So an update, got a call from a Verizon Wireless exec about these problems. He told me 2 FCC complaints reached him, and he was there to solve all my problems. Let's hope for something happens with this 
Let me start with saying that I have enjoyed my services with Verizon Wireless for the last 6-7 years and that just recently I have encountered a large amount of issues with the LTE network. In addition I feel neglected due to the lack of initiative and communication I am getting from most of Verizon Wireless. I know this is mostly related to policy, and that it's been difficult to get responds from representatives.
So I have several issues that have occurred in a three month span, some of which Verizon was responsible for, and some that Samsung was. It all started with a Galaxy Nexus device catching fire due to a short in the USB port, which led to the inevitable flame, and my throwing arm. In the end of this incident I had called Verizon in an attempt to warranty the phone, due to policy physical damage is out of warranty and considered personal neglect. In any case this issue went back and forth, a day later I decided to call Samsung for a repair request. Explaining the entire issue in detail, they told me that it would be taken care of no questions asked. After about a week Samsung had received my device they had changed the notes to charge me for the damages, in addition that I should pay immediately. I called back as soon as I saw this and asked why I was being asked to pay for a defective device that could have caused damages to its surroundings. The technician informed me that the previous person had routed my call incorrectly, and that the issue had to be escalated to "Office of the President" (As he told me, this is mostly a legal department). He also told me that Samsung was completely liable for the issues that had happened and to expect a call back. I left a message, two weeks later however I still had not received a response. But rather another representative, suddenly changed the flags on my ticket to void the charges, and send me a completely repaired device free.
The ticket log from Samsung: http://i.imgur.com/fAMFy.png
However during my time of this entire incident, I had received a courtesy replacement phone including a new sim card. When I first started using this device, I suddenly noticed a single problem, my 4G connection was non-persistent, and kept dropping. Assuming this was a hardware issue, after reading countless posts about similar issues. I had ran over to the Verizon kiosk to confirm the issue with a sales rep. They attempted replacing the sim card again, and confirmed the issue, leaving a note on the account. Following this I had a customer support rep, send me another device overnight. When this other device arrived, I noticed the same issue occurring. After taking a look at both devices they were both identical in functionality. After some research for solutions, I realized that you could switch to CDMA only and use the phone perfectly fine. However the LTE problem still existed, so I found another workaround for preventing the tower from dropping my connection, creating an application to leave a persistent and active traffic connection. This however did not work very long, and resulted in the degradation of the service over time. I noticed that the traffic was slowing down below 3g speeds, and that suddenly my downstream was dropping packets. The one thing I realized was the upstream was unaffected.
Slowly after a month had passed, my old device was repaired and sent back to me, I switched the sim cards out to use the repaired phone. The LTE problem did not exist on this phone, which made me wonder was this a hardware defect on the replacement devices or a software / network issue. The connection reliability continued to degrade over time, after heavy usage of the device. Even after resets or switching out the devices the issue still would occur. Moving did not seem to fix this issue either. I decided to send the two replacements back, and keep the repair phone due to the reliable LTE connection. During this time I had requested 3 trouble tickets for fixing the problem. All of the mentioned that my area was marginal signal coverage, and that my software was out of date. Both of these statements were invalid, due to the fact my software was the latest, in addition the signal was not marginal according the the phone, but in fact higher than what they were getting due to me being higher up and having LoS.
A 4th ticket was put in to rectify the issue that all these previous tickets were invalid, and that my issue were not user error but rather a network issue that needed to be investigated. After about a week of waiting for a reply, I called in today and they told me the ticket closed with the details that they confirmed the issue with the tower in my area, and issued a repair ticket for it. The technician notated that one of the directional antennas was defective, and not operating correctly. They in the last week repaired this, so far the connection looks more reliable, but I am still having degradation issues.
I know this is a lot to read but seriously what am I supposed to do with a device that had 50% availability for the last three months due to both a service providers issue?
Also the manufacturer is arguing with me about liability, and that Verizon is responsible for the device issues, what do I do here?
Also what will you do for the customers who also have similar problems? (Many of them are claimed non-known)
I've never heard of any phone by any manufacture on any carrier catching fire..
As far as the phone catching fire i've never heard of that with any manufacturer... but verizon is a service provider they have no control over such a random issue.
As far as the 4g dropping, depends on your area. Some areas its a known issue, setting your phone to 3g will fix it till a software update comes out. The problem is switching between 4g and 3g the phone loses the connection alltogether
As far as verizon they are not responsible for device issues. no carrier is. They replace devices as a courtesy.
Do you know of any new 4g towers going up in your area recently?
The fire was caused by a short on the board, it is very rare when this happens. I've had this happen on a laptop before with a usb port, but once the power pin is feeding power into the data pin, you already have pretty much destroyed the controller component. It's possible to happen on phones if the pins in your battery port get bent in the wrong way.
Today I got a call from a technician from the Network Repair Bureau for Verizon Wireless. He informed me that there are known issues, for the LTE network, nationwide. The Galaxy Nexus however, he told me that it has some hot issues, such as the signal issue, and the defective hardware, and software configurations.
The funny thing that he asked for my hack/bypass that I created to prevent disconnections by the tower, along with some IMS crap.
My 4g never has dropped down to 3g, it simply either stays on 4g, or gets disconnected completely. The problem about that software update is that its a conflict with Google's protocol against the carriers protocol. Which has caused many problems for all android devices.
Many Verizon reps told me that they have there own warranty policy, in addition to the manufacture warranty. However I do agree its not the carriers responsibility, but rather they need to push Samsung to explain themselves about the defect.
They were put up perhaps three months ago.
So an update, got a call from a Verizon Wireless exec about these problems. He told me 2 FCC complaints reached him, and he was there to solve all my problems. Let's hope for something happens with this
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.