Why is it so hard to get Verizon to offer an alternative phone?

[ILikeColdPizza]

Hello,

I've been lurking this board for a long time, and my Fascinate has had nothing but problems.

1. The phone randomly decides to hit the back button on it's own multiple times, resulting in screencaptures.  This has not been fixed for me no matter what apps I use or how many times I reset my phone.  Have you ever been in a college library and tried to put your phone in standby only to hear the camera shutter noise? Everyone thinks you're creepy and that you're taking pictures of strangers. It's an embarassment.

2. Sometimes when I hit the phone icon it takes me to a black screen. Let me tell you: My cellPHONE will not let me make PHONE calls. This makes the device completely useless. 

3. Sometimes I send texts to about 15 different people to confirm plans for the night, get no response at all. No texts from anybody. I wake up the next morning thinking I did something wrong and ruined relationships until I do a battery pull. Then when it starts back up it SENDS THEM THEN. Then I get a ton of confused friends wondering where I was and why they never heard back from me. 

4. I have 4 different friends with the SAME EXACT ISSUES on this SAME EXACT MODEL of phone.

I am fully updated and I have never rooted this phone.

Why is it so hard for verizon to just send me a refurbished Droid X2 or Incredible 2? It can't cost that much more! 

Please, if any verizon employee sees this I would love if you could help me out. The people I've spoken to on the phone only offered to send me another Fascinate. It's NOT what I need. I have been a Verizon customer for a long time and I'm thoroughly disappointed that you can't help me out by kicking me a refurb of a different model. 

[AnthonyTa_VZW]

Hello ILikeColdPizza!

Sounds like you've gone through a great deal of trouble with your device.  I would like to see if we can get your phone working the way it should.

The manufacturers warranty is a no cost option that replaces the device with the same make and model, considering the device is experiencing an electrical/mechanical defect.  This is what the manufacturers cover under the standard one year warranty.  When your device does not function as intended and is defective, we intern lift this up to the manufacturer to recoup our losses.  This is the reason for the same model exchange policy.  In the meantime, I would like to further troubleshoot your device to ensure we've resolved all the issues you're experiencing.

Have you confirmed your Fascinate is running the most recent software version?  The current version would be i500.EH03, which is Gingerbread.  If not, please update software.  A lot of the issues you are experiencing were resolved in the latest update.  If you are still experiencing issues with your device after updating the software, please let me know so I can go over other options.

[ILikeColdPizza]

I'm on my second Fascinate. This is not an electrical/mechanical defect. This phone is garbage and by just looking at the other posts in this forum you should be able to see all of the negative feedback it has.

My one year warranty is up in the beginning of February and I would like a different model smartphone before then.

I don't care if it's a refurbished Droid X2 or Incredible 2 or a refurbished iPhone 4 even, I just DO NOT want to deal with this horrible phone anymore.

Is there ANY WAY you can make this happen for me?

I get annoyed constantly every single day with the way this phone malfunctions.

I am NOT a happy customer, and my entire family has been with Verizon since 2005. I don't want this phone anymore. That's the bottom line. I never want another Samsung phone as long as I live.

If I can't even get a refurb of an older model Droid X, Incredible 2 or iPhone, then I am going to shop around and check out other carriers. It's absolutely frustrating.

Thank you for your initial reply by the way, and I really hope you don't consider this post rude.

[budone]

This phone worked perfectly for the 14 days you are able to exchange it for a different device, but now it is junk???

Yes you will see negative comments on here about your phone and all others. People don't come here to post how much they LOVE their device.

As for the 15 messages and now ruined relationships..... when you heard nothing, you could not CALL one of those people???? It is excuses like this that makes me believe this is a buyer remorse post.

[ILikeColdPizza]

I'm sorry, but your personal opinions on my posts don't change the fact that this phone doesn't work the way it's supposed to. It also doesn't change the fact that those texts SHOULD go through the first time.

"Why didn't you just CALL?" Uhhhh I payed for a phone that texts and unlimited texting is part of my plan... So why should I HAVE to call to make sure my texts went through?

Oh yeah, and the fact that when I try to bring up the PHONE app, it sometimes goes to a black screen instead.

This phone has NOT worked for me, and I'm sick of it.

Also, problems don't always happen within the first 14 days. 14 days is not nearly long enough to determine whether or not the problems will persist or if new ones will occur.

I understand that as products age that they lose speed sometimes, but update after update and 90% of the issues I'm having aren't fixed yet. That's not right.

[budone]

ILikeColdPizza wrote:

I'm sorry, but your personal opinions on my posts don't change the fact that this phone doesn't work the way it's supposed to. It also doesn't change the fact that those texts SHOULD go through the first time.

"Why didn't you just CALL?" Uhhhh I payed for a phone that texts and unlimited texting is part of my plan... So why should I HAVE to call to make sure my texts went through?  Maybe because none of the 15 people responded to the text concerning plans you had with them. Read the TOS of any Cell company they say texting is not 100% guaranteed, just as there is not phone service 100 % of the time in 100% of the country.

Oh yeah, and the fact that when I try to bring up the PHONE app, it sometimes goes to a black screen instead.

This phone has NOT worked for me, and I'm sick of it.

Also, problems don't always happen within the first 14 days. 14 days is not nearly long enough to determine whether or not the problems will persist or if new ones will occur.

I understand that as products age that they lose speed sometimes, but update after update and 90% of the issues I'm having aren't fixed yet. That's not right.

[Wildman]

Cant agree more Bud....  The level of the complaints over Verizon following the contract that the user signed...   Why is it that so many have the impression that a company should jump through loops for them no matter what the contract says?

Most of the post recently has been attempting to force Verizon to do something that they are not obligated to do, they work with customers to attempt to satisfy the customer but it never seems to be enough anymore..  Amazing.

[B33]

Well Wildman i guess when our new pickup was leaning down in the right front corner from a spring that was a 1/4 off we should've demanded a new truck after we already... bought it... 

[tma08]

I just got fed up with having mine; and was about to buy a droid 3 until they're charging me full price... But I called their customer service and got transferred to the technical support and since the issue is with the phone itself; I'm getting a refurbished version of the same phone. It had better work better or I'm going to be pissed. if it wasn't for the fact that the Droids on amazon or ebay are very unpromising, I wouldn't even bother. But since I have the extended warranty on the phone, I'll get a new fascinate tomorrow by 3 pm EST by FedEx.

My screen continuously froze, messages refused to send until the phone was shut down and turned back on, Last night it disconnected from the 3G network and refused to reconnect until I reset to the factory settings. I've been dealing with it since April and I wouldn't let them tell me 'no' until I got the replacement. Call and bitch them out, you'll eventually get what you want.