Verizon's Wild Goose Chase with ED05 replacement/fix

[bwaarrggg]

Apparently ED05 didn't fix my missed call problem, so I contacted Tech Support and explained my situation. I had already done all the hard reset/soft reset/ *228 madness and told them I had had it with this phone.  As always, they offered a refurb replacement since they weren't doing the alternate replacement anymore, but I told them since this seems to be a problem with Fascinates that they cannot fix, I don't wanna waste any more time with this phone than I already have.  

The representative went to go talk to her supervisor and offered the Droid X2 or the Droid Incredible 2 as an alternate replacement.  Not knowing anything about the two phones, I told the representative that I wanted to go the Verizon store to actually check out the two phones myself.  She said she would call me back within two hours to hear my choice.  She also states that since she has placed the contents of our conversation as comments in my account, all I have to do is call, tell them my circumstances, tell them to refer to the notes, and choose either the X2 or the Incredible 2.

2 hours later, receiving no phone call, I call tech support to tell them my choice and, alas, they pretty much repeat my previous conversation with the previous rep and tell me that I can only receive a refurb fascinate.  The new rep then tells me that since he cannot honor the previous representative's statements, he would email her to confirm and call me back.

After hanging up with rep #2, I call back into tech support to talk to rep #3.  This rep tells me the same stuff all over again (alternate replacement program over, blah blah blah) and adds that my phone was never under warranty to begin with. W T F ?!?!??!  At this point, I am in my skeptical defense mode and start questioning him as to why my phone is no longer under warranty. I bought my phone late September of last year and should have nearly 2 months of warranty left.  He tells me that all the countless representatives that offered me replacement Fascinate throughout the past year were all wrong, and my phone was never covered under warranty.  I tell him I'm just going to wait until the other representative calls me and am about to end the call when he tells me that he's doing me a favor by sending me another refurb fascinate and I might not get this offer again if I hang up.  I politely refuse and end the call.

I'll be honest... I just want a phone that works, and obviously the fascinate fails at this.

WHY ARE THEY BEING SO SHADY!?!?!?

and what's up with that last guy I talked to?

Is anyone else still having trouble with ED05 and are being treated to this madness...

If so, WHAT TO DO!!?!?!?

[mjwebb007]

Nothing out of the ordinary.  My wife is now the owner of a CPO Fascinate after 5 Incredibles.  We bought brand new phones in October and her Incredible started messing up at the end of January.  After this entire ordeal, she ended up with a Fascinate and is experiencing the missed calls without ringing or indication on the phone.  She just updated to ED05 so we'll see.  This is not specific to the Fascinate.... it has become typical customer service response to phone issues that are somehow deemed user error.  Once we called for the fourth Incredible the rep said "Maybe this isn't the phone for you", suggested that my wife had somehow forgotten how to use her phone and also implied that she had too many apps on her phone.  My wife uses her phone for work email, phone calls and texting.  She rarely uses the browser.  She had SIX additional apps loaded on each one of the Incredibles.  I have over 150 on my Droid X and have never had the issues she has (Gingerbread upgrade..... completely different story).  We were also told that the issue she was reporting (scrolling on its own and not selecting what she actually pusher on the screen) had not been reported by other users.  Now looking at the forums here and other places, the single biggest complaint for Incredibles is phantom scrolling.  We are all relegated to picking the least of all evils which is why even when my contract is up, I will still be a Verizon customer.  Sprint has good plans but I have had even worse customer service experiences with them in the past (although that was over 10 years ago) and AT&T doesn't provide the coverage she needs where she works.  Capitalism at its best.  To summarize, we are all in the same boat.  And for any Verizon reps reading this, I know your customer service is the best of all the carriers but that doesn't mean it is good.  It just means it is better than everyone else's.

[ArnettH_VZW]

Hello bwaarrggg,

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I would love the opportunity to review your account so I can provide you with all of your options. I really want to make this right for you. Feel free to send me a private message with your full name, mobile number, contact number, & a brief summary of the equipment issue. If you like, you can copy and paste your original post in your private message. I will give you a call as soon as administratively possible.

Thank you...

[nbahoura]

I know exactly how you feel.  This phone has been horrible since it has been released with numerous issues.  I have been with Verizon for over 5 years now and never have had issues with service or phones this bad.  Never have I missed a call or anything, I love Verizon's service.  However, I miss peoples calls daily, people have to either leave a voicemail or text me to let me know that they called and I won’t even receive their texts from time to time.  I have put up with it for so long, software update after software update thinking they would fix these issues.  The ED05 also did not fix my problem and I have been hoping for a fix, but months after, I am just not able to handle this anymore.  I even did a hard reset myself and a *228 and that didn’t resolve anything.  I called Verizon today and went through the whole long technical support process and everything checked out.  So they offered me a refurbished replacement fascinate and wouldn't do any alternate replacement either.  This phone is not even offered by Verizon anymore and it just had so many problems, I don't even know why they still give it out to customers, that is just not good customer support.  I just want a phone that works, I don’t really care what it is, just something that won’t give me issues.  I don’t see why it is an issue to give out a different replacement as long as it is an equal replacement, either way a replacement is being given.  I really don’t want to deal with another fascinate, knowing that it is such a crappy phone, but I guess I have to deal with it since they didn’t even give me another choice.  I guess I will see how this replacement will be.  I really don’t get why they’re doing this to us!

[nbahoura]

UPDATE:

After having this replacement fascinate for 2 weeks now, the same issues are occuring.  I am still not receiving some of my phone calls and text messages.  I did another hard reset and all the goodies a week after just incase to see if that would help and it did not.  I've never had these kinds of issues in the past with verizon and with any of their devices.  I've lived in the same place and commuted in the same areas and have had great service everywhere around where I live, so I know it's not that issue.  I called Verizon today and talked to customer support.  This time they issued a trouble ticket thinking it might be my area and that I would have to wait 3-5 days to find a solution and go from there.  I appreciat the assistance and I have hope that it could be the issue because I just want to recieve my calls and texts.  I love this phone and all its features but the main two features that make a phone and it is not doing them too well.  Browsing around the forums, I see many others are having similar issues, so my assumptions are that it is the hardware.  Verizon has a great replacement program and when there are issues they cannot fix, they send out a replacement phone.  However, if this particular phone is just having many overal issues since its release, I dont see why they wouldnt replace it with another phone in equal value that actually works.  Either way they are sending out a phone and it shouldnt matter, since it is to provide great customer service.  Verizon should realize when a phone does them wrong.  I guess they have since its not available to buy anymore even though other phones that been out around its time are still available.  I hope that Verizon will display their great customer service that they are known for and assist me in their very best way.  They always have in the past, but if they dont give such service any longer, then it might be time for a change.

[nbahoura]

UPDATE #2:

So after a week, I still have not heard back from Verizon.  My brother that is also on the account had enough of it and called them for me since I was busy today.  When talking to Verizon, they said that a trouble ticket was never issued.  What kind of service is that?  Not issuing a trouble ticket and not calling back as promised?  Is Verizon not supposed to be known for their customer service?  That has not happened to me before with them and that is totally not acceptable.  The technical support representative tried to be of assistance, but kept saying that I have an upgrade to use.  Did I not still buy the phone and actually expected it to work?  I would upgrade, but there is no phone I am interested in that I would actually dish out some money for.  Why should I have to pay for another phone when I thought this one would be fine?  Are they so worried that I would leave them, is that why they want me to sign another contract?  I’ve been with them for over 5 years with 5 lines total all with data; I obviously would not leave them.  If that’s what they are so worried about, then maybe they should have some good customer service in order not to lose a loyal customer.  Maybe I am wrong, maybe they just don’t care.  Sorry for all the complaining folks, I am very irritated with them, and I just thought you would all like to hear how they are treating their loyal customers.  All I wanted was a phone that actually works.

[DM6156]

I have complained to vz about this issue as well, but i'll add another spin

I have been complaining for months about "missed calls".  I won't get the call, just the missed call notification and/or voice mail notification.

finally  several months, I was told this issue was a known issue and to expect the V5 update from samsung to fix the issue. When I asked how long the tech rep said it was a known issue, he said he personally knew about it for 3-4 months (I did a post on this already). when I asked why noone else told me that, he said he couldn't answer that but said something along the lines of "maybe i care more because I have the same phone".

Even after multiple calls over multiple months, I was NOT offered the choice to swap out the phone.   Maybe VZ hadn't made that offer available at the time of my last call. however, if this was the case, when it was made available VZ should have contacted me to provide me with that option.   I didn't call back with every missed call because I was told the update would solve the issue.

I was only notified AFTER the "offer ended". I had called in about another issue and the rep first suggested I can swap out the phone under this plan, then he later said that was no longer an option.

The rep then went on to state that they log all issues and send that data to the manufacturer. it's not until after multiple people report a certain issues can a "bug" be opened by the manufacturer.

If they really do this type of "issue reporting" and "bug" notification, then why can't they notify people who complained about that issue when options exist.

And I know for a FACT that not every single one of my calls/complaints/issues were logged.

I can see how easy it would be for hunderds of people to have an issue and not be reported to the manufacturer.

[whutth]

I have had so many issues withthe fascinate that I really want to throw it away.   I've had 3 replacements and every one has had issues.  No-one ever told me that I could send the phone back as I started having issues with it immediately upon purchase.  Had I known that I would never have had to suffer through this last year of use.  I went through having the screen freeze and change to pixilate green.  Iv'e never had my emails load, I can go all day and still only have emails from the early am hours of the day.  I have to push them through, reboot the phone.  I've also experienced missed calls, no ring no notice of the call at all.  Of course, Verizon does not show the 3 replacements sent, they show one.  I agree not all complaints are logged on your account.  Why do I have a cell phone again????   I've done the countless hours of tech support and upgrades - some made it worse, others did nothing.  Reboot for updating cell towers.... Nothing.   I HATE THIS PHONE, if you are thinking of requesting another refurb don't waste your time, they are all the same - HORRIBLE!   Now to top it all off Verizon has changed their policy.... I've put up with this for 1 year (12/23 exactly) so I can upgrade into something else.  Now the iphone 4s, only to find out that the 12mo upgrade policy is now 20mos.  **bleep**!!!!   I was going to upgrade my aircard along with my phone.  Now Verizon tells me the only thing they can do is transfer my aircard upgrade to my phone to get me into a phone that I can use.   So then I'm stuck with an out of date aircard.....   What wonderful customer service.  Phone that doesnt work AND an out of date aircard......  So do you think I should just do the phone upgrade?  Anyone have comments - thoughts on aircard upgrades?  ....   Sprint maybe????   I tried the customer service to get an early upgrade as I am a  long ime tcustomer paying 200.00/mo for service that currently sucks due to the equiptment I have - seems Verizon does not look at history or amount of $ spent in reviewing the accounts.   Anyone know how the sprint network is?   They also have the iphone 4s.  Anyone that has thoughts-comments that may help me out, please post.  I'm all ears....   sorry to hear so many others are in situation as well, Verizon makes you feel like you are the only one out there with these issues.

[traneman]

I had the exact same experience with my lg vortex. They say they will call back, dont, and nobody knows what the hell the guy from the other call center across the counrty said and they dont care. Then they offer an early upgrade, but not on free phones, sorry sir. WTF? this happened around six months ago and they tried to resolve it, but to date have not, and I continue to take it in the a@& everytime i bend over! thanks verizon! I absolutely HATE and yes i mean HATE Verizon and their braindead employees!