my 4G died :-/ (anyone else?) -> Can you dial *228 option 2 on your Galaxy S III?
TaxmanX
Enthusiast - Level 2

Things were great for a couple of months and then one day nothing but 3G.

Called support and things escalated to the engineers and network folks even.

Nothing anyone can do will get 4G to work again on this phone.

Twiddled all kinds of settings, battery pulls, new SIM,  multiple reboots and wipes.... nothing.

-----------------

Sounds like Verizon is going to replace my phone, this just happened at a bad time.  I don't have a home address to ship the phone to, so that makes sending a replacement kind of difficult right now.

Everything else is great... no complaints other than that!

Anyone else seen this?  I am concerned it may happen again with the "replacement" phone as well. 😕

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Re: After the 30 days warranty - my 4G died :-/ (anyone else?)
TaxmanX
Enthusiast - Level 2

tikibar1 wrote:

I hope we don't because if they do have a 4G LTE phone and they try calling *228 and it goes through, it will likely kill their SIM card.

Well to be fair - it does NOT kill the SIM card, it just won't let the phone go into 4G mode (regardless of the options you select in Settings). 

If someone else can replicate the issue - all they need to do to FIX the problem is go get a new SIM card from local Verizon store. 

I am not clear on if other folks with the same phone are being ALLOWED to call *228 or if it is being blocked for them.  It would be helpful if someone who IS able to call *228 and has access to a Verizon store nearby... (or works at Verizon) test the problem.  If this IS causing the SIM to be stuck in 3g mode, and others can confirm it - then Verizon CAN fix it.  If it is just me - then maybe there is something messed up in my Verizon account that is ALLOWING *228 to be dialed?

So far I have spent more than a month on this issue: 3 replacement phones and 5 replacement SIM cards at this point, just asking if anyone else can confirm this.

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Re: After the 30 days warranty - my 4G died :-/ (anyone else?)
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Hello there, TaxmanX!
By now, I'm sure you have received the replacement device, and I want to check on you to see how things are going with the 4G since you have gotten it.
As long as you are in a 4G area with your 4G device, there shouldn't be a problem with 4G unless there is something going on with the phone.
It appears as though that may have been the problem since there is nothing the troubleshooting was able to help.


Tamara H.
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

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Re: After the 30 days warranty - my 4G died :-/ (anyone else?)
TaxmanX
Enthusiast - Level 2

Well the new phone still didn't fix the problem...

After calling support again, trying things... took it back in to local folks and got a second NEW SIM-card- which DID fix the problem (so far at least).  Perhaps the first phone screwed up the replacement SIM-card somehow, it did work for about 45 minutes on the original phone before it flipped back to 3G.

The new SIM-card doesn't support the ISIS stuff though... so will check back with the local Verizon folks here in Virginia.  I know the replacement SIM-card, I was given in Utah DID support ISIS (even if 3G wasn't working - it was working with ISIS.

Thanks for the reply...

 

(Update)

Well... back to broken

Things have been 4G since the sim swap, until today. New phone and new sim are now stuck in 3G mode again.

This is ridiculous....

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Re: After the 30 days warranty - my 4G died :-/ (anyone else?)
TaxmanX
Enthusiast - Level 2

Update:

Replaced the phone for the 3rd time, and a new SIM (that makes 4 SIMs)

Worked for about 4 hours - then back to 3G only. 😞

There was a system update (minor, didn't reboot that I could see.

I give up... 😕

Sounds like the local Verizon store is going to replace my phone with something else (which IS very nice) - problem now is... what phone do I go with?  I had a Droid X before this.. so back to Moto?  Maybe it will happen to ANY Android phone I select?  (as in there is something wrong in my google profile causing the problem? (scary)

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Re: After the 30 days warranty - my 4G died :-/ (anyone else?)
DG360
Enthusiast - Level 1

Hmm. It *could* be caused by one of your paid apps. Those will keep coming back due to your Google profile.  Which apps have you installed?

Re: After the 30 days warranty - my 4G died :-/ (anyone else?)
TaxmanX
Enthusiast - Level 2

I had quite a few apps originally on my Samsung, but don't recall anything that caused it to quit working.

With recent replaced phones I kept the apps to a minimum (because they were a pain to replace all the time)

The current apps I have on the latest phone to fail:

Slices : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onelouder.tweetvision

Swiftkey 3 : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.touchtype.swiftkey

Dropbox : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dropbox.android

Friendcaster : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.senab.blueNotifyFree

Google Voice :https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googlevoice

Flixster : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.flixster.android

Smart Tools : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kr.aboy.tools

1Weather : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.handmark.expressweather

Paperland Pro (downloaded but not active) : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joko.paperlandpro

Nothing too fancy - just some of the core apps I enjoy using.  Tonight I will check to see if the dealer will allocate another SIM to see if I leave things STOCK if the problem happens though.  The problem MAY be happening after a PRL runs (update roaming capability by dialing *228,,,2).

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Re: After the 30 days warranty - my 4G died :-/ (anyone else?)
tikibar1
Community Leader
Community Leader

TaxmanX wrote:

The problem MAY be happening after a PRL runs (update roaming capability by dialing *228,,,2).

You don't dial *228, option 2 on 4G LTE phones; that's handled by the SIM card.

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Re: After the 30 days warranty - my 4G died :-/ (anyone else?)
TaxmanX
Enthusiast - Level 2

tikibar1 wrote:

TaxmanX wrote:

The problem MAY be happening after a PRL runs (update roaming capability by dialing *228,,,2).

You don't dial *228, option 2 on 4G LTE phones; that's handled by the SIM card.

Hmm, nobody @ Verizon mentioned that ... I will check with them about it tonight again to confirm.  If that is what killed the 4g, they should fix that as well!

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Re: After the 30 days warranty - my 4G died :-/ (anyone else?)
tikibar1
Community Leader
Community Leader

Most 4G LTE phones won't let a call to *228 go through, but from reading posts on this forum, I think they sometimes do.  The PRL updates are managed by the SIM card in the LTE phones and should happen automatically; rebooting the phone periodically may assist.  You might try a new SIM card; they're free at Corporate Verizon stores.

Re: After the 30 days warranty - my 4G died :-/ (anyone else?)
DG360
Enthusiast - Level 1
I haven't dialed *228 on my Note 2, but my prior HTC phones all would pop up a window saying "A Verizon wireless SIM card automatically updates your roaming capabilities" or something similar indicating *228 wasn't necessary.  *228 is associated with 3G.  Did this phone actually go through with the call?  If that's the root of the problem, please post back

Looking at your apps list, nothing stands out as something that could cause trouble.