as soon as you returned your X, they were stuck using it as a used device. if they allowed more than one exchange we would all simply "test drive" a bunch of different devices and they'd be stuck having to sell them as used. however, if the tbolt you have is legitimately faulty, the will replace it with another one. i'm not that familiar with the new UI that the tbolt uses, but on the other HTC's the home screens have never switched to a portrait view.

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Re: Thunderbolt is CRAP!
scrappy9074
Newbie

I can understand the "test drive" theory, however, I exchanged the phone on a Saturday afternoon, and I called to get them to change back to the X I turned in on Sunday morning.  They still had it in store, as it had been less than twenty four hours since the exchange.  Either way, they were getting only one phone back as "used."  Whether they had a used Thunderbolt or a used Droid X seems unimportant.

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Re: Thunderbolt is CRAP!
AZSALUKI
Legend

yeah....they really should've warned you before you traded the X for the tbolt that you would not be able to make another exchange. the problem with a big corporation is that even if your actual X hadn't left the store, they aren't like a mom and pop place that can use rational, logical, methods. they have their procedures and as soon as the X was brought back in it was part of a GIANT inventory of used devices. if the tbolt is faulty, then exchange it. however, being an HTC user, i can tell you that the user interface on htc's are superior to motorolas. if you wander around these forums and other android forums, you'll find that HTC sense is favored over motorola's blur. of course, it's just a preference, but from what i've seen, Sense is the preferred UI. the problem with getting anything first is that you're somwhat of a guinea pig. i suspect though, in a few months you'll be happy with your decision. a year from now the tbolt will still be relevant and the X will be almost 2 years old and less relevant. i think you'll also be happy to have 4g once it's running smoother. not to mention the fact that you got in when it's still $30 for unlimited 4g. that' will be gone in the near furutre in my opinion.

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Re: Thunderbolt is CRAP!
PJNC284
Master - Level 2

yeah, no two android phones are the same (even from the same manufacturer). You should've been able to tell they weren't the same by just looking at them in the store.  Don't blame Verizon for you trying to exchange for the latest and greatest.

 

The car dock is cheap and it requires a "hammer" to get the phone in, and a "pry bar" to get it out.  Once you exit out of the car dock app to access other apps on the phone, you can't re engage without muscling it out of the dock and back in.

Can't comment that since I don't own the car dock as I consider those just a waste of money imo since it most likely can't be used with your next device.  I'll most likely get one of the universal mounts (http://www.arkon.com/megagrip/Motorola_Droid_X_Mount.html) or might try something new like http://www.tetrax.com/us/products/xway-line and just use one of the car dock apps in the market.


The auto rotate feature has stopped functioning for the home screens. 

Auto rotate doesn't work on the home screen or app drawer (unless you're using a 3rd party launcher. 

 
When I plug the usb cable into the computer to link the two devices, everything freaks out and locks up.  I get several drive error messages, and VZW Media Manager doesn't recognize the phone as a Tbolt, instead it shows up as an Incredible.

What OS are you using?  I have Windows 7 x64 and the drivers installed when I plugged in the phone and it was everything was immediately recognized other than "adb" which most people won't use.   As for the VZW bloatware, I'd ditch it.  Just connect the Thunderbolt, choose Disk Drive from the pull down and drag/drop.  No need for additional software.  

 

The headphone jack is touchy, sometimes it plays in stereo, sometimes not.  

No issues here.  Maybe you have a defective headset jack or something with the headphones you have.

 

The weather widget gives me the weather for several surrounding cities as the current location

Do you have Standalone GPS enabled in the settings? My weather is spot on.  

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Re: Thunderbolt is CRAP!
alfieferenzo84

amen to this

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Re: Thunderbolt is CRAP!
RobB772
Contributor - Level 3

This is my first smartphone of any kind:smileytongue:

 

I had a similar weather problem.... Mine displayed the weather for Northwest Comanche even though I'm in Rochester NY (no where near Oklahoma) I tried everything I could think of ( toggled all 3 location services in all 9 combinations, cleared data  and forced close of weather app, uninstalled / reinstalled weather widget) It only changed the display from Northwest Comanche (current... to just "Current Location" (I could add Rochester NY as a city but not make it the default)... The values shown were similar to the Northwest Comanche values 71 deg / partly sunny but obviously not Rochester NY values 37 deg / rainy. :smileymad:

 

I gave up and went to Verizon store and when the first tech was stumped he handed off to another tech....He uninstalled the stock weather app and downloaded/ installed Weatherbug (free) from the market. Walla!!!!! I now have current temp (located on the left side of notification bar) and if I pull down the bar and touch the Rochester weather I get all kind of options to view ( extended forecast, Doppler ...) He also loaded a smaller clock which gives me more room on the home page:smileywink:

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Re: Thunderbolt is CRAP!
blondie576
Enthusiast - Level 2

As far as the weather widget.  Mine has only located me in my hometown twice since I owned it.  I have had it for 2 months now.  Two weeks ago, I went to bed in Panama City Beach and woke up in Kentucky.  I was actually in a camper but I don't think it moved during the night.  I have all 3 GPS locators enabled.  This has been an issue since day one and no one seems to have a fix.  Last Tuesday, I really was in Alabaster, Al.  Two hours later while heading home I looked and was in Mexico City. 

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Re: Thunderbolt is CRAP!
kballard72
Enthusiast - Level 2

On the GPS issue go get GPS STATUS from the market.

 

Load it, open it, 

 

Goto MENU - TOOLS - MANAGE A-GPS STATE - Reset

Goto Menu TOOLS - MANAGE A-GPS STATE - Download

 

You will see it lock onto satellites much faster, plus as being an avid GPS user it is nice to have this app and know what the ERROR margin is in meters when geocaching, so I have an idea is my search radius in 10 feet or 20, etc...

 

Sinc eloading this app thoough, Maps, Navigator, etc... lock in much fastor. 

 

 

I AGREE HOWEVER THIS PHONE SHOULD NOT BE ON THE SHELF, IT WAS NOT READY FOR PRODUCTION. 

 

Some STUPID things were allowed to hit production. How about that USB jack on the same side as where you need to rest the phone if you use the kickstand. 

 


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Re: Thunderbolt is CRAP!
gina7289
Contributor - Level 2
The update now will fix some of these things like the weather. Hotspot . Connection issues. My Verizon app. Vcast apps etc. I use the kickstand and charge. I use it a lot.
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