Time for a VZW executive to step up and explain!

[Beenthere]

I received my Droid X on 7/16 and was excited after returning my Incredible for call quality issues. But since then I have found serious problems and have arranged to return the defective handset and am waiting for a replacement. I keep up with the forums and myself experienced crazy 3G - 1x - no bars - all bars fluctuation, and **100%** of my calls were dropped, ie after 1-2 rings or less, the screen spontaneously reverted to previous/home screen. Talked to tech services 3x at length; took it to a corp. store in King of Prussia, PA -- they had no idea. MANY people are complaining -- why in the world doesn't Verizon respond?? I've been a VZ customer for many years -- unbelievable that this would be going on with no response! I wish that I had chosen the iPhone, and still might abandon this. My fear is that the replacement DX will have problems too -- this is very common! Let's have a response, please!

Frustrated in PA

[kpex]

Well said!!

I am faced with much the same problem.  My Droid X has the same major screen issue that has been posted all over the web and VZW has no RMA process other than to make me jump right back to the end of the line.  So they send me a bad phone, make no plans for any reasonable percentage of failures, and force me to wait 11 days to really use a phone that I ordered on launch day.  Yeah, there is some real lack of leadership and customer care going on.

But if I were you, I would not hold out for ANY response from an executive on this site.  Never-gonna-happen.  Instead, just do what I just did in response to their act to fail, which is to spread the word far and wide for all to see.  I have since posted rather poor reviews of the Droid X on Engadget, Best Buy, Amazon, YouTube and a half dozen other Android and media sites.  I'm sure the BestBuy and Amazon reviews will take a while before they are reviewed, approved, and posted (Amazon claims 48 hours), but they will be out there one way or the other. I had to be somewhat careful on the BestBuy and Amazon reviews as I had to make it look like a product review while also pointing out that the response to the phone's failure as a justification for my 2 out of 5 stars reviews. 

It's definitely time to teach some of these old school executives and directors that even a single consumer can cost them a significant amount of business.  If even 1/4 of the people with valid complaints on this site were to post the failures on more public sites, they will have no choice but to stand up and take notice, because it will cost them sales and arm their competitors with much needed ammunition.  

And of course all of that could have been avoided if they would have just responded in a fair and reasonable manner. 

[kpex]

I'm sure most won't have any issues.  In fact, I'm sure if we did a roll call that would be the case.  But what is going on here is not at all about the phones that are working, it's about the statistical percentage that Verizon and Motorola should have calculated would fail and their willful choice not to get a replacement to those now seriously disenchanted customers in a reasonable amount of time.  

But handing a customer something that is broken and then telling them to get right back to the end of the line when they point it out is just not what I expect from Verizon and/or Motorola.  So perhaps a Motorola executive will see this, contact someone at high up at Verizon, and say "hey, we need to do right by these customers that we handed bad phones to...and fast", rather than this ho-hum laissez-faire path that they are obviously so entrenched in.  

[noumena12]

Very strange. I've had absolutely no problems.

[Breakthecycle2]

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noumena12 wrote:

Very strange. I've had absolutely no problems.

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Same here. No issues at all...yet anyway.

[Silvrsurfr]

No problems here.  But it is an electronic....... I figured there would be duds as nearly every phone I have ever had has either been a total lemon or had certain glitches.  I would be bothered myself had mine right off the bat didn't work, but the phone is in high demand and I am sure Verizon is trying to fix things?

[AZSALUKI]

you guys are right in the sense that they should have set aside x% for replacements (for the htc inc too!!). poor planning and customer service on their part. but as far as going to the iphone because your dropping calls? well that's just silly. if you know what an iphone is then you know the first issue you will be dealing with is dropped calls. apple is going to drop $175 MILLION to give everyone the rubber bumpers to attempt to fix the antenna issue and keep their customers happy. the htc inc and the droid x will have some lemons (as will every line of devices) and a few will even replace one only to get another bad one. but these problems don't compare to the nightmare that apple and at&t has on their hands right now with the ip4. i just won't ever understand the underestimating of demand. vzn knew that the inc and the x would be HUGE. i have to figure it has something to do with creating demand by supplying in shortage?? or something? why they wouldn't have a million of these units ready to go is beyond me??? we wouldn't even see or hear about all of the issues if you could just walk into a store and replace the bunk ones.

[kpex]

Oh I'm not going to iPhone.  Oh, no no no.  But I am a little gun shy on the Motorola at this point and I may very well just order an Incredible just to be safe.  That way if my next Droid X (whenever I actually see it) also fails, at least I will have something else at the ready.  And believe you-me, if the next Droid X I see fails in any way then that will absolutely be the last one I touch, which is why it would be good to have the Incredible standing by.  And as long as I return it within 30 days, that trick won't cost me a penny, as new Verizon phones do ship with a pre-paid FedEx return label as well.

Amazing what we have to do sometimes to work the system, isn't it?

[BeerMe828]

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kpex wrote:

Oh I'm not going to iPhone.  Oh, no no no.  But I am a little gun shy on the Motorola at this point and I may very well just order an Incredible just to be safe.  That way if my next Droid X (whenever I actually see it) also fails, at least I will have something else at the ready.  And believe you-me, if the next Droid X I see fails in any way then that will absolutely be the last one I touch, which is why it would be good to have the Incredible standing by.  And as long as I return it within 30 days, that trick won't cost me a penny, as new Verizon phones do ship with a pre-paid FedEx return label as well.

Amazing what we have to do sometimes to work the system, isn't it?

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As somebody who had the Incredible for the full 30 days that I was allotted before having to return it to be able to get the Droid X, and somebody who has a properly working Droid X, I can tell you, wait for a working Droid X before jumping ship to the INC. I love HTC, and the Sense UI, but with the battery life problems, and the smaller screen size with no physical keyboard or swype option... just to make a few flaws - the Droid X is a better phone!

[skullface8]

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kpex wrote:

Oh I'm not going to iPhone.  Oh, no no no.  But I am a little gun shy on the Motorola at this point and I may very well just order an Incredible just to be safe.  That way if my next Droid X (whenever I actually see it) also fails, at least I will have something else at the ready.  And believe you-me, if the next Droid X I see fails in any way then that will absolutely be the last one I touch, which is why it would be good to have the Incredible standing by.  And as long as I return it within 30 days, that trick won't cost me a penny, as new Verizon phones do ship with a pre-paid FedEx return label as well.

Amazing what we have to do sometimes to work the system, isn't it?

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No it won't cost you a penny. It will cost you a restocking fee of $35.

[budone]

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AZSALUKI wrote:

you guys are right in the sense that they should have set aside x% for replacements (for the htc inc too!!). poor planning and customer service on their part. but as far as going to the iphone because your dropping calls? well that's just silly. if you know what an iphone is then you know the first issue you will be dealing with is dropped calls. apple is going to drop $175 MILLION to give everyone the rubber bumpers to attempt to fix the antenna issue and keep their customers happy. the htc inc and the droid x will have some lemons (as will every line of devices) and a few will even replace one only to get another bad one. but these problems don't compare to the nightmare that apple and at&t has on their hands right now with the ip4. i just won't ever understand the underestimating of demand. vzn knew that the inc and the x would be HUGE. i have to figure it has something to do with creating demand by supplying in shortage?? or something? why they wouldn't have a million of these units ready to go is beyond me??? we wouldn't even see or hear about all of the issues if you could just walk into a store and replace the bunk ones.

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You are right on creating demand, via a shortage. If you look back, after a release of a phone, how soon does the price drop? Usually a month. (When Alltel came out with the Hero recently the price dropped within a week) Inc's been out nearly 3 months and if buying from Verizon the price is still the same.

Now add the lack of screen available issue for the Inc and the screen issue with the X, it will create a backlog they did not expect.If these two things had not occurred, you would not see a two week wait.

But to defend them.....a bit......There is not one company who wants a lot of product sitting in the warehouses. Or cars sitting in their lot. (Look at the PalmPre. They must have oodles of them. They are basically being given away WITH free MiFi of 5GB) THAT costs money. So they ATTEMPT to plan based on a perfect world, planning for some variables. When testing is done it is with such a small group. That is why many will not buy a new phone or gadget first day out and wait a few weeks. They rather not deal with what many on the site are presently dealing with.

I have been lucky. My phone has been rock solid from the rollout date, even with a very marginal signal at my house. -98. I have not seen the pink screen, or garbled voice or any issues.

One thing to consider, as kpex alluded to, for every complaint here, there are probably 10,000-30,000 others who are very satisfied. These forums tend to draw in, naturally, the negative issues with the phones.

[Beenthere]

I appreciate the responses so far but want to clarify -- while I"m frustrated as well at the wait for the replacement DX (and I'm one of those "obsessives" who ordered during the first night of launch and was really looking forward to this phone), it is not my main issue. My main issue is that I've seen no response to the 3G connection issues, and now to worse performance reported by many after the OTA upgrade on 7/19. I used the same old Alias for 3 years with never a problem with connection. I'm aware that iphone has its problems. 

What I am angry about at this point is that there is a lack of response to the *significant* connectivity issues this phone has. It's ridiculous, really. It's not just that some of my calls were dropped -- I could make NO calls because it reverts to the previous screen. I was on hold and talking to tech services for 1 hour one day, then 1.5 hours the next day. It's disorganized and I have to repeat the same story each time. I could go on, but my disappointment is pretty profound at this point.  The Inc has problems, the X has problems -- and no one standing up for VZW's consumers, just some poor shnooks at customer service who have to shoulder all this.

[crb79]

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Beenthere wrote:

I appreciate the responses so far but want to clarify -- while I"m frustrated as well at the wait for the replacement DX (and I'm one of those "obsessives" who ordered during the first night of launch and was really looking forward to this phone), it is not my main issue. My main issue is that I've seen no response to the 3G connection issues, and now to worse performance reported by many after the OTA upgrade on 7/19. I used the same old Alias for 3 years with never a problem with connection. I'm aware that iphone has its problems. 

What I am angry about at this point is that there is a lack of response to the *significant* connectivity issues this phone has. It's ridiculous, really. It's not just that some of my calls were dropped -- I could make NO calls because it reverts to the previous screen. I was on hold and talking to tech services for 1 hour one day, then 1.5 hours the next day. It's disorganized and I have to repeat the same story each time. I could go on, but my disappointment is pretty profound at this point.  The Inc has problems, the X has problems -- and no one standing up for VZW's consumers, just some poor shnooks at customer service who have to shoulder all this.

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Your's is the first post I have seen complaining about signal quality.  I don't see all these other posts about signal issues you mention.  You have a bad phone, VZW and Motorola isn't going to make a statement or press release to cover a problem limited to just a handful of people.

As for replacement phones, I'm sure VZW didn't expect the Droid X to sell out.  So they may have anticipated having at least a 10% stock left over for replacements.

[Beenthere]

Take a look at some of the droid forums. For example, and this is just one:

http://androidforums.com/support-troubleshooting-droid-x/

Some threads in the last 24 hours:

Crazy Reception on Droid X

Droid X activation issue (no signal)

3G Issues

Droid X Signal problems?

I get it that the problems of a few wouldn't merit a major corporate response but this is more than just a few, IMO.

[crb79]

When you place a phone call you are using 1x signal, 3G is for data.  So your phone could show a great 3g signal but show little to no 1x signal.  Use a program like Real Signal to show the true 1x and 3g signals.

[AZSALUKI]

you are right too crb. but again....HOW DO THEY NOT expect the X to sell out? especially when a HUGE number of inc orders were switched to the X? are they really this clueless to the demand of android devices?

[crb79]

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AZSALUKI wrote:

you are right too crb. but again....HOW DO THEY NOT expect the X to sell out? especially when a HUGE number of inc orders were switched to the X? are they really this clueless to the demand of android devices?

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All I can think is that someone somewhere didn't know what they were doing.  The Incredible to Droid X switch announcement wasn't issued until the Monday before release, if I remember correctly.

[AZSALUKI]

maybe...but come on.....these phones are SICK! we've waited for years to have our answer to the iphone....and now we have it and vzn didn't realize how popular they would be? if anyone there would simply look at android's market share now vs a year ago they should be able to better guage the demand. my ten year old could look at a pie chart and conclude "whoa....they better start making more droids." lol 

[AZSALUKI]

right budone. the palm pre was a disaster and i get that they want to use a just-in-time production system. it makes sense from a business standpoint. but i also wonder if they really know how popular droids are becoming. it would be one thing if you had to order and wait a few days, but the inc has been a complete disaster. the x hasn't been as bad, but could've been smoother as well. i know in the future i will go to a store and purchase on release date or just wait until i can get it at the store or best buy or somwhere. i'm sure that for the most part we will all forget this mess and still order online or through a csr in the future. but i will not. after watching that thread (still!!!) under the inc's page about the ship date, i simply will not order. they are putting people at the back of the line for problems caused by fedex or zvn. it aint right. i've also wondered about marketing? has anyone else noticed that you see ads for the EVO and the mytouch, backflip, etc all day and night. i think i've seen one commercial for the inc and maybe a couple for the x? they are truly sitting on gold mines here and doing nothing with them? i just wonder how many more units they could sell if they were A) better prepared for demand, and B) actually marketed these things? it seems to me that there is no reason that between the inc and the x, they couldn't outsell the ip4?

[budone]

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AZSALUKI wrote:

right budone. the palm pre was a disaster and i get that they want to use a just-in-time production system. it makes sense from a business standpoint. but i also wonder if they really know how popular droids are becoming. it would be one thing if you had to order and wait a few days, but the inc has been a complete disaster. the x hasn't been as bad, but could've been smoother as well. i know in the future i will go to a store and purchase on release date or just wait until i can get it at the store or best buy or somwhere. i'm sure that for the most part we will all forget this mess and still order online or through a csr in the future. but i will not. after watching that thread (still!!!) under the inc's page about the ship date, i simply will not order. they are putting people at the back of the line for problems caused by fedex or zvn. it aint right. i've also wondered about marketing? has anyone else noticed that you see ads for the EVO and the mytouch, backflip, etc all day and night. i think i've seen one commercial for the inc and maybe a couple for the x? they are truly sitting on gold mines here and doing nothing with them? i just wonder how many more units they could sell if they were A) better prepared for demand, and B) actually marketed these things? it seems to me that there is no reason that between the inc and the x, they couldn't outsell the ip4?

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If you check the EVO, you can not even order it. So I think Sprint is not doing themselves any favors either by still promoting it.

I think Verizon did expect the popularity. They knew well in advance before the Inc  was released based on preorders how well it would sell. What they DID NOT expect was the lack of screens by Samsung to manufacture the phone that was required. Did Samsung promise HTC they could handle the demand??? Did Verizon inform HTC an incorrect amount to create????Those type of answer we as consumers will never know. I contend if there was not a lack of screens, there would be more than enough phones to handle returns.

Even if you received your phone at the store and you have a Screen or any problem, you are put to the back of the line for a replacement also. It is not just online orders. After thirty days, I have to deal with the store if there is an issue now.

[AZSALUKI]

right budone. i know sprint's got their own issues. what i don't get is how apple can be prepared for 1.7 million units but htc can't? i know there was a screen issue with samsung. but i would contend that this, again, is their own fault. they relied on a competitor for such a unique part? when that competitor was going to use that part for their own device too? is the EVO a screen issue....or did they just underestimate demand? that phone looks pretty sweet as well. love the little kickstand...lol. and now i'm seeing ads for ones with white casings (exclusive to best buy it hink???) so you can't actually get these?