I Hate This Phone With A Passion

HateTheCharge · 2011-10-27T00:43:49+00:00

I am so disappointed with the Droid Charge I can hardly stand it. I hate it - hate it - hate it. There are so many issues a person doesn't even know what to address first. Drop Calls, Can't Hear the other caller or they can't hear you. No Network Available, Phone locks up and the only way to fix is pull the battery......…

berryj

i have had the droid charge for about a little over a month so far. and i absolutely hate it. i have had nothing but issues with this phone. and some of them issues are as followed:

-Yahoo email not working on stock app or the Yahoo mail app. The stock app is asking to re enter my password every 2 seconds and im not getting any emails. the Yahoo app doesnt push any emails either.

-the front camera doesnt work on skype. the main purpose of the front camera for me was to talk to my niece who lives in another state and she has skype because she has an iphone.

-i have to restart the phone every now and then to get my camera to work or for media to play. when i play a ringtone or try to put an mp3 on my phone i get an error that says the type of media cannot be played. then i restart the phone and it works. ill get an error for a video that says the video cannot be played. it works after a restart.

-ive recently noticed that the voice on the phone is getting garbled and staticy. i have to restart the phone for that as well

-i cant set any custom ringtones. i miss calls all the time because out of nowhere the ringtone wont play. it becomes silent. it doesnt set itself to silent mode, it just doesnt play. like it doesnt exist on the phone.

-the battery wont stay at a good charge. i have to carry the phone charger with me EVERYWHERE.

-its starting to freeze off and on.

im pretty annoyed i have to have this phone well into 2013. so i decided to take my complaints to Verizon and needless to say everyone Ive talked to doesnt give a good crap that this phone sucks. Im past my 14 day exchange (when i first decided to call verizon, i was only 4 days past!), which blows because we all know that within the first week the phone acts like a perfect angel. Ive pretty much talked to anyone and everyone i can at verizon and no one will work with me. my option is to "buy another phone at full retail price". I refuse to pay $600 for a new phone, when I paid a ton of money for this one, and pay well over a hundred dollars a month on my bill. So they suggested then i get the replacement phone.

i have probably talked to 3 or 4 different people at customer service ON TOP of exchanging emails with customer service reps.

The rude gentleman at customer service refused to help me because i couldnt speak to him from a non verizon phone. i live by myself and my charge is my only phone line. i use it as a house phone, so this guy suggested i go to a neighbors. i live in a townhouse, i dont know my neighbors, i think ill just walk over there....no thanks. he proceeded to tell me that the replacement phone would fix my issues but then told me how Yahoo just doesnt work on android. Ok SO im gonna get the same phone and we still wont be able to fix my email issue? the front camera is just a load of crap. i wanted a front camera because my niece and nephew live in another state and i wanted to skype with them. well thats a lost cause. I need the email for work. I get i needed to be on another phone but being rude wasnt helping anybody. there was no excuse for that.

So after I threatened to take my business elsewhere I quit getting any responses from verizon. it might be cheaper for me to pay to terminate my contract, than to pay 600 dollars for a new phone, on top of 100 dollars a month until 2013.

i contacted a rep at Samsung as well who pretty much says the same thing they all "i understand your frusturations and i appologize". they suggested i remove the SIM card...which i already tried and it didnt do anything. this phone is junk and im extremely mad at myself for purchasing it.

my sister has the samsung fascinate and her phone is still running froyo and she got it when it first came out. samsung is way behind on the times. my droid2 had gingerbread, i should have stuck with that. im thinking of reactivating that phone.

JerryF

Berryj,

It is amazing that so many things are not working on your phone and it sounds like more "bad things" are shown up each day or each week.

What I will suggest is that you to TEST your battery to see if it is bad. Several times I have had people say, "that's no way to run a phone" and ignore the test. Up front I'll tell you that it is NO WAY to run a phone. It's a test to see if the amperage in your battery is so weak that it is affecting your phone's capability. NOTE: when your Battery Status says you battery is 100% that applies to voltage, not amperage. Enough said, here is the test.

Plug your phone into the small 110 Volt 1 amp charger that came with your phone. Leave it plugged in overnight. In the morning you will see the little blue colored battery in the upper left corner of the display. It will say 100 % in it. Unplug the charger for 10-15 seconds and re plug it into the phone. The blue colored battery and the number 100 will be gone. In 5 or 10 minutes when the blue battery icon and the number 100 reappear you can start the test BUT leave the charger plugged into the phone.

Now with the charger plugged into the phone see if any of the items work okay with a fully charged battery and the charger connected. Remember you are testing your battery. I am NOT suggesting that you should always have to use your phone with the charger connected.

Yahoo still may not work for now because it might be a Yahoo problem too.

As for Skype many folks have said Skype fixed their APP so it now works.

Check for restarts, the camera, take 3 or 4 flash photos, videos, check the voice on the phone, play media, check for missed calls, set ring tones, does it freeze, and any other "things" that are not working correctly.

Spend an hour testing to see if by having the fully charged battery and simultaneously having the charger plugged in helped at all. If it does you may need to get a new battery. If so get an extended 3200 or 3500 mAh battery.

Last but not least, check the photo I posted about 8-9 posts before this one showing the OS you should have and see if yours matches it.

BTW, if this test does not convict your battery you've only wasted an hour or so and you may have spent that much time already just removing and re-inserting the darn battery.

Best regards,

JerryF

PeterMcG

I also hate this phone. It worked just fine the first month. Since then here are some of the problems I've had:

1.The screen blanks in and out when making or talking on the phone. That is, the screen goes black as I'm dialing and i have to wait a second or two fdr it to come back. It also blacks in and out while I am talking.

2.On several ocasions it has dropped a phone call out of the blue. In those instances I have had to do a battery reset to get the phone working again. The MF thing takes so long to boot that minutes and minutes pass while the other person is waiting for me to call back.

3.On one ocasion a horrific buzzing sound started in in the middle of a call with my elderly mom. Same thing. A battery reset.

4.The battery life is completely random and sucks. Usually the battery will die within hours of unplugging from the charger in the morning. Some days the phone will go a full day or two without a charge.

5.Sometimes the phone gets extremely hot...almost too hot to hold.

6.The Android OS is extremely awkward and incomprehensible. I've used Apple products and everything is intuitive and figure-out-able. Not so this phone.

I will never buy an Android product again. And because there are so manyu different Android phones...support is scattered. Apple has a much larger user base and a much more coherent support system in place. Also..if there is a problem with an Apple phone it usually makes the major newspapers and magazines until it is fixed.

I am almost sure to break my contract and get an Iphone if my problems continue. The phone dropping calls is just not acceptable.

I'm disabled (with considerable fatigue) and do not have the inclination to do the technical troubleshooting dances necessary to fix these problems. I don't want to have to become a technician to get my phone to work! My Ipod Touch just works as does my Ipad. They are loaded down with hundreds of apps and they never fail. I haven't yet tested an Iphone but many of my relatives have them and i never hear complaints.

Clark75115

It is my opinion that Verizon is aware of all the Droid Charge issues. How can they possibly not know, with phone calls and letters. It is a business decision to ignore the problem. To replace or fix the phones would cost them a lot of money. It would be cheaper to take a chance that there will be no repercussions. A class action suit would be cheap to settle. Give each person a month or two of free data and its done. It's not about whats right or wrong, or even whats ethical. Its about whats legal and the bottom line.

Dell sold computers that they knew had problems, they did it for years. Their still around.

Proof that they are ignoring the problem. I have sent letters for several months and have heard nothing. I finally started sending them Return Receipt now I have proof they are getting the letters. But I am still ignored.

We should all send letters stating the problem and Verizon inability to fix them. Then we ask for a prorated refund so we can replace the phone. If enough of us do it maybe they can't ignore us any more.

It worked with Bank of America, 650,000 closed accounts in a week, They can't ignore that. Thousands of letters to Verizon about the same phone, that might get there attention.

Verizon Wireless
Customer Service Department
Post Office Box 105378

Atlanta, GA 30348

JerryF

PeterMcG and Clark too,

Peter, I see your phone worked okay for a while and then it has been all downhill. Please do me a favor after you read the following. Answer this post with your results. Also, Peter, the description of your problems looks like a classic battery problem to me!

Just tell me if you did or did not perform these tests. Just a straight up or down yes or no vote. If yes, do you have a weak or failing battery?

I ask you this because MOST of the folks to whom I have suggested this do this do not even respond back so many times I have assumed that they are more interested in complaining then trying to diagnose their problem and maybe fix it. I have seen where some folks get up to 6 replacement phones from Verizon and still do not test their battery. I don't know that for a fact but they might be using the same, possibly bad battery, is each of their 6 replacements.

Anyone else out there with problems why not try this because it might take your mind off Gingerbread and give you something to do while you are waiting. My mantra has always been, let's solve the problem and get this thing fixed.

Here is a real life story that happened to me yesterday. Because of me not paying attention my battery went down to 16% and I got a warning. Immediately I thought of the long standing problem when using the flash camera the phone locks up. So I said t myself now I can see for myself. I then took a flash photo and, guess what, my phone SHUT DOWN and I had to restart it. I repeated it and it again SHUT DOWN. I then charged the battery up to 82% and the flash camera again worked PERFECTLY.

All I can say is, "I love it when a plan comes together."

JerryF

______________________

Because of the wide range of problems I see here it made me wonder if BAD batteries might be the cause because so many have different problems yet so many others are okay as well as some phones have worked okay and later they start to fail as if the battery is failing!

First let's do this to level the playing field for these tests. It will not reset you phone. If you are afraid to do this forget this step. Removed the battery, the Micro SD card, and the SIM card for 60+ seconds and then put them back in. NOTE: before you start this process go to Settings>SD card & phone storage and click on Unmount SD card. Then turn off your phone by holding the upper right side button for 10 seconds or until it turns off. Remove the battery first and then the SD card and then the SIM card. Be gentle with the SIM card and keep track of which direction goes in first and which side is up.

Wait 60+ seconds, insert the SD card and the SIM card and finally the battery. Turn on the phone and go to Settings>SD card & phone storage and click on ReMount the SD card. You are set to go.

Forget the little blue battery that show charging in the upper right corner of you home page screen. To see your battery's charge level use the percent of charge instead. In case anyone does not know here is where it is...from th Home page go to Settings>About Phone>Status and the second item down is Battery Level in percent and above that the Battery Status shows if it is charging or not.

A weak or failing battery can appear to charge up fully but in reality only it's voltage level is okay so the phone appears to operate okay. What occurs is the amp hours, which are really the power in your battery, may also look good but in a weak or failing battery instead of lasting for hours the mini-amp hours (mAh's) of your battery may go down within a few minutes or an hour or a little heavy use by you. For example, using the camera's flash could bring it down after one or two photos. I'm sure some of you know that when your car battery is questionable they use a load tester which puts a electrical load on the battery for a few minutes and they measure how much that depleted the battery.

Test #1 is to the have a FULLY charged battery It's important that it's fully charged so go take a look at its percentage of charge. Next, have the phone plugged into the 115 volt electrical current, NOT the USB port because the USB port does not charge with as mich power as does the 115 volt charging. Now use you phone that way for a while to see if any of your problems go away because you now have the highest and best power available. Best of Luck!

Test #2 is to see if your battery loses it's mAh power to quickly. In other words does it discharge to quickly. Again start with a fully charged battery and the phone should NOT be plugged in for charging. Go look at its percent of charge and write it down. I hope it's 99% or more. Then set your camera up and take EXACTLY 10 flash pictures, no more no less. Set the flash to ON so it flashes every time. I chose flash picture because they appear to use lot's of battery power. After the pictures check the percentage of charge again. Did it go down below 50% or further? That may be a sign of a failing battery. It is to bad we do not have any statistics regarding how far down it might go but do tell us your results for your test so we can compare. We want the batteries % to start with and it's % at the end of the test.