Miserable experience with replacement LG Fathom, that replaced defective TP2

[KathiMR]

Freezes

It does freeze.

Alarms don't work right

I use the alarms & those didn't work right. I had set 1 for 9:30 pm & 1 for 10 pm,  The 10 pm one got up to 12 alarms--even though only 1 was set. Tech support wanted me to do a hard reboot but wasn't very thrilled about that as I would then have to reinstall software & re-set up linking & set up email all over again.

After awhile I turned off the alarms. But they still went off. I did check--they were turned off. & then it got so the 9:30 one would freeze the whole phone. I couldn't activate the buttons to make it stop or snooze---they didn't respond & the whole phone was frozen so I would have to reset.

Finally I deleted both alarms & set them up again. Working better, but again the 9:30 one has about 6 alarms that go off so I have to stop each one. I think one time I stopped all & the 10 pm one didn't go off. They are supposed to help remind me to start windiing down--the 9:30 one & then to seriously shut down the computer & get ready for bed.

Sometimes they don't seem to go off or accidentally get turned off.

Volume buttons can get bumped & turn to silen so calls missed

Another issue is that the volume up down buttons can get bumped. A while ago I was trying to set up a drs appt I think it was & was waiting for a call back. I finally called them back when I hadn't heard. I think they said they had tried to call. Later I saw that they had--4x but I discovered the volume was turned off so I missed those important calls.  Not good.

The keyboard is not very nice.

Downgrade replacement for defective TP2

This was a replacement for my defective Touch Pro 2. I had paid for that top of the line phone, & in CA we have to pay sales tax on the full list price!  Someone (obviously going by the specs, not actual usage) raved about how this phone was supposed to be so super. NOT.  The list price was about half that of the TP2. It doesn't have the digital voice recorder the TP2 did, nor a lot of the HTC features that I liked & used like the automatic vibrate for appts that were listed as busy. & I really miss the way that I was able to set several cities up in world clock & then I could easily see what time it was & what the weather was. Nice when friends were in those ciities.

The keyboard on this is smaller & I keep getting periods in the middle of the sentence when typing emails which then makes the next letter a capital &makes it hard to read. It has 1 less row in the keyboard. The phone is smaller than the TP2, so easier to carry, but harder to see.

Someone called me on Thanksgiving & I didn't recognize the area code, but I was trying to answer & must have accidentally used the wrong slider so the call disappeared. Then there was some icon at the top, but it was so small I couldn't really tell that it was a voice mail indicator, so I didn't check until way late at night.

Verizon called this an upgrade--even though it was actually a replacement for a top of the line phone (the TP2 was a cool phone, if only it had worked well but it got so that it would randomly change orientation while I was trying to read an email, & it got so the backlight wouldn't always come on & sometimes even after pressing it multiple times) but I would call this a downgrade. While the processor is about 2x as fast as the TP2, it doesn't really work noticeably faster. I guess that's the winmob OS.

Win mobile issues

& of course then Microsoft did a # on users of WinMob 6.5 when they came out with Windows phone 7 which is totally incompatible. So phones that ran 6.5 can't run 7 & the software is incompatible. I had gotten it for busines where we had aps that needed 6.5.

It has been a miserable experience with both of these phones, when I bought the TP2 I went for the premium phone, planning to keep it for over 2 years. Instead it had multiple issues its 1st year which I put up with for months. Finally got the replacement Fathom, which again, Verizon kept calling an upgrade but its really a downgrade.  I had paid for a top of the line phone, & got an inferior phone, smaller keyboard, & screen, less features & it doesn't work so well.

Are smart phones less reliable than regular cell phones?

I don't know if smart phones in general are less relaible than regular cell phones or what, but my experience has been very frustrating all the way. These are supposed to be productivity enhancers. Instead I've had way too many issues, & often tech support, while usually nice & trying to help, they didn't always know what they were talking about.

Want a reliable smart phone that does what it is supposed to do--feel ripped off

So I'm frustrated with this not very reliable phone & want to get a reliable phone. But I sure wasn't planning to have to buy a new phone this soon. My previous phone was a basic LG flip phone with speaker & no camera & that thing just worked so I kept it for about 5 years until I needed the win mob phone for biz. I no longer need it for that, & it isn't working very well, but I don't really want to spend the $ for a new phone right now.

Really frustrated with the bad experiences with both phones.  I feel like I didn't get what I paid for & again I went for a top of the line phone, intending to keep it for several years, not expecting all the problems I've had with both phones. btw, the Fathom retail price was about half that of the TP2, even though the 2 yr agreement price was the same. but in CA we pay sales tax on the full retail.

I would like to be able to get another smart phone that is really reliable like an iPhone, but really wasn't planning on buying a new phone this soon.