What is Verizon going to do for us?

[trparky]

Obviously this phone has a lot of issues, everything from the phone not holding a connection, forced-closed apps, random lock-ups, reboots, etc.

The Verizon Wireless web store seems to have a lot of these phones being sold as refurbished phones so I have to ask... is this phone having that many issues?  If that is the case, what is Verizon going to do for those of us that have bought this phone that has turned out to be quite a "lemon" in the eyes of the community?

[mramazingsmom]

I ask the same. I have been a "valued" customer since 1998, but the last 3 phones have left me ready to try AT&T.

The Blackberry Storm they sold me quickly failed, and the Verizon reps, I must say, were quick to admit it was a known problem and offer replacement. But the replacement we chose was the Samsung Fascinate.

My Fascinate slowly became completely useless...it started about 5months in with frequent freeze ups and less than average battery life. But at the end I was not receiving 8 out of roughly every 10 calls...not getting texts...it lasted about 3 hours in standby after coming off the charger.

 I had called Verizon and driven to the store on more than 10 occasions. They kept telling me there were no known issues. They blamed it on everything from my charger, to an advanced task killer that had been on the phone for 8mos...installed the day I bought it by a Verizon employee! I got them in Oct. 2010, on a "buy one get one" deal. My son's was having many of the same issues.

When I finally missed an emergent call (my mom was taken to the ER) I called demanding a new phone Suddenly, Verizon knew about every issue I was complaining about! The store manager went so far as to call them "useless junk". BUT... they offered us our choice of a Droid X2, Droid Incredible, OR....the "all new 4G Samsung Droid Charge" Touted by the rep as "amazing", "lightening fast", "LTE" and "an over $600 phone", my son and I decided to go with the Charge.

My list is similar to others, and started immediately with the weird fuzzy white lines when I change screens, or especially if you take the phone away from your ear quickly and look at the screen. 4days after we got them, my son told me he didn't want it. He asked if we could please go back and get one of the Doid X models instead. 

OK... a 16yr old techno guru who is already managing and creating websites for 2 companies in our area is going to give up the newest, latest "4G" technology for older "lower end" phones? PROBLEM. Apparently, his gives him an error message that all his videos and music (including videos taken with the phone and preloaded ringtones) are "not supported format" . It also forces closes apps constantly, freezes up, etc.

Mine freezes as well. My son even took a video with his phone on my screen totally locked up. Couldn't evn move the little puzzle piece or turn the phone off! The touch screen is completely useless and if I don't take the battery out, I wont get my calls while its frozen. It also:

-resets the screen brightness to the brightest setting

-creates an echo so others cant understand me

-dies so fast it's ridiculous! Charge to full, make 1 call (6min) and Im at 80% battery. I LIVE with a charger.

-alarm function is unreliable

etc...etc.

Went to Verizon ONE WEEK after getting both phones and told them what was going on. They basically said "no known issues" and too bad. I said I did not think it was an isolated "lemon" thing, since mine had been shipped to me, my son's was from the store, and both were having major issues. I asked why we couldn't get one of the other models they had offered, and was told the "promotion" was over because they had "resolved all the issues with the Fascinate.

THEN GIVE ME MY FASCINATE BACK.

Seriously, Verizon....WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO FOR US???

[WCMack]

Dear trparky,

I am not having the serious problems with my Charge that I see written about in this forum.  However, I participate because I like the phone a lot and can see that a lot of other owners are having problems that ruin their experience with the phone. 

These problems have many different possible causes; hardware defects, software glitches, network problems, user location, apps, both Market and non-Market, lack of user knowledge, etc.  It is sometimes difficult or impossible to tell what combination of causes may be at involved in creating a particular problem.  While it would be ideal for Verizon to try to deal with all these causes, it is unrealistic to think that it will, or frankly that it should.  Verizon can't deal with where you live or where you use the phone.  And it can't deal with which apps are downloaded to the phone by a particular user.

It is reasonable, however, to ask Verizon to deal with hardware issues and the lack of the latest OS on this very high-line phone.  Verizon should stand behind the capabilities of this phone as advertised, because basically all of us were induced to buy the Charge because of the advertised capabilities.  And  my common sense tells me that there are definitely hardware defects with many of these phones. 

I suggested in a prior post to another thread that Charge users who want Verizon to respond to these issues will probably have to take actions in addition to posting complaints to this forum, such as:

• Write to the new president of VZW (McAdams, I think). Nothing gets things moving like a complaint letter to the top, except 100+ complaint letters on the same issue!
• Go public. Got a local newspaper...complain to their consumer complaints department. Better yet, call one of those consumer watchdog people on local TV...they love stuff like this. I guarantee if it gets on TV anywhere in the country, VZW senior management will find out about it.
• Don't accept the solutions offered by VZW sales people or tech support, whether on the phone or at the store. Push the issue up the chain until you get to somebody who has the power to help you on the spot. I guarantee there is somebody and some level who has the authority to agree to pretty much any solution you want.
• Don't get worn down by excuses like, "he's not here" or "you can't talk to him", or by the refusal of some local manager to help you. If you get stonewalled, bring in a draft of your letter (see above) before you send it and see if that loosens things up. Ask for the names of all the people who refused to help you, so you can name them in the letter!

[Davidoo]

Ok, here is a copy of the letter going out to Verizon's CEO in tomorrow's mail outlining my frustration with this issue of having old software and non-functionality of features of this phone.  I edited some items for privacy and some lines may not line up right after pasting this into the post.

August 8, 2011

Daniel S. Mead, President and CEO

Verizon Wireless

1 Verizon Way

Basking Ridge, NJ 07920-1025

Dear Mr. Mead:

I am writing to express my disappointment with the latest Droid Smartphone
known as the Charge, and the failure of Verizon to provide updates that are
known to fix the major issues of this device.

I have been a Verizon customer since the 90s before it
was Verizon (was known as PrimeCo in Florida). This is my first Smartphone so I
went in to the store and asked for the best possible phone with all the latest
functions and capabilities.  They sold me
the Droid Charge which is as of this writing, still Verizon's most expensive,
advanced, and latest phone. 

I was very excited to see the Charge had both a rear and
front facing camera.  Great for video
chat, right?  Wrong!  The newest, most expensive Droid came loaded
with the old operating system, 2.2  Froyo, which does not support a front facing
camera with Skype.  Really? You tout the front
facing camera but the software doesn't support it?  Then as I learn more about these phones I
find the newest operating system, 2.3 Gingerbread, is available but Verizon is
dragging their feet in releasing it for our phones.

Come on guys, I know we have bought and paid for these
phones and you are already thinking about the next big Smartphone to come out
and the Charge is old news, but don't forget about us already.  Most of us have 2 year contracts and we
deserve support as these phones have only been out a couple of months.     

After having the phone for a few weeks I find that my old
Env3 feature phone could do some things this new phone can't.  For example, the old Env3 handled voice and
text messages just fine in my 2011 Ford with Sync.  The brand new Droid Charge cannot do text via
Bluetooth/Sync?  Text is not supported
via Bluetooth on the Charge.  This is
verified by VZW Customer Support. 

My expectation is that the newest software (version 2.3
Gingerbread) be sent to these phones as an update within the next few weeks so
we can actually use the features on this phone, or I be given the option to
switch to the next available Droid that comes out (probably the Bionic) that
can actually use the features on the phone and has the proper software.  I would even agree to pay any difference in
the upgrade price if the Bionic upgrade price is more than the $299 I paid for
the Charge.   I paid $600 for two of
these phones on my family plan plus another $60/month for two data plans and am
very disappointed to find out about missing functions and old software that I
am stuck with for 2 years.

[trparky]

I've already contacted one of those people you see on TV local news channels about this issue and have pointed him in the direction of people who have this issue.

Namely this thread --> http://community.vzw.com/t5/DROID-Charge-by-Samsung/Charge-dropping-3G-service-quot-Network-not-avai...

I told this person that I'm available to talk tomorrow about these issues and have stated that I'm not the only person who is having these issues with this phone and that thousands of people across the nation are having various issues from dropped connectivity, random lockups and reboots, etc.  Granted, I've never experienced a random lockup or reboot so I can't really speak of that but I can say that I experience the dropped connectivity issues on a daily basis.

[TamaraH_VZW]

trparky & Community-

Thank you for taking the time to reach out on the forum regarding the concerning your Charge.

I too am a consumer so I know how important it is to have a phone that works.

Data connectivity issues are expected to be addressed in next software release, however at this time I don't have a date as to when that will be. On the bright side, since we have gotten this news as of 8/3/11, we know Samsung is working on a resolution. Will keep you posted when the plan is finalized.

trparky,  I am concerned with your device force closing and randomly locking up. This is normally a sign of a corrupt application. 

Please ensure you don't  have an anti-virus or task killer app downloaded on your Charge.

These apps can actually adversely affect your phone.

Are you noticing the force close message when you go to a specific application? Does it reboot/freeze on it's own?

I want you to put the Charge in SAFE MODE which temporarily disables all applications that have been installed via the Android Market. Performing this troubleshooting step is necessary to determine whether a 3rd party application is the cause of an Operating System / Application issue.

Here are the steps to enable/disable  SAFE MODE.

Please advise if you are still having issues with rebooting, freezing once you have SAFE MODE enabled.

[trparky]

I'm not having the problem with Forced Closes, other users are.  My problems are limited to these issues.

• Sometimes data doesn't work.  Though since I switched SIM cards as per someone in Technical Support, I've not had this issue as of late.  I'm hoping that I'm not jynxing myself here.
• GPS isn't always getting a lock.  Takes sometimes minutes to get a lock or I have to reboot the device to make it work.
• Device freezes.  It's like it's "thinking."  This manifests itself as sluggishness switching between home screens.
• When plugged into the default wall charger (the one the phone came with) it says it's connected to something with USB Mass Storage Device support.  Obviously, that's not the case.  This slows down charging of the phone.
• Dropped calls/calls with no audio.  Seems to have cleared up but again, I hope I'm not jynxing myself here.
• Sometimes you can't answer the phone when the phone is locked.  You may try and move the puzzle-piece but nothing happens.
• Signal levels seem to be low.  This seems to be an issue more with WiFi than 3G and 4G in which you could be in a vacinity of a WiFi hotspot but the phone still says that it has a weak signal.  This also happens with 3G and 4G but it seems that WiFi has the most issues.
• Timer and Alarm functionality is broken.  Alarm doesn't always "ring" at the proper time.  Timer loses the time.
• Programs like JuiceDefender cause data not to come back after it has put it to sleep.
• And the biggest issue of all... No Gingerbread!  I'm sorry for bringing this up all the time but if you look at the features that Gingerbread brings with it you'll understand why the community wants it so badly.  It brings with it some badly needed new functionality that really allows the device to be on a level playing field with the likes of Apple, even beat the snot out of Apple.  Google did very well with 2.3 Gingerbread.

[Davidoo]

TamaraH,

Thanks for the reply.  Sorry, I don't think that is an acceptable answer.  We know the phone doesn't work right, we're working on a solution, but can't tell you when it will happen?  What other type of business could get by with this. 

So, does that mean I don't have to pay all of my bill until you get it worked out?  We all paid $299 for this thing that doesn't work right, plus an extra $30 per month for "data."  For me, who bought 2 of them, that's $600 and $60 per month.  No, sorry, I'm printing all of these pages from the forums about this phone not working, and taking them to the VZW store and asking them to credit my bill for services not delivered.

[Davidoo]

Sorry for the double post....Verizon can't even get their website to work right.   IE9 has been out for months, get your site to work with it.  I always thought Verizon had the best technology, guess not anymore.

[Pyre]

I use IE9 to post to this site and have never had a problem here. Whats do want to blame Verizon for next? Bad weather?

[Davidoo]

Pyre, I appreciate the fact you use IE9 and have never double posted. Good for you. I know how to work a browser and use compatability mode. Problem is I have my computer set to delete my cookies and cache every few days to keep it running smoothly. When you do this you have to remember to set compatability mode again or you will double post. So, my point is how hard can it be for a supposed cutting edge tech company such as Verizon to make their forums work with IE9, a browser that possibly 25% of the entire world may be using?

[Pyre]

First off, Davidoo... 'double posting' isn't the beginning and ending of a satisfactory user experience here at the Verizon forums. I also find it quick to respond to command and gives a lot of options for font appearance and image loading. This is particularly nice, seeing as how this is all free of charge. I want to keep in mind that Big red doesnt have to set up and manage this forum. There's nothing in anybodys contract that says the company is obliged to hire and pay people to put a place for people to go an rag on them and threaten to sue them and call them names AND THEN criticize how its configured. I just think its amusing to see someone to state in the same paragraph that they have their browser set to purge cookies and then blame a site admin for how the browser reacts to the site!

You said it yourself and yet I bet you don't even see how ridiculous it is do you?

[trparky]

People actually still use Internet Explorer willingly?  Wow, I didn't think anyone ever used that browser outside of business environments.

I've moved onto Google Chrome and Firefox.  They are MUCH better browsers.

[Davidoo]

Pyre, I believe you are somewhat naive in the purpose and reason for these forums and in the perceived benevolence on Verizon's part.  "First off", we are paying VZW more and more money all the time for our products and we have the right to have them work as advertised. 

These forums are set up to save VZW a ton of money as in most cases, we the consumers of the product solve the issues they should have a support staff to handle.  What other business besides computers and phones sell you a product and get you to sign a contract to pay them no matter what and leave it to the customers to solve their issues. 

How often have you really seen anyone from Verizon jump in and solve a problem?  For example, the "Charge Dropping Calls" thread went on for a week with over 100 posts before someone from Verizon entered a useless post asking people to PM them with what is happening even though there were already 100 posts telling them exactly what was happening.  If there are 100 posts for this problem you know there are probably thousands more people out there with the problem that do not take the time to post, yet you call customer support and they always act like they have never heard of the problem.  All they ever do is act as parrots and tell you to remove the battery, sim card, sd card and restart the phone.  My sim card is going to be worn out if I keep taking it out of the phone.  Going to the store is the same way.  They have no clue as they are just there to sell phones.  There is never an offer to credit your account because you are not getting what you paid for.  Heck, even my cable company offers me a perk if I have a bad service experience. 

Now, thousands of us paid top dollar for the Charge and there is a huge list of problems making it unusable at times, but we are stuck with it for 2 years and that is just tough.  Again, I ask, what other business could get by with this?  Any other business will credit you or give you a refund if something doesn't work.  You really don't think there is anything in the contract or otherwise that Verizon has an obligation to respond to customers and assist them in getting the product to work?  

Bottom line is Verizon is not providing this "free" forum out of the goodness of their hearts.  They are saving big $ as we solve their problems.  I would argue that the $600 I paid for the 2 phones plus another $60 a month for data and almost $200 every month for the whole family does not make these forums free. 

The funny thing is I have always been a huge Verizon supporter.  I've had them since before they were Verizon in the 90's (PrimeCo, GTE mobilnet, then Verizon).  I've never had one problem with any phone or service before.  In this case I feel betrayed that this phone has so many problems and for the most part I am just told "it's yours for 2 years and even though it doesn't work right you still have to pay full price each month, and in 2013 you can upgrade again."  

[Tidbits]

---

Davidoo wrote:

Pyre, I believe you are somewhat naive in the purpose and reason for these forums and in the perceived benevolence on Verizon's part.  "First off", we are paying VZW more and more money all the time for our products and we have the right to have them work as advertised. 

These forums are set up to save VZW a ton of money as in most cases, we the consumers of the product solve the issues they should have a support staff to handle.  What other business besides computers and phones sell you a product and get you to sign a contract to pay them no matter what and leave it to the customers to solve their issues. 

How often have you really seen anyone from Verizon jump in and solve a problem?  For example, the "Charge Dropping Calls" thread went on for a week with over 100 posts before someone from Verizon entered a useless post asking people to PM them with what is happening even though there were already 100 posts telling them exactly what was happening.  If there are 100 posts for this problem you know there are probably thousands more people out there with the problem that do not take the time to post, yet you call customer support and they always act like they have never heard of the problem.  All they ever do is act as parrots and tell you to remove the battery, sim card, sd card and restart the phone.  My sim card is going to be worn out if I keep taking it out of the phone.  Going to the store is the same way.  They have no clue as they are just there to sell phones.  There is never an offer to credit your account because you are not getting what you paid for.  Heck, even my cable company offers me a perk if I have a bad service experience. 

Now, thousands of us paid top dollar for the Charge and there is a huge list of problems making it unusable at times, but we are stuck with it for 2 years and that is just tough.  Again, I ask, what other business could get by with this?  Any other business will credit you or give you a refund if something doesn't work.  You really don't think there is anything in the contract or otherwise that Verizon has an obligation to respond to customers and assist them in getting the product to work?  

Bottom line is Verizon is not providing this "free" forum out of the goodness of their hearts.  They are saving big $ as we solve their problems.  I would argue that the $600 I paid for the 2 phones plus another $60 a month for data and almost $200 every month for the whole family does not make these forums free. 

The funny thing is I have always been a huge Verizon supporter.  I've had them since before they were Verizon in the 90's (PrimeCo, GTE mobilnet, then Verizon).  I've never had one problem with any phone or service before.  In this case I feel betrayed that this phone has so many problems and for the most part I am just told "it's yours for 2 years and even though it doesn't work right you still have to pay full price each month, and in 2013 you can upgrade again."  

---

One could simply not sign a contract and buy devices outright.  The contract you are signing is NO DIFFERENT than any layway or loan.  The biggest thing you can do is bring it up with Samsung more than Verizon.  People keep thinking because of that contract they sign  Verizon is liable for everything, but as reflected in the 1998 lawsuit and various ones after that it showed carriers are not liable for everything people try and hold them accountable for.

If I don't get what I pay for I will walk away and do without it.  Money talks more than complaining about it...  I buy my devices outright and if they don't work out during the trial period I return them and move on.  It's not worth my time to hold onto them to complain left and right.

[Tidbits]

I wanted to add. The support staff doesn't know everything just like every human being in the world. They are often underpaid like the rest of the world so they are not going to spend the time to get to know every device on their lineup, and know how the devices are coded, and what bugs are found on every single device. That's asking too much for any human being out there.

[WCMack]

I would guess that people join and post to this forum for a lot of different reasons: to seeks answers to problems, to vent their anger or frustration with the Droid Charge or Verizon Wireless, to provide answers if they can, or just to be a part of the Droid Charge "community".

I have had an overall good experience with my Charge, and I haven't suffered (fortunately) from some of the more serious and common  problems that other members have posted about.  But I can understand and sympathize with the feelings of many that somehow they have paid for less than they were promised.  To some extent, this is the usual hype that surrounds any new product, particularly one that is very high-tech.  But we get emotionally wrapped up in our phones, for some reason, and this makes the anger and frustration deeper when the phone doesn't deliver as promised or worse, complicates our lives with problems we don't know how to solve.

 I think Davidoo is right that Verizon wants us to be here, to help each other and perhaps save them money.  I also think Verizon is aware that the emotional venting that goes on here may prevent people from taking other more effective action to force Verizon to work on our problems.

To me, the best use of this forum is for us to help each other try to solve the problems we have with the phone, or to suggest alternatives if we can't solve it here.  Getting into collateral discussions, such as which browser we use or how we use it, misses the point, in my opinion.

Anyway, keep the issues coming and let's try to focus on dealing with them!

[HoustonHeart]

Eait on the GIngerbrad release. Even the current leaks show a large improvement in fuctions. THe current BEta tests build (2 ahead of leak) are stable and fixed issues with stable performance.

The froyo build on the charge was a generic rush til lsamsung released 2.4.3

The upgraded snap dragon (even tho its a single core its a double threaded) works well with Gingerbread but doesn't seem to liek the slapped in froyo build. Simply not optimized.

[trparky]

So wait... Are we going to be getting 2.3 Gingerbread or are we going to get 2.4 Icecream Sandwich?

Yeah, it does seem that the 2.2 Froyo version for this phone was thrown together last minute, it has that kind of feeling.  Almost as if they had to rush this phone to market and we're seeing the results of that bad decision.  Samsung and Verizon have a lot of public relations cleanup ahead of them on this product.  Just look at all of the problems that people post about on these forums and you'll see that they have a lot of cleaning up to do to fix their public image.

I'm sure that these many threads already have some decent Google PageRank scores so all it takes is someone to search Google and they'll find that this phone has a lot of issues.  This flop has the potential to kill Samsung's reputation in the Android Community.

I did look up the specifications on the Cortex A8 Hummingbird clocked at 1GHz and nowhere does it mention anything about being able to run two threads simultaneously (basically Hyperthreading).

[Pyre]

"Pyre, I believe you are somewhat naive in the purpose and reason for these forums and in the perceived benevolence on Verizon's part."  Naïve? I worked for the company for six years as a sales rep, so I feel pretty confident that I know a whole lot more about what the company’s intentions are than most.

"First off", we are paying VZW more and more money all the time for our products and we have the right to have them work as advertised." That's not entirely correct. Verizon’s prices have nt increased. My family plan is 700 minutes. It hasnt changed since it was first offered more than 7 years ago. In fact prices have gone down while what you get for them has increased. The average cost of an analog cellular phone in 1989 was nearly $2,000. Its range was less than a common walkie talkie, it had no graphic display and it was the size and weight of 2 year old kid. Calling plans gave local coverage only, no long distance, no caller ID, call forwarding, no voicemail, no messaging, no data… and they were 4 times as high as what we have now!

"These forums are set up to save VZW a ton of money as in most cases, we the consumers of the product solve the issues they should have a support staff to handle."  These forums are for VZW customers to share tips and tricks about phones and service, NOT so that we can come here to get tech support! There’s a phone number for that, and you know it! The only reason there are VZW employees here at all is because there are some people that don’t know where or how to call to get the real issues taken care of.

"What other business besides computers and phones sell you a product and get you to sign a contract to pay them no matter what and leave it to the customers to solve their issues?"Health clubs, satellite TV services, copiers/printers, office supplies, rental cars, janitorial supplies/services… shall I go on? These are ALL companies that have contract-related agreements, and you can expect the same amount of support from them that you get from Verizon.

"How often have you really seen anyone from Verizon jump in and solve a problem?  For example, the "Charge Dropping Calls" thread went on for a week with over 100 posts before someone from Verizon entered a useless post asking people to PM them with what is happening even though there were already 100 posts telling them exactly what was happening."  I know that this has been said before. I can’t believe you’ve missed it. But here it is: THIS IS A USER-MANAGED FORUM!! It’s peer to peer. It’s a place for customers to post findings and share info. You want help from Verizon? Call! Can't call? There's an email and chat option at verizonwireless.com! (Wanna make unsubstantiated accusations and have other people read it and agree with you? This is the right place for that)

"Now, thousands of us paid top dollar for the Charge and there is a huge list of problems making it unusable at times, but we are stuck with it for 2 years and that is just tough.  Again, I ask, what other business could get by with this?  Any other business will credit you or give you a refund if something doesn't work."  Name one retailer that would take THAT level of responsibility over a product they didn’t also make! Name one! The closest you can get is Wal-Mart, and they have a no questions asked return policy. There's no product support line. I think what you are missing is that Verizon is a retailer. It SELLS phones, it doesn’t MAKE them. Yet it spends millions of dollars each year trying to placate people that can’t seem to tell the difference! And since when did a credit or a refund solve a problem like you claim to have? Is that what it really comes down to for you? Get a payoff? is that going to satisfy you?

"Bottom line is Verizon is not providing this "free" forum out of the goodness of their hearts.  They are saving big $ as we solve their problems. Really? I’ have counted at least 7 Verizon employees that have posted to a USER-MANAGED forum in the last two days.  This forum is well-maintained with staff monitoring and enforcing terms of use, staff monitoring and maintaining the servers, and staff monitoring above-user issues. Since I haven’t seen any increases in my bill for all of this, I would say that its free. THe fact that you don’t even have to be a customer to use this forum only proves my point. Ever wonder how many ATT or Sprint employees are here ripping into Big Red in order to boost their own sales?

"I've never had one problem with any phone or service before.  In this case I feel betrayed that this phone has so many problems and for the most part I am just told "it's yours for 2 years and even though it doesn't work right you still have to pay full price each month, and in 2013 you can upgrade again." Then don’t sign the contract because its for people that want phones but don’t want to pay full price. Verizon agrees to subsidize the phone in exchange for you staying a customer for 2 years. It is not mandatory. You can pay $600 for a phone anytime you want and still get the warranty if you want and can leave anytime. You can also go with prepay. And btw… take a close look at that contract you bought. You know what ISN’T in it?? ANYTHING about equipment! Nothing. Not a word about how the phone will perform, how long it will last, or - MOST IMPORTANTLY - how much support you can expect to get from Verizon if it fails. Not a word.

[WCMack]

Dear Davidoo and Pyre,

Can I respectfully suggest that your discussion will really not result in a winner.  Both of you are valued members of the community, and each has their views, whether we think they are correct or not.  Isn't the point of being part of this forum to help others with their Droid Charge issues (of which there seems to be many) and to get answers to our own questions?

If you want to carry on a discussion to prove who knows more about what VZW does or does not intend, and whether they are a corporate villain or not, consider using PMs to do so.  Let us know who wins...