Goodbye G2... For Now...

[g2_havok]

let me say upfront, i LOVED my g2. the camera was great, storage capacity was adequate, the screen was brilliant, and i averaged 55 hours of battery life with my typical usage. i usually will spend just a bit more money to "futureproof" myself since i keep my devices for 2-4 years (full disclosure: my previous phone was an iphone 3gs i had for 4 years). i was looking forward to keeping my g2 for a long time.

on wednesday... the unthinkable happened. i dropped my phone from about waist-high. on concrete... i did have a case on it and it looked like the case took the brunt of the impact. there was no physical damage or any glass shattering despite the phone having dropped on its lower right corner. so i double-tap to make sure everything is ok. i get nothing. i hit the power button. i get nothing. mind you, the screen is still responsive since i can click on where the pin pad would be and i hear clicking... a few hours later though, the screen came back on and i could consistently get the screen to respond. i could receive/send calls and text so i figure no biggie.

thursday morning comes and my alarm goes off at the usual time - but the screen is black. i try hitting the power button, double-tap, i get nothing. the screen does a "tv black/white screen" blink once and it finally dies. after that i can't even get it to respond to anything...

i tried making a claim via att's website. as i go through the questions, the site instructs me to call att for further assistance. i call and get transferred (after what seems like selecting 1000 options) to their third-party insurer asurion. the lady tells me there is a $199.00 deductible (which is how much the phone cost with 2 year agreement). then she asks what's wrong so i answer honestly - that i accidentally dropped it. she tells me that that voids the warranty and i have to pay full price for the device - nearly $700! i hung-up on her.

i called a reputable mobile phone repair shop and explain the situation. the quote - $200 for the screen alone and another $75 for labor! plus 3-5 day downtime.

at this point, since i don't have $300-$700 to spare, what do i do? i switched to tmobile last night. they pay the ETF, i have good credit so i pick up a new phone with payments rolled into 24 month billing cycle with zero upfront. the plan has unlimited call/text/data that i can also use in korea and japan (which is a huge plus), mobile hotspot included. if i switch all 4 lines from att, i get way more for about the same price. also, after 24 months, the cost of the phone subsidy drops so as long as i don't buy new phones, the monthly bill drops (vs. att who keeps you locked in at that price month-to-month even after 2 year agreement is done).

what did i get? i picked up a nexus5. i'm gonna' give it a test drive and if i still miss the g2, i'll be going back to the store to trade it in for a tmobile g2... i just wanted to see what the hoopla was about with vanilla android and having a "google" device...

i can already tell you i miss the brilliant screen on the g2...

 

[OhAlfie]

Shame that it happened, but hopefully you didn't expect them to hand you over a new phone for free (or near) free after you dropped the phone. Unless you had specific insurance to cover accidental damages etc, then there really is no reason to be angry at the sales rep at AT&T for telling you the true cost of buying another one. It would kind of be like me buying a new car, then wrecking it 3 months down the road and calling the dealership telling them I want a new one for free (or at a fraction of the new price).

Hope your new plan works out. Doubt you get much in the way of a trade in value with the dropped phone though.

 

[dcleveng]

That's a real bummer. The Nexus5 is a nice device though.

You could try to buy the parts and do the repair yourself. I think there is a tear down video over on XDA, I know i came across it at one time. You would have some cost in the parts, but probably far less than what the repair shop quoted you. The other thing you could do would be call LG directly and see what they might charge to repair it.

 

[rclifton]

You should call Asurion back because the lady was clueless. I have had a phone that was run over by a car replaced! Dropped in the lake never to be seen again, dropped in the toilet, twice in the same month by my 2 year old son and a few other mishaps over the past 8 or 9 years all replaced with no hassle, just pay the deductible, decide if I wanted it overnight and that was it...

 

[digitard]

Yeah that sounds odd to me, too.

Asurion should replace any damage at the cost of the deductable. It's specific to out of warranty based claims (ie user based, or length of time).

If it was a no charge warranty replacement, I think Verizon has a thing where insurance extends your manufacturer warranty too, then I could see them saying it's not covered and you have to pay the 199 for the new unit, but that's ridiculous.

Call them back. She messed up. I destroyed a phone once, and just paid the deductible and got a new one.

 

[g2_havok]

Shame that it happened, but hopefully you didn't expect them to hand you over a new phone for free (or near) free after you dropped the phone. Unless you had specific insurance to cover accidental damages etc, then there really is no reason to be angry at the sales rep at AT&T for telling you the true cost of buying another one. It would kind of be like me buying a new car, then wrecking it 3 months down the road and calling the dealership telling them I want a new one for free (or at a fraction of the new price).

Hope your new plan works out. Doubt you get much in the way of a trade in value with the dropped phone though.

its not so much that i expected a free phone. its that the deductible is too high in my meager mind. you're asking me to pay $199 plus keep paying $10/mo for 24 months if i want to keep insurance. that comes out to nearly $440 extra over the course of 24 months. and because i'm locked into the 2 year agreement (started sept 2013), i have a long way to go. as a looong time customer with 4 lines i expected better service.

also, as i stated, i don't have $200 lying around even for the dang deductible (car insurance, house insurance premiums all coming up which i have money put aside for but that's it).

the phone may have had "zero" trade-in value but tmobile takes it anyway in lieu of paying the ETF. i walked out of the tmobile store with new phone, better plan, and only paid 24 months worth of sales tax on the device and new sim card fee, which came out to like $35.00...

 

[g2_havok]

You should call Asurion back because the lady was clueless. I have had a phone that was run over by a car replaced! Dropped in the lake never to be seen again, dropped in the toilet, twice in the same month by my 2 year old son and a few other mishaps over the past 8 or 9 years all replaced with no hassle, just pay the deductible, decide if I wanted it overnight and that was it...

Yeah that sounds odd to me, too.

Asurion should replace any damage at the cost of the deductable. It's specific to out of warranty based claims (ie user based, or length of time).

If it was a no charge warranty replacement, I think Verizon has a thing where insurance extends your manufacturer warranty too, then I could see them saying it's not covered and you have to pay the 199 for the new unit, but that's ridiculous.

Call them back. She messed up. I destroyed a phone once, and just paid the deductible and got a new one.

the rep said all i have to do is pay the $199 top tier deductible first then i'm good. then she asked what kind of damage, to which i replied i dropped it. that's when she said i voided the warranty and i have to pay full price. i know... doesn't make any sense at all. why have i been paying the dang insurance every month then!

 

[digitard]

Yeah that's not right.

Call them back. I'm pretty sure it should cover lost, stolen, and damaged equipment.

 

[JayWill]

the rep said all i have to do is pay the $199 top tier deductible first then i'm good. then she asked what kind of damage, to which i replied i dropped it. that's when she said i voided the warranty and i have to pay full price. i know... doesn't make any sense at all. why have i been paying the dang insurance every month then!

Either it was the first day on the job for the Rep you connected to or she misunderstood you. Drop damage is primarily what this coverage is for, but it also covers water damage and complete loss/theft. Yes the deductibles have gone through the roof, especially for top tier priced devices, but it's still cheaper than buying a new phone outright. I'm glad you found an alternative though. If T-Mobile wasn't trying so hard to pull customers from AT&T that option wouldn't have been available to you. Competition working its magic once again.

 

[g2_havok]

Either it was the first day on the job for the Rep you connected to or she misunderstood you. Drop damage is primarily what this coverage is for, but it also covers water damage and complete loss/theft. Yes the deductibles have gone through the roof, especially for top tier priced devices, but it's still cheaper than buying a new phone outright. I'm glad you found an alternative though. If T-Mobile wasn't trying so hard to pull customers from AT&T that option wouldn't have been available to you. Competition working its magic once again.

i was pretty clear in my explanation and she was clear as to what my options were... sad but true.

competition is indeed awesome. it just so happened i was caught in a pickle financially time-wise. had this problem happened later on in the year like march or april, this would've been a non-issue.

what's interesting is that tmobile current plans are similar to what softbank offers in japan; so says my wife who lived there for 9 years... all i know is that i'm only $35 lighter in the pocket than $200-700 with a new phone and way better plan. should i drop/break/lose my phone, the deductible is $175 and you get another phone for zero bucks upfront and on you go again for another 24 months... that's pretty reasonable to me...

 

[HalizDad]

Yeah, I don't understand insurance on a $600.00 device at all. $200.00 deductible, and $11.00 or whatever it is a month to get a used phone in return if you happen to break the one you have...Ridiculous, and I'm glad the same formula isn't applied to homeowners insurance. $85k deductible and $5000 a month? I agree with what someone else had said; the Nexus is a fine phone. If T-Mob had had one of those when I bought my G2, I could have saved $200.00...But I love my G2.

 

[enik]

Next time it's dropped and there is no physical damage don't tell them it was dropped!

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

[mike31082]

I don't think the Asurion rep knew what they where talking about. Dropping the phone voids the warranty?! You're paying insurance so that if you happened damage the phone you don't have to pay the full price.

My boss actually had the same thing happen to his GS4 within days of buying it, and they charged him $200 for a new phone w/ insurance.

You might have been better off going to an ATT store and have them process the claim for you.

What is done, is done though. Hope you you enjoy Tmobile and the Nexus 5.

 

[g2_havok]

Update: so far, I'm enjoying the N5... the only thing i really miss so far is the larger screen and what looked to be brighter colors to me. there's something *just right* about the G2's size - not too big, not too small. also, the 0.2 inch difference to me is significant because the soft buttons eat up some screen space so the G2 actually looks like it has a full 5 inch screen, whereas the N5 has a "smaller" screen than the spec'd 5 inches due to the soft buttons... and i actually miss the "funky" power/volume button placement. after using for a while, it became natural to adjust; the placement would work for left and right handed people.

oh yeah... and the battery life. with my typical usage, i'd get 50-60 hours off charger with the G2 with 10% left. the best i've gotten so far with the N5 is about 24 hours off charger with 6% left (admittedly, i was messing a lot with it since i'm still configuring it to my liking)...

oh, and i still double-tap the N5 screen... grrrrrr...

 

[JayWill]

oh, and i still double-tap the N5 screen... grrrrrr...

I double tap my wife's iPad every time I pick it up. It's a tough habit to break.

 

[doggy2965]

Smart trade insurance for my lg g2 99 bucks gets you 3 replacements in 2 years 50 deductible

Posted via Android Central App

 

[HalizDad]

I double tap my wife's iPad every time I pick it up. It's a tough habit to break.

You ain't lyin'...I double tap everything

 

[g2_havok]

You ain't lyin'...I double tap everything

my wife got so used to double-tapping the G2, she unintentionally double-taps other people's devices too... she double-tapped the N5 the first time she picked it up to mess around with it!

 

[g2_havok]

UPDATE: day 14. decision - i'm keeping the N5.

i've come to really like the performance of the phone, the screen size has been adequate for my needs (mainly youtube and netflix), i'm getting right around 34 hours of battery life (including 6-8 hours while i sleep) off charger with about 3-5 hours of onscreen time depending on usage when i plug in at about 15%. i'm figuring out the camera and have taken pretty good shots that i'm happy with.

i liked it enough to recommend and buy an N5 for my wife! she's loving it (coming from iphone 4s with IOS7). we seriously need to stop double-tapping though...

hello~~~ nexus!

next decision: should i get the nexus 7 or the lg g pad 8.3 GPe?? argh!!

 

[erwaso]

I've used asurion countless times for dropping my blackberries and the deductable covers dropping the phone for sure. That lady needs to be fired for misinformation like that.

Congrats on the N5 though, i'd choose the G2 over it for the camera alone. And my vote goes for the G Pad (non GPE since kit kat isnt far away and $100 less on newegg almost every month), the dim screen issue goes away using Lux auto brightness free in Car mode