Samsung Galaxy Nexus Data/Voice drop issue and Samsung's Repair process

[ChrisAbbey]

If you have a working Samsung Galaxy Nexus, I applaud your luck, I however have not been as lucky.  I would like to share my experience with the community and find out your experience as well.

I purchased the device last month from a friend who's company purchased corporate phones for all their sales staff.  This friend sold me the phone and this is where the story begins.  The phone is two months old, as verfied by VZW reps as well as Samsung Technical Support Representatives (TSR), so it is still under Samsung's warranty.  So day 1 with the phone, I noticed the phone was having issues maintaining 4g/3g connections when shopping Google Play.  The data would suddenly drop, and I would get the ugly no connection found error on the screen.  Approximately, 1-2 minutes later data would connect and I continued on.  Later on that day I discovered that the phone would drop even during voice calls, and would take the same time to come back up.  This of course was the icing on the cake, so I looked around the forums to discover a fix.  Here are some listing of websites describing the same issues:

community.verizonwireless.com/thread/756662

androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus/522664-poor-signal-strength-dropped-calls-galaxy-nexus.html

forums.androidcentral.com/verizon-galaxy-nexus/154093-experiment-voice-calls-dropping-when-switching...

So I contacted VZW for assistance, knowing I would not get far because of the fact that this phone was not provisioned by VZW.  They suggested however to go through the Samsung repair process.  So following VZW advice as well as some helpful people on some of the forums I contacted Samsung USA Mobile as well as downloaded an app called No Signal Alert to track my drops. 

I contacted a nice TSR that promptly opened an RMA request and had my phone shipped to them via 2day air.  No typical questions (I however told him everything) that come with the repair process, so I assumed that they were well aware of this issue.  I shipped the device, crossed my fingers and watched the Repair tracker like a hawk.  The device was received and the repair process begins.........however, the device sat in received status for almost 4 days, then was promptly moved to a "Preliminary Evaluation" phase.  The device status sat in "Preliminary Evaluation" for another 2 days, I contacted Samsung TSR to find out more information and stated once again what my issue was, asked to have the note read back to me and confirmed the issue once again.  The next morning my status was changed to Solution: S/W updated.  Now prior to me sending the device out, I factory reset the device, updated the device, even loaded the google and vzw firmware on the device in hopes to fix this issue.  So seeing that their solution was just to update the software was a bit troubling, especially since I have read on a variety of forums where these issues are fixed, usually resulted in a board replacement. 

So I contacted the TSR and requested that the issue be re-examined prior to sending the device back to me, I noted that several people are having this issue and for the 5th time I told the TSR that I have already accomplished a S/W update and refresh.  However, because I am just a dumb consumer, the rep assured me that I would receive a fixed device and told me not to worry. 

I received the device back today, and promptly activated it and ran it through the battery of tests for a typical use.  I downloaded apps, surfed the web and made calls.  With in 30 minutes of me activating the device it dropped connection over 9 times.  Needless to say I was upset.  I contacted Samsung Mobile USA again and went through the TSR typical process (name, phone, whats the issue, apology for the issue) I requested that this issue should be elevated and waited to speak to the advanced TSR.  Because I have no other activated phone available to me, I got to call them on my "fixed" Samsung Galaxy Nexus" as I spoke with the ATSR, my call dropped and I got to start the process again.

Finally reaching the ATSR I called previously we continued the back and forth game of what can you do to fix this.  She initially responded that they would expedite shipping to and from Samsung.  However, I have already gone through this process before.  She then offered to expedited the repair process and asked if that would be alright.  Mind you this is a holiday weekend, so I will not be able to use the phone until after it comes back to me from the 2nd "repair".  Unfortunately this is all Samsung allows their ATSR to offer for these issues.

So my questions are has everyone had this issue?  Have you had a GNEX repaired successfully?  Why does samsung think it is acceptable to botch a product, then botch the repair process and expect the customer to go another week with out their phone with another repair?

I asked for the corporate email and phone and received this;  >Email address deleted to comply with VZW ToS< I suggest those with GNEX issues contact this address and ask Samsung to fix their faulty product.

Now I must locate a basic phone (most likely buy another one) just so I can make and receive calls on my only form of voice communications, this will be over 2 weeks without a phone, and I never actually got to use it fully.  This is poor business practices on Samsung's part.  Oh and if VZW is feeling charitable, I would totally love a phone to borrow.....  Please let me know your Samsung repair process and let me know if anyone has had a GNEX successfully do what Samsung says it does.

Also the phone is updated to 4.0.4 with the new Radio update.  Still no luck.

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

[ChrisAbbey]

Update to my story, with no word back from Samsung other than redoing the whole process over again, I went to my local VZW store and they were happy to send me a refurb.  I got it today, and there is no radio issue.  Thank you.