I struggled with this for a long time. No charging. Cycling from charging to not charging with the phone untouched. Reporting a full charge but finding almost no charge when unplugged. It was all very annoying. Neither of my partners with the same phone had the problem.
I bought anew charger. I cleaned the connector of all lint. I bent the connector slightly for better contact. I finally purchased an extended capacity battery and an external charger because I couldn't rely on USB charging. Some of these fixes seemed to work temporarily, but the problem always re-appeared. I had come to the conclusion that there was probably an internal mechanical defect that caused an intermittent marginal connection.
The one day I was in Fry's Electronics and I saw a product called DeoxIT - a connector cleaner, enhancer & protector. $20. I figured, "why not try it." So I did. One treatment (applied to the phone connector) with the cleaner followed by a spritz with the protector (per the instructions) and I haven't had a charging problem for two months. Any charger or cable works fine now. Charging seems to be faster. The phone now works as it should.
My assumption is that given the low USB voltage, a small film of oxidation on the connectors causes intermittent problems with conductivity. Maybe the brass/metal used in one batch of connectors was sub-par and some Stratosphere owners bore the brunt of it. Who knows. The Stratosphere is an old phone and I suspect that many are going out of service by now. Hopefully this info will help with other phones that may end up with the same problem.
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