Opinions on an offer I received from Verizon

stangger

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Hey, I don't post a lot so definitely not a known user, but have used this site for research for quite a while and optimistic I can get some valuable feedback.

I bought a release day Bionic (upgraded from a Storm2 *shudder at the bad memories*) and was mostly happy with it. After a couple weeks I started having some issues where it was incredibly hot (more on that in a moment) dropping calls and locking up and giving errors that phone.android.app was not responding. Basically the cell phone functionality of my cell phone was not working. It ended when it got so hot it melted the back of the phone while I was on a call (call on blue tooth phone laying in passenger seat) Even though I was 3 days past my 14 day exhcange the local store manager agreed to exchange the device for me with a new in the box phone.

I recognize that I am a fairly abnormal case as I travel locally for work and live on the fringe of 2 LTE areas with a divide between them. I travel between these two markets 2-7 times per day. With both the original phone and the new one the data was having a hard time reverting to 3g after I left a 4G area. In a 4G area it worked great! Once I got it to come on in a 3G area it worked GREAT until I left the 3g area. After a frustrating day Tuesday where the phone cost me several hours of my business because of no data (despite ironically enough working at a VZW tower site) I was frustrated and called in yesterday. I was told by the first level 2 tech support person I spoke with that a software patch was due out in November but she couldnt give me any more details and advised that I could call motorola tech support and they may be able to help.

So I called Motorola tech support and was told by a "level 2 rep" (they love to escalate you quickly once you know how to actually turn the phone on...I wonder who the level 1 reps actually help?) that there was no patch in the works for the bionic and "Verizon has been telling all kind of lies just to get people off the phone. They have a major network problem." (BTW this call was recorded and available via voice print that is a direct quote)

I promptly called back in to Verizon, again escalated to level 2, and this rep told me that after checking his database there is no known patch coming. He said often reps will read things on the internet and assume it is true, but at this time Verizon had no indication of a pending update for the Bionic. He asked me "What can I do to make you happy?" My first reply was, of course, "make the phone I bought work as advertised" Once we established that was beyond his control, I offered this, "refund my money, take the phone back and revert my contract." He went to a supervisor on that one. The response was they could not offer me a refund as the phone was now used, but they would void my contract renewal and I could keep the device at the 2 year price I paid. "Then I would be free to buy any future device I wished at the 2 year contract price."

At first I thought that was a fair offer, but the more I think about it, if they know the phone is not going to be able to be updated, that may be a best case scenario for them and a way to minimize my options.

What does everyone else think?
I really want to love this phone. There are things about it that are unbelievable but the 3G/4G dropout issue is a deal breaker for me and my business a full time 3G phone would be better for me until they resolve this issue (Before anyone offers I have tried setting the phone to CDMA only, but even still when I pass through a 4G area it loses signal). Just curious to get others take on the offer at hand.
 

mbentley3

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interesting. Although I dont trust anything a VZW call center employee has to say about things in the works that havent been released yet. They are notorious for being misinformed or not informed at all. Hell, I called VZW after the OFFICIAL release date for the bionic had been advertised in TV commercials. I asked if I could pre-order the Bionic, the rep. said they didnt have a release date or any info if pre-orders would be available...i mentioned the commercial that clearly showed the release date, and all they could say was that they knew nothing about when the phone was being released or if they were going to have pre-orders.....
 

anicholas7

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What is the number you called for Motorola tech support?
I would like to call and confirm this because if that's the case then I will pursue this with my Verizon store who said they are coming out with an update.
 

dhendriksen

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Hey, I don't post a lot so definitely not a known user, but have used this site for research for quite a while and optimistic I can get some valuable feedback.

I bought a release day Bionic (upgraded from a Storm2 *shudder at the bad memories*) and was mostly happy with it. After a couple weeks I started having some issues where it was incredibly hot (more on that in a moment) dropping calls and locking up and giving errors that phone.android.app was not responding. Basically the cell phone functionality of my cell phone was not working. It ended when it got so hot it melted the back of the phone while I was on a call (call on blue tooth phone laying in passenger seat) Even though I was 3 days past my 14 day exhcange the local store manager agreed to exchange the device for me with a new in the box phone.

I recognize that I am a fairly abnormal case as I travel locally for work and live on the fringe of 2 LTE areas with a divide between them. I travel between these two markets 2-7 times per day. With both the original phone and the new one the data was having a hard time reverting to 3g after I left a 4G area. In a 4G area it worked great! Once I got it to come on in a 3G area it worked GREAT until I left the 3g area. After a frustrating day Tuesday where the phone cost me several hours of my business because of no data (despite ironically enough working at a VZW tower site) I was frustrated and called in yesterday. I was told by the first level 2 tech support person I spoke with that a software patch was due out in November but she couldnt give me any more details and advised that I could call motorola tech support and they may be able to help.

So I called Motorola tech support and was told by a "level 2 rep" (they love to escalate you quickly once you know how to actually turn the phone on...I wonder who the level 1 reps actually help?) that there was no patch in the works for the bionic and "Verizon has been telling all kind of lies just to get people off the phone. They have a major network problem." (BTW this call was recorded and available via voice print that is a direct quote)

I promptly called back in to Verizon, again escalated to level 2, and this rep told me that after checking his database there is no known patch coming. He said often reps will read things on the internet and assume it is true, but at this time Verizon had no indication of a pending update for the Bionic. He asked me "What can I do to make you happy?" My first reply was, of course, "make the phone I bought work as advertised" Once we established that was beyond his control, I offered this, "refund my money, take the phone back and revert my contract." He went to a supervisor on that one. The response was they could not offer me a refund as the phone was now used, but they would void my contract renewal and I could keep the device at the 2 year price I paid. "Then I would be free to buy any future device I wished at the 2 year contract price."

At first I thought that was a fair offer, but the more I think about it, if they know the phone is not going to be able to be updated, that may be a best case scenario for them and a way to minimize my options.

What does everyone else think?
I really want to love this phone. There are things about it that are unbelievable but the 3G/4G dropout issue is a deal breaker for me and my business a full time 3G phone would be better for me until they resolve this issue (Before anyone offers I have tried setting the phone to CDMA only, but even still when I pass through a 4G area it loses signal). Just curious to get others take on the offer at hand.

I would take that and be happy. You can easily sell the Bionic (VZW will even buy it from you) and get whatever phone you want, while putting money in your pocket. If you truly can't get by with the Bionic until a new phone you want comes out, then buy a used 3G phone, sell the Bionic and when a phone that you want comes out upgrade with the money you got from the Bionic. Here's how I could see it playing out:

Buy a used but like new 3G phone (I just bought a Droid X2 that matches that description for $150). $150 spend.
Sell the Bionic: $450-$500 coming back to you
Then sit on the cash until a phone you can be happy with comes out. When you do buy a new phone try it out for 14 days, and if you have issues return it and refuse to pay a restocking fee because it isn't working as advertised. The best of the best of phones (Bionic/RAZR/Nexus) sell for $299 on contract. With the scenario I laid out you can off the Bionic, get a great 3G phone that does 90% of what the Bionic could do, and then upgrade to a new phone a later date, sell the 3G phone and end up with money in pocket.

That's what I would do.
 

stangger

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What is the number you called for Motorola tech support?
I would like to call and confirm this because if that's the case then I will pursue this with my Verizon store who said they are coming out with an update.

same here

800-734-5870

Motorola is saying that Verizon is telling lies??!! I find that hard to believe...

Have to admit I was shocked to hear that and actually point the rep on point. "So you are saying there is NO UPDATE planned for the bionic" He responded, "There are no known hardware issues with the device, there may be network issues with your carrier."

But he absolutely said, Verizon will tell lis just to get you of the phone.
 

stangger

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I would take that and be happy. You can easily sell the Bionic (VZW will even buy it from you) and get whatever phone you want, while putting money in your pocket. If you truly can't get by with the Bionic until a new phone you want comes out, then buy a used 3G phone, sell the Bionic and when a phone that you want comes out upgrade with the money you got from the Bionic. Here's how I could see it playing out:

Buy a used but like new 3G phone (I just bought a Droid X2 that matches that description for $150). $150 spend.
Sell the Bionic: $450-$500 coming back to you
Then sit on the cash until a phone you can be happy with comes out. When you do buy a new phone try it out for 14 days, and if you have issues return it and refuse to pay a restocking fee because it isn't working as advertised. The best of the best of phones (Bionic/RAZR/Nexus) sell for $299 on contract. With the scenario I laid out you can off the Bionic, get a great 3G phone that does 90% of what the Bionic could do, and then upgrade to a new phone a later date, sell the 3G phone and end up with money in pocket.

That's what I would do.

This is sort of m way of thinking, however I am not sure how I would sale it. I actually listed it locally on craigslit today for $350 and have had no hits yet.
 

trainplane3

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WHAT THE HECK. I basically did the same thing and Verizon said (in a nut shell) get a used Bionic, a used 4g phone, or deal with it. Reading this just makes me pissed off. This is what I wanted them to do and they said they couldn't give me a discount or revert the contract. I swear, VZW hates my family.
 

stangger

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FWIW I got no where, until I started playing voice prints into the phone of both the VZW rep saying patch in November and Motorola rep saying no patch VZW lies.

I also spent 6 hours on the phone yesterday, no exaggeration, on this issue. I have been with VZW over 10 years, never a late payment, blah blah blah
 

doogald

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I actually think that's a fair offer.

I returned my Bionic on day 12 (which was Monday this week) after the 4G outage over the weekend. It wasn't so much that as the fact that I kept having data drops on 3G (I was set to CDMA only) where I knew there was a good 3G signal. I figured that I would get a 3G phone that I could depend on while Verizon works out its 4G network bugs; in 20 months, I expect it will be all set.
 

anicholas7

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OK just got off the phone with with Motorola and let me say my faith in this company to do the right thing is now very low.
1)Spoke with level 1 tech support and she had no clue about anything.
Name: Stephanie
I.D # : 352896

2) I was transferred to level 2 support and not much better. The women I spoke to said she had no information about an update and had no knowledge of any problems with the data connection. I pressed harder for an answer and she spoke to her supervisor. She now tells me that the supervisor informed her that an update will be available to fix 4G/3G data connection problem and update the phone with enhanced features. When? Doesn't know. I asked if there was any higher Level tech person I could speak to and she said no. telling me that the level 2 tech support was the highest.

Tech agents name: Rebecca
I.D # : 59868

Supervisors Name:perry
I.D # : 26025

I pressed Rebecca for his last name but she said she was not allowed to give it to me. WHAT?
I was not even allowed to talk to him.
I asked where they were based and she said Florida.

I have to be honest with you, I do not believe there is any update coming to fix this Data problem. The whole conversation was strange as she was not aware of any update and did not know of the problem with the data connection. Then after she tells me what her supervisor said I asked why she was not aware of this update. She then tells me that she knew there was an update coming but didn't know when or what for. This is totally opposite of what she first said that she knew of no update.

Why would the tech support people not know of specific known problems with this phone and whether any updates where coming out to fix them. THIS MAKE NO SENSE AT ALL!
 

mbentley3

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OK just got off the phone with with Motorola and let me say my faith in this company to do the right thing is now very low.
1)Spoke with level 1 tech support and she had no clue about anything.
Name: Stephanie
I.D # : 352896

2) I was transferred to level 2 support and not much better. The women I spoke to said she had no information about an update and had no knowledge of any problems with the data connection. I pressed harder for an answer and she spoke to her supervisor. She now tells me that the supervisor informed her that an update will be available to fix 4G/3G data connection problem and update the phone with enhanced features. When? Doesn't know. I asked if there was any higher Level tech person I could speak to and she said no. telling me that the level 2 tech support was the highest.

Tech agents name: Rebecca
I.D # : 59868

Supervisors Name:perry
I.D # : 26025

I pressed Rebecca for his last name but she said she was not allowed to give it to me. WHAT?
I was not even allowed to talk to him.
I asked where they were based and she said Florida.

I have to be honest with you, I do not believe there is any update coming to fix this Data problem. The whole conversation was strange as she was not aware of any update and did not know of the problem with the data connection. Then after she tells me what her supervisor said I asked why she was not aware of this update. She then tells me that she knew there was an update coming but didn't know when or what for. This is totally opposite of what she first said that she knew of no update.

Why would the tech support people not know of specific known problems with this phone and whether any updates where coming out to fix them. THIS MAKE NO SENSE AT ALL!

I rest my case.....these "tech" support people are clueless and contradict each other, Rebecca probably owns an LG flip phone and has never even touched a droid.
 

doogald

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2) I was transferred to level 2 support and not much better. The women I spoke to said she had no information about an update and had no knowledge of any problems with the data connection. I pressed harder for an answer and she spoke to her supervisor. She now tells me that the supervisor informed her that an update will be available to fix 4G/3G data connection problem and update the phone with enhanced features. When? Doesn't know.

This is not surprising. Updates like this are developed by the engineering group at Motorola and then must be tested and approved by Verizon before it will be released. Timing is up to Verizon, not Motorola. There is no way for anybody at Motorola to know when it will be released, because nobody at Motorola knows when Verizon will approve it for release. It's really not surprising that customer service technicians are not told about updates; they are there to support with tools that exist, not to promote an update that may not happen for a while.

I'm also not surprised that Motorola thinks that there is nothing wrong with the data connection; perhaps it is their opinion that the issue is a Verizon network issue?

That said, I thought that it was well known that an update for the Bionic was expected in the early-November timeframe?
 

anicholas7

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Here's something interesting:

I decided to call again and see what kind of answer I get from another tech person.
Spoke to Ben (Level 1) tech ID# 352667.

My questions:
1) Is Motorola aware of a problem with the 4G/3G loss of data connection.
Answer: Yes

2) Is this a problem with the phone or with Verizon.
Answer: The phone.

3) Is Motorola working on an update to fix the problem.
Answer: He said Motorola and GOOGLE are working on a solution for this problem. Has anyone else ever been told Google is involved with a solution to fix this problem. I found this surprising that he mentioned Google but I guess since Motorola is using their OS it does make sense that they would help in solving the problem.
 

stangger

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3) Is Motorola working on an update to fix the problem.
Answer: He said Motorola and GOOGLE are working on a solution for this problem. Has anyone else ever been told Google is involved with a solution to fix this problem. I found this surprising that he mentioned Google but I guess since Motorola is using their OS it does make sense that they would help in solving the problem.

Thought this was well known but Google purchased Motorola Mobility.

Google Buys Motorola Mobility For $12.5B, Says “Android Will Stay Open” | TechCrunch

(First link that came up)
 

Fable

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I thought I remember reading that the November software update has been leaked...

maybe I'm misremembering...

No you are correct. They skipped 892 and testers are using 893 which supposedly fixes a host of issues. Moto may assume they are done with 893 ... It's in testing which is a completely different thing. Some of the devs are already working on (and one has finished that I know of) incorporating some elements of it into their ROM.

An update is out there... It just needs to pass its various gates. Until an update is available from a carrier it is impossible to know what version number will be the version. Heck .. The nexus is supposedly even battling with some kind of testing hiccup. It's the norm for Verizon. Hopefully they get it right and we get a fairly stable device in the end. Luckily Moto has a lot of experience with this process from so many past headaches so I'm sure they will get it right. Course .. Reps really aren't up to speed on a lot of coming soon type things... They have enough problems with current software/devices and in some cases folks are rolling over to backup call centers due to high call volumes. Customer service in today's world is a crapshoot at best. Try calling companies that outsourced ... ugh!
 
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