Verizon Droid replacements suck

[MrSmith317]

Ok, so my original Droid(I mean the one I purchased in Nov of 2009) finally died. It took a hit in my pocket and the LCD turned off permanently. I took it to the Verizon store and got a replacement. It looked like it was in great shape, oh but the USB port was busted. So I take that one to a different store(closer to work), they tell me that they can ship me a phone but not give me one. Yet again, WTF? So I take the messed up USB one back to the same store I got the first one replaced.

Now I'm on my second replacement phone and lo and behold the keyboard is attached by what appears to be will power alone. So I've given up on the stores and called customer support. They're sending me god knows what in the mail. Has anyone else ran into this and is there a way to get a reliable replacement device, or am I screwed and need to be happy with the best of the worst?

 

[Ratchet]

Once you've had a device over a certain time period (90 days I believe), they will only send out "Certified refurbs" of the same device. Some are great, others can be a gamble.

 

[Sploinkin]

I only ever got refurbs from Verizon. Damn headphone jack was bad on 3 of them (not to mention I wanted to get rid of the giant scratch I made on onf them). They still had the 90 days for every refurb though.

 

[spark032207#WN]

I have had mixed experiences with refurbs from Verizon. I think it's just a pure luck of the draw.

 

[.46caliber]

The problem with the "Certified Like-New" is that Verizon is the one making the claim, not Motorola. If they were actually factory refurbished, Motorola, I'd be happier.

 

[takeshi]

Has anyone else ran into this and is there a way to get a reliable replacement device, or am I screwed and need to be happy with the best of the worst?

I haven't but others certainly have. Be persistent and get them to replace until you get a suitable device. It's hit-or-miss with refurbs and only the people with bad experiences post about it but that's typical for every forum site out there whether the topic is smartphones or any other product. My wife has received replacements from Asurion without any issues. YMMV, of course.

 

[MrSmith317]

So far my mileage has been fraught with pot-holes, hopefully this next device will finally be the one that works and is as flawless as my original was.

 

[bigguy_132]

I had this issue went through five and Verizon sent me a refurb INC and had no problem with it so far. This was also around the time though that they did not have an DROID refurbs available as they just discontinued it.

 

[MrSmith317]

Well good news. My latest replacement arrived and seems to be in good shape. So 4 is the lucky number I guess.

 

[kwright817]

Well good news. My latest replacement arrived and seems to be in good shape. So 4 is the lucky number I guess.

I'm, on replacement 3. Had it for 3 weeks and the slider is so loose that it often seems to open just sitting on the desk! Perhaps 4 may be my number to ?

 

[sniffs]

Most carriers use a company called "Asurion" to do their warranty replacements.

They do a very minimal check and send them off. The majority of replacements will fail eventually, it's just the nature of the beast.

The only company I've seen that has Grade A+++ warranty replacements is Apple. =/

 

[Menno]

The problem is that it's the carrier replacing the phone for you, not Motorola.

How it used to go is that if you had an issue with the device, you would contact Motorla for an RMA (like you do with computers now) You ship your device out to them, they try and fix the issue, if they can't fix it, they send you a replacement, usually a "refurbished" model, but it's factory refurbished, so typically it will work like new.

The problem with this method (for most customers) is that they could be without a phone for days, or weeks.

So carriers decided to step in and offer an alernative, but there was a catch. You see, the warranty was through the phone maker, NOT verizon, and verizon couldn't/wouldn't train their techs to become certified Motorola/HTC/LG techs (the only way for them to be certain the issue was covered by warrenty). So if they took your phone as a warranty claim (giving you a replacement) and the company that made the phone decided it was user damage they would be out a phone.

So they needed to create their own way to get replacement phones, since they couldn't depend on reliably getting them from Motorola. This is where the "Certified like new" program came in. These were devices that Verizon (or other companies) "certified" to work. They weren't the same quality as moto's, but since they were "certified" verizon would honor a warranty on them.

The problem is is that this led to a HUGE increase in warranty claims. Since the exchange was (next to) instant, people would want an exchange for everything.

How it works now is within the first six months, the warranty units are usually devices that people bought and returned, or ones that were DOA and replaced by Motorola. for the next 6-8 months, you start getting a mix of refurbs in there, and then for the remainer of the contract term, it's all refurbs with some devices going through 2-3 refurbs.

Asurion insurance replacements are even worse.

The reasons apple's don't suck is because they're factory replacements, not carrier ones. If you could go directly through moto, their replacements would be of similar quality

You mentioned not being able to get the phone in the store, this is because most stores don't keep warranty replacements in stock. There's so many phones anymore, the inventory costs are staggering.

Sorry for the mini book.

 

[snppr22]

Get the phone you want

Call VZW support, *611 and choose option 0 and ask for a supervisor, ask them to review your account and ask them to send you a new phone or a different phone, or even for an upgrade. Don't let them tell you they cant do it, they can. I got my OG Droid after I went through about a dozen Droid Eris'. And they gave me an early upgrade to get my DX.

 

[loganthomas51]

The problem of the situation is that Verizon is left in charged of replacing Motorola phones (and any other manufacturers for that matter). At the end of the day Verizon is a service provider. Motorola is a phone manufacture, Verizon makes no money off phones at all (period). All of the warranty replacement cost are covered by Motorola under the 1 year manufacturers warranty or if you purchase an additional/extend warranty the cost is covered by the money you pay for you warranty. Trust me Verizon does not want you to get a warranty replacement, they would love for your original phone to last for 10 years. That way they never have to take a loss on a new phone (because they do with every new phone purchase) and so they do not have to pay techs to exchange your phone transfer your contacts etc. to a warranty replacement. So the general idea that Verizon is the bad guy because your Motorola/HTC/Samsung... phone does not work properly is completely ridiculous.

 

[mupi]

FWIW, I'm on #3, and about to call for #4. I'm tempted to go into the verizon store (I got #1 that way), but then again, it doesn't appear to have been any better.

My original droid lasted just shy of a year, and then simply stopped talking to the battery.

Replacement#1 had the latch problem, it would literally fall open while in the case.
#2 Had a problem with the physical keyboard, which I didn't notice until over a month after I did the exchange, because I so rarely actually use it.
#3, which I just received, has a proximity sensor problem, when I'm on the phone with the dialpad open (for example, when calling customer service so you have to enter digits), I'll hear a "beep", and look, and I dialed a digit. Also, it gets super hot, like, uncomfortably hot against my ear, which I expect maybe a little warm, but not HOT.

So, I plan to tell them it's time to consider other replacement options than another refurb phone. But they haven't yet received the #2 return yet...

UPDATE: Finally managed to get ahold of Verizon Tech Support today. Apparently they had some issues with the billing system, then I wasn't close to another phone, so they couldn't troubleshoot, and so on. Because of the heat issue, the guy didn't hesitate to send out a replacement, even though they haven't received by other phone back yet. However, worth noting is that I was told that in the past, they have had a policy of replacing the phone with a different device if you get a certain number of defective replacements, but they no longer do that, and no one, not even a supervisor can change that. (Now, I know that's not entirely true, at some level (my wife, for example, got a brand-new droid at no cost to replace her defective devour, but she didn't do it through the Phone Reps, she went through the retail channel; also her phone was only 3 months old at the time)), but I didn't want to get into it. Of course, since I am eligible for my early upgrade they keep trying to push me into that, too. If #4 still has an issue, then I am seriously going to push the issue. Let's see a $200 credit for 4 months of service with a defective phone seems fair....then I can get a DroidX or something...maybe the Merge will be out by then...

 

[MrSmith317]

If #4 still has an issue, then I am seriously going to push the issue. Let's see a $200 credit for 4 months of service with a defective phone seems fair....then I can get a DroidX or something...maybe the Merge will be out by then...

Don't let them fool you into wasting your upgrade on a phone before the LTE phones come out. They tried that with me and no way was I going to do that. Had they offered me a free DX or D2 without wasting my upgrade, sure but no way were they wrestling me out of my "prize" (Droid Bionic).

 

[Mr.Miagi]

My OG droids headset jack went BUT since I got it at Best Buy and have their warrente, they gave me an incredible as a loaner phone for the 3 weeks it was out for repair. Lovely except that phones battery sucks and Sense UI had some random quirks/glitches. Got my OG droid back and the audio jack is starting to go again. If Best Buy has to replace it one of 2 more times I get 600 credit for a brand new phone without using an upgrade. I would bring it back now but I love my OG droid more then other phones out now.

Answer: get the phone at best buy with their warrente.

 

[SpeedVX]

I'll throw in my 2 cents.

My wife when through four OG Droids, each one with its own unique problem. We got all four of those by calling VZW and having them send us new phones (which of course were refurbs). Finally, we got fed up and I escalated to a supervisor on the phone, and they said they couldn't give us a new phone until I actually went into a store.

So I went in, they took a look at the latest OG Droid, confirmed it really did have a problem, took a look at our account to confirm that we'd been having multiple problems, and then gave her a free upgrade to a new D2.

As always, from the postings we've seen here, it seems that your mileage will vary.

 

[nigeldpoll]

I started with the Blackberry Storm (don't have the OG Droid wasn't out yet) Then the Droid Came out. I called up Verizon and told them all about the problems the Storm was having, so 4 Storms later and many trips to the Stores they said they would give me a Storm 2. So a week later a broken Storm 2 came in, this is when i lost it on the phone to a poor woman at Verizon. I guess this works cause 5 minuites on hold later a manager came on the phone and said go to my nearist Verizon store and pick out any phone i wanted up to the value of the the storm 2 ($500) Worked for me took a while to. Picked up the OG Droid and never looked back.

Now i have the X and the G tab

 

[boomerbsg]

I bought my og droid used. Now its getting static in the headphone jack. I kept my TEP on my bill from my previous phone. Will they honor that and swap me for a refurb?