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Was the Bionic recalled?

I was told by a friend that the Droid Bionic (Motorola) was recalled. It's a garbage phone that I have dealt with for a year now through updates, reboots, and terrible customer service. My friend was informed of the recall at a Verizon retailer in New Jersey. I never received any kind of email or notification about this. If the phone is recalled what is the deal? Is there an upgrade we don't have to wait for?

I'd appreciate an answer other than "you can buy a full price phone anytime" or "did you try..." because clearly through all these threads you can see this phone is garbage.

Comments

tikibar1

As far as I know, there is no recall on the Bionic. You should have recently received the Ice Cream Sandwich update, and Jelly Bean should arrive soon. For the record, I've never had any issues with my Bionic and love it.

HighDesert

The Bionic is great, I've had no trouble with it, and it's even better after ICS.

And most people agree with that.

What about all the complaints here? Well, there are thousands and thousands of Bionics in use, so the fact that only a few dozen people have issues pretty-much shows how good the Bionic is...except in the hands of a few dozen people. Since the laws of physics and software logic (the principles that govern the functioning of the Bionic) apply equally everywhere, then if some people are having trouble with their Bionic while most people aren't having trouble, then the problem must be with the people, since people aren't equal everywhere. Do you realize that half the population has an I.Q under 100? It's true! Scary...

It's more likely that there's something wrong with those people than that the laws of physics vary in different places.

elizabethamber

<Post deleted per the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service.>

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

Verizon_Support

Hello amberlove!

I'm so sorry for the bad luck you've had with the Bionic. I can confirm the device has NOT been recalled and continues to be one of our most popular devices. Have you received the recent Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwic) update? Can you elaborate on the specifics of your concerns? I'm here to help!

Thanks,

AdamE_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

elizabethamber

Everything has updated. It stopped rebooting on its own. Still exceptionally slow. Twitter & Facebook crash all the time when trying to refresh/reload.

Also, why can't I uninstall stuff I don't ever use?

Jakeman1

When did you update to ICS?

jondal

>Post deleted<

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

jondal

I agree with you the Bionic. Sucks I use to have one returned it the same day due to many issues. So sorry to hear about your problem. All Vzw cares about is money money money they don't care about the people

theblank

I'm sorry, but that's a very close-minded, dare I say indoctrinated response. Where do you get the notion that only a few dozen people have been having issues? I find posts about it everywhere. There have been tech news articles, entire threads devoted to troubleshooting this addled device. Even Motorola have made public statements acknowledging the cacophony of issues with this phone while promising to "look into" fixing them.

This is much more wide spread than just a few people of questionable ability/intelligence.

Take my experience, for example: I'm a computer science major. I've worked with technology for over a decade, and I've owned several smartphones. I've worked in the cellphone industry with troubleshooting, sales, and testing. I am not your average smart phone owner by any stretch of the imagination. However, I have had nothing but issues with the Bionic since I've owned it. I've even had it directly swapped free of charge twice because Verizon acknowledged that there was something fundamentally wrong with the phone. I can't tell you how tired I've become of hearing "we know there is an issue with this phone, and an update is in the works," from all tiers of service.

All three of my Bionic phones have had the same issues:

1.) Dropping signal a multiple times a day, upwards of 20+ and in many different areas. From full 4G down to nothing.

2.) Core applications locking and crashing non-stop

3.) Camera locking while in use and requiring battery removal to recover.

4.) Disconnecting from wifi despite being 2 feet from the router, and forgetting the wifi password.

5.) Rebooting itself multiple times a day

6.) Generally abysmal performance at random times, even after a full reformat with no additional apps installed. (It shouldn't take 2 minutes for the dialer program to instantiate).

7.) Not sending or receiving text messages until several hours, if not days later, even with the stock messaging app.

8.) Crashing and locking just from hitting the power button to shut down the screen...(one of my favorites)

9.) The new smart actions application causing the Android OS to run much harder than is necessary, taking my up time from 28+ hours (extended battery) down to 6.

10.) Screen tracking issues randomly popping up, making navigating the phone impossible and requiring a restart.

Every single Bionic I've had has had some form of these issues, and the current one is only getting worse. There is nothing that I'm doing to the phone, this is just how it "works." Yes, I've run into people that haven't had any issue with their Bionic, but from my experience talking to other former owners, these people are the lucky ones.

Undoubtedly there are more people that have a good experience with the Bionic than those that have a poor one. However, the sheer number of types of issues, and how often I run across people having issues indicate that as a whole, this phone is a failure. Remember that with technology consistency is the important aspect. If a phone can't maintain a high 90% reliability and usability "rating" amongst it's users, it's a failure. I am, of course, talking about repeatable and demonstrable issues, not the occasional bad unit.

I personally cannot wait to get rid of this absolute travesty of a phone.

theblank

I am having the same crashing issues as you. Facebook, ChompSMS, the browser, camera... so on and so forth. It only got worse after the ICS update.

I have found, however, that there is at least something you can do to mitigate it a little and recover some battery life.

1.) Go to settings and then Apps:

2.) Change the tab to All

3.) Click on the Smart Actions application and click disable.

4.) Repeat for VZ Navigator and MOTOACTV

Right after the update, my battery life went from a good 28 hours+ down to about 6 if I was lucky. I discovered that these apps, especially the Smart Actions app, were draining the battery like you wouldn't believe. The phone also became a little more stable after these apps were disabled, although not by much.

It's not a perfect fix, but it's at least something you can do in the meantime. Hopefully it helps.

Jakeman1

I have to tell you that I have had most of those issues with my Bionic PRE-ICS and Motorola did put out updates / new OS to remediate that. Since ICS I have had NO issues at all and my phone works better then it ever has, as well as better then my Droid Razr Maxx.

You say that you have been in Technology for over a decade so you must remember little things like Microsoft Update which schedules updates for every single first Tuesday in the month and they schedule these before they even know of issues because they know there will be issues. Then you get little things like SP1 and SP2 and SP3 which all address issues and SP3 pretty much re-wrote the OS in XP. Then there was Vista which was so bad, the replaced it real fast with Windows 7 which was somewhat better and they are replacing it with Windows 8.

The point is that ALL of those issues you described are software related. I did not see if anyone asked if you have any third party apps on your phone as these are notorious for causing issues especially Facebook. As far as Smart Actions. You do have a point there and depending on how you have it set up, it will work the phone harder then others. With that though you do have a choice and that is to disable it and not use it then your issue goes away. Unfortunately when you use Smart actions and set it up, Smart Actions itself now needs to monitor your GPS or Location if you have any location triggers set up. It also has to watch the clock for time related items and all of the watching itself does use battery.

Jakeman1

You will NOT be able to uninstall stuff that is part of the OS Image (MyVerizon, Slacker, You Tube etc... as Verizon feels that since they made deals with these companies to get paid if you use them, that the apps should reside on your phone for ever because you might after months of not using it decide to give them a try. Unfortunately most of the apps they force on the phones (Bloatware) are garbage and in my mind Malware itself.

So you cannot remove them from your phone but you can disable them so they are not using any of your phones resources except physical storage.

Jakeman1

There are many more apps which you can disable that will make the phone more stable. Removing Facebook will give you the most improvement on the phone as the Facebook app itself is riddled with problems causing reboots, freezes, slowness and many more.

My list of what can be disabled is as follows (unless for some reason you do use them)

Amazon Kindle

Amazon MP3

V-Cast Apps

Backup Assistant

Citrix Receiver

Facebook

Google Play Books

Google+

MOG Music

Music Store

My Verizon Mobile (largest abuser of resources)

NFL Mobile

Slacker Radio

Slingbox

Smart Actions

Vcast Tones

Verizon Video

VZ Navigator

You Tube

theblank

I do realize that a lot of what is wrong with the Bionic is software related. I don't personally believe that the Microsoft experience concerning their operating systems is directly analogous to software involved with cellphones. Seeing as Verizon has to customize Android and each iteration of their custom build to each phone (which is why updates are so often delayed compared to other phones) I would still think that the point is pertinent when dealing with the Bionic as a whole. Now, if Microsoft had to tailor make their operating systems individually to work with AMD, Intel, Via, and all other sorts of different hardware architectures and combinations I'd agree with you. That being said, it would still raise the issue that the software intended for use with the problematic device is faulty, thus making the device itself faulty, since it is an integral and specialized portion of the device.

Indeed, some of the updates did fix my issues... for awhile. Over time, however, they either cropped up again, spawned new ones, or became worse. ICS introduced some new ones, and fixed some others.

I think if you'll read my initial post again, you'll find that I did in fact rule out 3rd party apps. The problems persisted even with a completely wiped and restored phone with no 3rd party apps installed. Also, with Smart Actions, I never even touched the profiles. I never activated it, and yet it was still running in the background by default. Disabling it was the only option available, and it solved a lot of problems. On a whim, I decided to try enabling it and setting up a profile to determine if simply giving it something to look for would "calm it down." No joy. It remains disabled.

If your Bionic is working well for you, then I'm glad. I've done everything I can short of rooting it and installing a custom ROM to bring my phone to full functionality. Any phone, or indeed, any hardware platform that requires me to disable key features, applications, and the like in order to gain usability is a failure in my estimation. I don't include 3rd party trivial features in that list, things such as Smart Actions. I mean the programs and management software that is intended to give the phone the connectivity that it is advertised to have and supposedly designed to handle. If I have to hamstring my phone, it's pointless.

tomw3141

Verizon Wireless Customer Support

Bionic ICS

I have had many problems, but one vexing one, which seems to have been with me since ICS, and related to several posts here.

I dont get LTE any more.

When I switch to LTE/CDMA/EvDo

on the Phone Info page

Sometimes (just sometimes) when I am NOT in an LTE area it will go to 3G, but mostly will go to no data and white bars on the phone signal

Always when in an LTE area it will go to No Data and white bars on the phone signal.

I took it to verizon, the technician looked at many things, replaced the LTE SIM card, still no help. He said that several people had been in with a similar or the same problem.

Any suggestions? Is there a different blog thread I should wade through?

P.S. When I reboot it always returns to

CDMA auto (PRL)

and connects via 3G or 1X

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