Fascinate Problems

[bhae91]

I got a new Samsung Fascinate when I had a Kin 2 and they discontinued the software--WITHOUT NOTIFYING ME--which caused all of the phone's features to stop working. I only found out from a friend online that I was eligible for an upgrade.

When I got to the store, they tried to tell me it was only the Kin 1 that was eligible for an upgrade, but I told them that was not the case, and showed them that my phone's features were turned off. So, they let me upgrade to the Fascinate.

I'm not going to lie. It was the best phone I'd ever had. It was fast, did everything it was supposed to do, and it did it well. Unfortunately, I went to the beach with my family and left my purse on the table, with my phone on top. Someone stole it right off the table when we weren't looking! (totally my fault. I should have known better, and moved to hide it inside my purse or a pocket.)

But, I have insurance on my phone, so I figured it would be no problem, and I could just get it replaced. Except they charged me $100 to replace it with a Certified Pre-Owned phone. Not even a new one--a pre-owned phone--and I was already paying for the insurance! But whatever, I paid the $100 because, as I said before, the Fascinate was the best phone I'd ever had.

I received a piece of crap. It never worked as well as the first fascinate. It lagged, would drop calls, not ring when I got phone calls, had a poor battery life, and the screen would freeze. It did not do it often enough for me to complain, though, so I just dealt with.It has become progressively worse. Now, it will freeze completely at random,and even during basic tasks such as me being in the middle of a phone call, or trying to unlock the touch screen to get to a text message. The only way to get it to turn off so that I can turn it back on is by removing the back cover, taking out the battery, and putting it back in.

Now, on top of that, it's telling me that my SD card has been unexpectedly removed. Except I haven't touched it, and when I look, it's still clicked into place. Then it will work as normal--then it will say the SD card has been damaged...then it will work as normal....It can't decide if it's damaged or not.

I have several pictures in my phone's gallery, and a handful of them are fine, but another group of them are gray with little pictures of a cracked photograph on them, as if the image files are damaged.

Normally, I don't have much trouble with Verizon, but with the first phone, where they shut off its software and did not tell me I was eligible for an upgrade, or that they were even GOING to shut down the software, and with this "certified" pre-owned phone that has systematically shut itself down one thing at a time, I'm not sure what to do. Is it too much to ask just to get a phone that WORKS? I mean, I paid for the insurance and for the replacement fee--am I not at least entitled to that?

[spurs21]

Are you within the 12 month warranty period? Have you notified VZW of your problems? They will still replace your phone with a refurbed model, as they do so when you have problems, and Asusion does so as well when you file a claim with them.. VZW doesn't sell new Fascinates anymore, only CPO, which are essentially refurbed phones. If you have equipment replacement plus insurance, they will replace your phone after the 12 month warranty. I own my original Fascinate which is still functioning well, I wish you good luck.