Needing advice on defective device

[mrmexican87]

Hey everyone!

I'm hoping someone here might have some insight on what I can do next because I'm running out of ideas.

I have a Galaxy Note 2 T889 that I purchased off Craigslist back in January. It's been a wonderful device and I got it at a darn good price back when it was fairly new to T-Mo. I've taken excellent care of it. I've maybe dropped it on carpet twice and it's been in a TPU Cruzerlite case since day 1. I went on a trip recently and noticed when I returned that LTE had started popping up in Tulsa. I figured my poor signal quality was due to them launching the LTE service soon. So I waited. Nothing ever got better and it actually got worse. I drop calls constantly and at some places I had full service I now only have Edge. Eventually I just got a symbol where the signal should be and couldn't make calls unless connected to Wifi.

I sent my phone into Samsung because I don't have insurance through T-Mo. They returned the device stating they had repaired items related to call quality. I had the same problem. I have Edge and LTE, but it almost seems like it won't connect to HSPA/4G. So, I sent it back. This time when they sent it back I didn't have a packing slip stating what they repaired. Still, same problem. I

With turnaround times and mailing the device out, I've been without it for more than a month. I don't have enough money to just go out and get a new phone right now because I wouldn't really be able to sell a defective device for a price that would offset a new one. On top of that, my Acer Iconia got stolen out of a friends house. So not having a device with the apps I need with school starting back up has been really stressful.

I already replaced the SIM through T-Mo and that doesn't seem to be an issue because I tested it against a friends device. They had 4G while I had Edge in the exact same spot. Today, if I'm on LTE and make a call the signal drops to nothing and changes between 4G/LTE/2G during the call. So bizarre. APN settings are default and I've tried tinkering with other APNs with no luck. Also, I run stock ROM and have never rooted.

I guess my main question is, what should I do? Keep sending it back to Samsung until they consider giving me a replacement device? Sell it for parts on Ebay? I just feel stuck :'(

 

[Cuda62]

Can't say that I was experiencing all of your symptoms, but the one thing that stands out is that the issue started with the LTE rollout in your area.
My issue started with the rollout of LTE in the Chicago area. Every night the phone would disconnect from the Tmobile network. No phone calls. No texts. Had to restart my phone every morning to get reconnected. I thought maybe it was because I was on the edge of LTE coverage, and it was having trouble staying connected. This is the setting change that I made to make the issue completely disappear.

Settings>Under Wireless And Network select More Settings>Mobile Networks>Network Mode>Change from Automatic LTE/4G/3G/2G to Automatic 4G/3G/2G.

Hope this works for you.

 

[Double0EK]

Chiming in on your issue. ..
I actually took it a step further and created the 4G APN (No LTE) then changed the Network Mode the 4G/3G/2G

So create an APN using the epc.tmobile.com (be sure to set your mms setrings as well)