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AT&T complaint

If this is not an appropriate place to make a complaint about a carrier, I apologize and understand if this post is locked, moved, or removed.
I have a Tilt 2 which recently and suddenly began not sending or receiving on its USB port. The phone would charge, but no data would move. In fact, neither the computers nor the phone itself even made notice that a device had been connected. I also noticed the battery discharging abnormally fast. So fast that even with the phone off, the next day, it would not power on. I called AT&T to get the phone replaced as it's less than a year old.
I was put through the ringer, as expected on a first call. I was then forwarded to business tech support where I was met with a seemingly slightly more intelligent person, who obviously had no experience actually using a Windows Mobile device, but had no issue reading from a guided instruction on using a WM6.1 device, for a phone using a WM6.5.
This person then contacted HTC and put me in touch with them, where I got the most intelligent person I'd spoken to all that day (an I work in a call center myself). After software removal and resinstallation as well as option swapping, I was told to take the phone to a store to see if it was both my laptop running Device Center and my desktop running ActiveSync in conjunction with the 4 cables I used, including the stock one, were at fault... I was told if they were, that the phone needed replacement.
Fine.
The next day, I discover the aforementioned battery drain to the point of no power on. I take it to the store, where they are unable to test it as it won't stay on (due to complete discharge), and am instructed to call AT&T's warranty line. I spent the next 12 minutes on the phone with the warranty rep, who, through my description of the problem, decides the best thing to do is to REPLACE THE BATTERY... I asked the rep something to the tune of 'So, are you saying that a failed battery would cause the data port not to work, when the phone is receiving power through the same cable as the data would be going through?'
To which I am replied something like 'Well, sometimes...' at which point I pulled the phone away from my head to avoid screaming at this person. I do not like being treated like an idiot. I have been using WM devices since 2003, and HTC's since 2007. It would be obvious to anyone on these forums that what this phone is doing is a hardware failure. It's been reported multiple times in the Rhodium forum that this is occurring to all forms of the Rhodium.
Anyway, the rep confirmed my information and told me to expect this battery in 2 days. Upon checking the email confirmation, it's an extended battery. Adhesive bandages for broken necks.... Once I got home, I called again and laid out my contempt for this process and negation of the word of the manufacturer. This person connected me to the warranty line and I was greeted by someone who could actually comprehended the problem and did not attempt to point fingers after accusation had been made.
I will be receiving a replacement soon. But I must say, the 2.5 hours spent talking to the collective uninformed reps at AT&T makes me think twice before buying a new device ever again. On the other hand, the singularly knowledgeable rep at HTC was a pleasant surprise. In my line of work (appliances), the relative show of knowledge and comprehension skills far exceeds anything I've encounted in the whole of the company I work for.
Bravo, HTC. Shame on you, AT&T.

Er... could this all have been avoided if you had contacted HTC in the first place? Because that's what your post sounds like. (Just curious!) Or did your warranty only apply though AT&T?

The warranty was through AT&T, per the HTC rep. If there's a manufacturer's warranty as well, I would have much rather went with them.
As a side note to the fiasco, the replacement battery made it to me. I called and was told to keep it.
Here's the best part:
It's an extended battery. The downside? No replacement back cover, so it won't fit in the case... Way to go, AT&T...

Your story is one of the reasons I found myself moving to Big Red last year. My TP2 (RHOD500) has not seen any of the issues mentioned here.
If you want to read about my "adventure" in AT&T-land, check out this thread from my Tilt days.

[Q] Should i get a new replacement Captivate?

I was up at the AT&T store today to discuss some overcharges on my bill and during the conversation I mentioned my gps not working. The guy at the store acknowledged it was a problem but was under the impression that JH7 fixes it...which it doesn't. Long story short, I've been offered a replacement handset at the store level, brand new in the box, not a refurb.
So the question is, do I take him up on it? My gps is like most everyone elses and not all that useful and occasionally there's a phantom press of the search button. Those are the only problems I've had.
So, what's the likelihood that a new-in-box captivate will have the same GPS problem? Anything else I need to consider as I decide?

CoreyC said:
I was up at the AT&T store today to discuss some overcharges on my bill and during the conversation I mentioned my gps not working. The guy at the store acknowledged it was a problem but was under the impression that JH7 fixes it...which it doesn't. Long story short, I've been offered a replacement handset at the store level, brand new in the box, not a refurb.
So the question is, do I take him up on it? My gps is like most everyone elses and not all that useful and occasionally there's a phantom press of the search button. Those are the only problems I've had.
So, what's the likelihood that a new-in-box captivate will have the same GPS problem? Anything else I need to consider as I decide?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd keep the GPS issue rather than risking the random shut offs. Just my opinion though, especially since I am about to return my second captivate due to random shut downs.

Just wanted to followup on this. I did swap out my captivate for a new one at my local AT&T store. I even got the manager to put in writing that if I continued to have problems that I could switch to a different model.
The new captivate handset did the random poweroff trick three times the day after I brought it home. In an attempt to fix it I drained the battery and let it charge back up over night and haven't had a problem since.
GPS is also MUCH better than what it was on my original handset but still not perfect as it 'teleported' me from one road to another a few times using Navigation. I do however get a quick lock using only satellites and GPSStatus shows while driving that I was locked on to between 5 and 10 satellites with the norm being 8. With my original I'd lose a lock on all satellites once I started moving, so while not perfect, this is definitely better than my original.

Thanks for your input.
Man this GPS really frustrates me. I used to have your quality GPS and now it is broken. Thinking of flashing to stock and trying to.exchange it
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I was under the impression that if you exchange a phone through ATT they will send it to the Samsung service center, and there they threaten that if they find nothing wrong with it they will charge you $600.
This has always intimidated me since I only paid $60 and I don't want like not being in control of something (like whether or not they will charge me).
Is it really this easy to exchange for a broken GPS?

fatttire said:
I was under the impression that if you exchange a phone through ATT they will send it to the Samsung service center, and there they threaten that if they find nothing wrong with it they will charge you $600.
This has always intimidated me since I only paid $60 and I don't want like not being in control of something (like whether or not they will charge me).
Is it really this easy to exchange for a broken GPS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only time you risk being billed for a new phone at full price is if you send it back with problems, and there was physical damage or you're rooted and messed with things or running a custom rom. Now it's not guarenteed that they will bill you but i'd imagine that the likelihood increases.
As far as returning phones past the 30 day window it usually isn't a problem if you speak calmly to a manager. Explain that you have tried all of the fixes that Samsung has offered, nothing has worked, and you believe you were sold a defective product with which you are unhappy.

fatttire said:
Is it really this easy to exchange for a broken GPS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was for me...but I think that was largely because both the rep I talked with and the manager were aware of the GPS problems. I tried doing the exchange while the rep I had been working with was at lunch and got fed the "exchanges can only be done within the first 30 days of purchase" line by another rep. I came back later in the day and talked to my original rep who brought over the manager and it was smooth sailing after that. If you can believe it, the manager even apologized for the problems I had with the phone.
Worst case, have the manager at your local store browse this forum or do a little googling and he'll quickly see how widespread this problem is. And be sure you have the stock JH7 loaded up; that was the one check that the rep did when we started talking about an exchange.

looks like I spoke too soon - 3 random shutdowns today. Now to decide if I want to try a 3rd Captivate or jump ship and go with the HTC Surround. And here I thought I was done with all my research for a year or two.

fatttire said:
I was under the impression that if you exchange a phone through ATT they will send it to the Samsung service center, and there they threaten that if they find nothing wrong with it they will charge you $600.
This has always intimidated me since I only paid $60 and I don't want like not being in control of something (like whether or not they will charge me).
Is it really this easy to exchange for a broken GPS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As mentioned before it is easy to swap for gps issues and the $600 is only if you did something bad. If you rooted the phone you can restore to stock using 1-click odin and master clear, it passed scrutiny on my case (disclaimer: can't guarantee it would for you).
Sent from mobile xda
Captivate running Axura

I'm glued to this thread like a good tv series ahemm. I've had the exact same issue(s), namely the random search pop-up. It drove me crazy for quite some time, I could even shake the phone without touching any buttons and the search dialog would present itself (sometimes other apps popped-up). I eventually read up on roms and now run perception b8. I ran cognition previously, but experienced 2 deal breakers issues (bluetooth and radio problems). As for the search dialog, it no longer occurs. While on cognition I did experience two random shutdowns, and I thought the battery ran down in a hurry, just a beep and short vibrate and it was deadso. If you stay with the cap, read up on perception stat.

tsachi said:
As mentioned before it is easy to swap for gps issues and the $600 is only if you did something bad. If you rooted the phone you can restore to stock using 1-click odin and master clear, it passed scrutiny on my case (disclaimer: can't guarantee it would for you).
Sent from mobile xda
Captivate running Axura
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THanks, this helps. It's good to know a) whether they let you swap for gps issues and b) whether they check really hard or flash to stock odin lets you do it.
i appreciate your feedback.
i had a bad case with best buy where i returned a broken item and they claimed it was fine... it was broken... but they said it worked okay... had to pay a fee to get it back.. now i'm kinda paranoid about returning items for "subjective" issues (i.e. not a hard brick)

Quick update to the saga....on my 3rd captivate, worst one yet. Seems to poweroff if i set it down for more than 30 minutes. I've had it 3 days and i lost count of the poweroffs around 14 or 15.
Learned they will only exchange at the store 3 times, so i was advised to call customer care and/or samsung to have a fresh from the factory handset (see the poweroff press release thread) sent to me. Thought being that if the brand new one still had problems they could still put me into a Surround at the store.
Getting frustrated, starting to look for ways to migrate my text messages to WP7.
Other bit of info, guy at the store doesn't expect any new models until Spring at the earliest.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Finally a fully functioning phone

So long story short I lost my phone a week ago, one with terrible gps I should add, I didn't get the standard 5 dollar a month insurance from the death star, the guy at the wireless place offered me some other option where you pay a hundred up front but the deductible was only fifty so I did it thank god.
The insurance was through protect cell. So i filed a claim and they two dayed me phone feddy ex new sim card all. So i activated the phone and what do you know it has constant, i mean extremely constant random shutdown, like every 20 minutes while the battery was over 50 percent. So i the insurance company back and what do you the had the cap on back order so instead of being able to over night me a phone I had to deal with random shutdowns for a few days.
So the new phone finally arrived today and so far no random shutdowns and I did a gps test today and it worked extremely better than ever before. Hopefully this continues. Because I did hear fresh phones are more apt to have a functionable gps.
So to everyone with some sort of issue I suggest using those one year manufacturers warranties until you get a completely functionable phone. I do understand that is a big hassle for most of us and we shouldn't have to do all that to get a working phone but imo its better then having a phone that is lacking in some of its functionability.
Now more testing on custom rom and I am all set, praying gps maintains cuz it's a dealbreaker for me

I got my replacement phone last week (random shutdowns). The replacement had 4 shutdowns in less than 24 hours, the phone I was replacing had 4 shutdowns in 2 months. Called and *****ed that the replacement was within the same IMEI range as the affected phones. They overnighted another phone without waiting for the first or second phone to be returned. Third phone is working fine so far. GPS on Andromeda 1.2 is awesome.

Yea my phone also falls into the random shutdown range sadly, but hey so did my first one and I hadnt had any problems with it. Curious do you have insurance through att or did you get your replacement through warranty?

Fortunately, I live within 25 miles of a AT&T Tech Center - right next to an AT&T Sales Store - and they always have the Cap in stock. I'm on my 4th one, due to hardware issues - all at 0 cost under warranty. They were nice enough to show me that the new phone would boot to recovery, lol.
Happily running Serendipity 5.12, and patiently awaiting Gingerbread.
Thanks to all the devs and members at xda forums for your tireless enthusiasm!

No insurance, all replaced under warranty.

well its day two and I'm now running andromeda, gps is decent but not spectacular. Scheming on an inspire now
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App

Held out since Dec 2010...replacement on the way
There are quite a few threads about the Captivate Shutdown issue, and actually there are a few with some good observations on how to potentially correct it, but ultimately it needs to be replaced
So, what have I tried:
1) Captivate Keep Alive: Works, but battery drain...and non solution.
2) Load Monitor: Works, not a huge battery drain...still, does not fix the underlying issue.
3) Contrary to what many have said, a custom rom/custom kernel does not fix the issue.
4) It does appear some have had success with cleaning battery terminals, and a few have stated Samsung replaced the battery terminals and it fixed the issue.
I called At&t today, 03/08/2011, they asked me for the IMEI code and what color the water damage indicators where (pink or white?). No water damage here, so white please.
They are doing an exchange by mail, since I do not live close to a repair center...I have 14-days to ship the original back. It was quick and to the point. The replacement is a "refurbished device" direct from the manufacturer. Fingers crossed that I do not experience this again on the replacement as others have.
Hope this helps someone sitting on the fence on whether or not to ship theirs back. Remember to unroot, unlag, and otherwise un-fun your phone before shipping back
Enigma

[Q] Frustrating One S sensors locked?

Greetings all. I'm not convinced my problem is specifically related to the One S, and I certainly haven't got anywhere near rooting yet, but you Guys are expert at nosing round in the bowels of this phone & the OS, and I'm getting totally flummoxed as to where I've gone wrong.
I've owned this phone since June and it was originally locked to O2, was unlocked and used on Giffgaff, an O2 offshoot - probably irrelevant. One of the apps I particularly wanted to use was Google Sky Map, duly installed and run successfully for a day or so. Other apps installed, as one does, but when I came back to Sky Map, the app was frozen, as were seemingly all compass function apps.
Various uninstalls & reinstalls later, a system reset and a factory reset and this function still was inactive. Returned to HTC for fixing. No better - all worked OK for a short while then stopped. Returned again and this time internals were swapped ,but now the microphone wouldn't work. Third return and an unlocked sim-free handset was returned.
As soon as I loaded my profile from Google, initially it worked, but later most of the sensors again seemed to fail. I've tried the full factory reboot then logged in with a totally new Gmail account, but no change. Phone Tester app shows only readings from proximity and light sensors - no gyroscope,compass, mag. field or accelerometer. Accelerometer did show one set of readings this morning, but nothing since. Lookout AV has always been installed. Incidentally, almost exactly the same profile worked perfectly well on my previous phone, a Wildfire S.
Should I shoot myself or the phone? I admit I'm not any sort of phone expert, but I don't think I'm that dense as to so consistently screw this thing up.
Any ideas people please, in (moderately) simple terminology?

Ok maybe you could shoot google, maybe its a fault by them.
If I helped in anyway please hit thanks

Thank you for the oh-so-helpful response.
Just in case one of the myriad readers of this thread should have just a quiver of interest ................. I believe I've found the answer.
It's always been difficult to pinpoint the problem, and certainly HTC haven't twigged what's happening, as before I sent the phone back to them I TOOK THE FLIP CASE OFF!
That's why it would work for a short while after return, until I replaced the case. I can only guess there's something like Carbon Black in the plastic back shell, and that's what's been interfering with the sensors.
It may also be relevant to the big Home Button problem, with the screen flipping between Home & Helicopter views. Has anyone investigated whether there could be sufficient signal degradation to trigger this problem caused by the use of a case?
Sweetness and light to all.

I spoke to an HTC rep, and he said they would not give an unbranded handset back. If that's the case, I want my phone unbranded. I'll take it to them and hopefully get an unbranded one.

Well good for your HTC rep. They can't go giving out unbranded sets like that. What is the World coming to?
Notwithstanding - the previous clutter of O2 apps was pleasantly noticeable by its absence as was the O2 splash screen.
What a lucky little customer I am and it's only taken 4 months to sort out.

SM-G920I troubles... Need your expert suggestions

its been only 26 days I purchased this phone. I was very happy to buy this phone, but it didn't lasted long. I have to take this phone to Samsung Service Centre after a week due to OTA 5.1.1 update failed. Samsung Service Centre personnel had flashed 5.1.1 using ODIN and I thought everything will be fine but I am experiencing the below problems frequently
Multiple times screen freezes and no option other than soft reset (volume down + power button).
in gallery, pictures taken through camera, the picture becomes green and all its pixels gets disturbed. happened for at least 5 pictures.
in idle / standby mode, phone will not wake up only led light flashes & screen remains black. Only option for me is to soft reset.
sometimes fingerprint unlock doesn't work (there is a message that says the same) and I have to enter the backup password manually.
Phone restarts by itself at-least couple of times (2-3 times) in a day in home network, while roaming it is pathetic.
Phone restarts while using camera, opening Google play, opening Google maps, any software application.
Phone restarts while in safe mode also (suggested by one of customer support executive to monitor my phone in safe mode)
Phone restarts during a call, this happened twice
Model #: SM-G920I
Android Version: 5.1.1
Baseband version G920IDVU2COF8
Kernel Version: 3.10.61-5228538 [email protected] #1 Thu Jun 25 17:43:05 2015
Build Number: LMY47X.G920IDVU2COF8

kishore927 said:
its been only 26 days I purchased this phone. I was very happy to buy this phone, but it didn't lasted long. I have to take this phone to Samsung Service Centre after a week due to OTA 5.1.1 update failed. Samsung Service Centre personnel had flashed 5.1.1 using ODIN and I thought everything will be fine but I am experiencing the below problems frequently
Multiple times screen freezes and no option other than soft reset (volume down + power button).
in gallery, pictures taken through camera, the picture becomes green and all its pixels gets disturbed. happened for at least 5 pictures.
in idle / standby mode, phone will not wake up only led light flashes & screen remains black. Only option for me is to soft reset.
sometimes fingerprint unlock doesn't work (there is a message that says the same) and I have to enter the backup password manually.
Phone restarts by itself at-least couple of times (2-3 times) in a day in home network, while roaming it is pathetic.
Phone restarts while using camera, opening Google play, opening Google maps, any software application.
Phone restarts while in safe mode also (suggested by one of customer support executive to monitor my phone in safe mode)
Phone restarts during a call, this happened twice
Model #: SM-G920I
Android Version: 5.1.1
Baseband version G920IDVU2COF8
Kernel Version: 3.10.61-5228538 [email protected] #1 Thu Jun 25 17:43:05 2015
Build Number: LMY47X.G920IDVU2COF8
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like a broken update install. Go to the service center again and list them all the problems thats been happening with valid proof. They will again flash the OS and give it back to you. It might possibly go but most probable that it won't, so repeat the same thing until they take it seriously so that they give you either a refund or replacement or a proper repair! The problem is, Samsung India never does replacements!

Reflash is needed otherwise have Samsung replaced your S6.

update on 30-July-2015
I am just got my S6 checked with Samsung Service Centre. The personnel has understood my problem clearly and told me that he will reflash the IMEI that will make the phone to Factory OS and then he do some random hardware test and then flash the Adroid ROM.
But unfortunately, IMEI flash failed giving errors. he says there is a problem with PBA and it has to be replaced, in other words he says it is a Mother Board issue.
[What is PBA issue? if IMEI flashing fails will imply a hardware problem?]
So, at-last it is figured out that there is a hardware problem. They asked me to go for a Service Warranty and get the Mother Board replaced. But I didn't agree to the Service Warranty. I asked for a replacement. They say, they can't help me out on phone replacement, I need to check with Direct Customer Centre team.
Thanks for your suggestions.

kishore927 said:
I am just got my S6 checked with Samsung Service Centre. The personnel has understood my problem clearly and told me that he will reflash the IMEI that will make the phone to Factory OS and then he do some random hardware test and then flash the Adroid ROM.
But unfortunately, IMEI flash failed giving errors. he says there is a problem with PBA and it has to be replaced, in other words he says it is a Mother Board issue.
[What is PBA issue? if IMEI flashing fails will imply a hardware problem?]
So, at-last it is figured out that there is a hardware problem. They asked me to go for a Service Warranty and get the Mother Board replaced. But I didn't agree to the Service Warranty. I asked for a replacement. They say, they can't help me out on phone replacement, I need to check with Direct Customer Centre team.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any updates after this? Samsung India will never give in a replacement! NEVER EVER. I've tried arms and legs for my previous samsungs even within just 28 days but still they never did. They keep on insisting that the quality of repair will be excellent and i don't need to worry etc etc. Also, once you lose your 7 day window, you aren't eligible for a DOA. But, with increasing complexities in smartphone hardware, its difficult to replicate an issue within 7 freaking days! Please let us know what happened with your phone now! And yea, PBA is nothing but "printed board assembly" which is that green electrical board with all circuits and capacitors and other ICs.

ultraquantum said:
Any updates after this? Samsung India will never give in a replacement! NEVER EVER. I've tried arms and legs for my previous samsungs even within just 28 days but still they never did. They keep on insisting that the quality of repair will be excellent and i don't need to worry etc etc. Also, once you lose your 7 day window, you aren't eligible for a DOA. But, with increasing complexities in smartphone hardware, its difficult to replicate an issue within 7 freaking days! Please let us know what happened with your phone now! And yea, PBA is nothing but "printed board assembly" which is that green electrical board with all circuits and capacitors and other ICs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the follow up & sorry for the late response.
Yes, after this, I had to go through a difficult time. First they insisted me to go through repair, which i denied. After justifying the problems and pain that I was going through, they offered me a new handset as a replacement. When went to see this new replaced handset, the box is of dirt and a pen mark. It was looking like a potential tampered set. When questioned about this, they responded that they are giving a new handset and the dirt on the box is of mishandling by office boy & delivery person. When Opened the box, i was shocked to see the dirt hand print on the warrant card box also, & more disturbing is that there was dirt on the screen of the phone.
It was hard to believe myself, this was happening to me and for a one month old phone. When I rejected the new handset and demanded my money back. Again they took several days for process and finally did a refund. After nearly 2 months, a happy ending.
As I was in love with S6, did 2500 rupees insurance valid for 2 year, bought tough Armor case from Sipgen & Spigen Screen Gaurd, both together I spend around 3500 rupees. Tough Armor and screen guard are not used at all, now got wasted. Need to find someone who can use the same.
Now, I am back to my SII, which is still a reliable phone for me. SII is loaded with 5.1.1 which is being developed by Lysergic Acid. Thanks for his contribution and support.
S6 & services in India made me to think of moving to iOS. New Samsung devices with New Android features are being developed, but the core OS is not stable. Now, it is time for Android developers to concentrate on OS Stability, battery consumption so that people like me should feel secured when using new phones with new Android versions.