[Official] Droid Charge delayed?

[Phil Nickinson]

Got a BUNCH of tips tonight that it might not be on sale Thursday because of the LTE outage. If you hear/see different, sing out!

Update: Just heard back from Verizon corporate. It's as we thought.

The Droid Charge availability has been delayed. More to come on the availability.
Customers have the option of providing store representatives with their contact information and they will be notified when the phone is available for purchase

Also -- and I'm not kidding here -- I've got someone telling me part of the decision had nothing to do with LTE. T-Shirts didn't make it to all stores in time. Gawd, I hope that's true.

 

[Droid800]

Got a BUNCH of tips tonight that it might not be on sale Thursday because of the LTE outage. If you hear/see different, sing out!

I was just thinking about that. Makes perfect sense; they won't be able to activate it if the network doesn't work, so they might be forced to delay it. From what BMX has said, their network engineers are working around the clock to remedy the situation, so they might have it back up in time.

 

[Cruiserdude]

Yeah, I read over on engadget that part of the problem is they cannot activate new LTE devices at this time. As much as it sucks to turn away all the customers banging on the doors tomorrow, you simply can't sell the phone until you have the ability to activate it. I just hope they don't push it back another week, and make it available as soon as the network allows it.

Who knows though, maybe Panda will work his magic overnight and it'll launch as scheduled. With the Bionic fiasco, I really don't think Verizon can handle another device delay...

 

[EggoEspada]

I would assume so. lol. I mean if you can't activate the phone, how can you sell it? It'll probably land Monday, if not then Thursday. I'm sure Verizon isn't happy about losing sales; that goes for what were potential Thunderbolt sales as well. HTC and Samsung are losing out because of this along with Verizon.

The bright side for Verizon though? They're launching 3 other devices tomorrow that aren't tied to 4G. lol.

 

[paulmike3]

How bad would it look if they started selling devices that couldn't be activated? Remember the flack AT&T took when iPhone activation systems took a crap on launch day? Granted, this isn't the same scale, but it would definitely warrant some major heat in the press.

No question it's delayed if LTE doesn't come back before tomorrow morning.

 

[DroidXcon]

Damn it, ill buy it without activation

 

[WhoMe]

Ive been told tommorrows launch is cancelled.

 

[w00tw00twhat]

sigh, such a long time waiting to just find this out the day before its launch...i think i might cry. Get this up tomorrow damnit DAMNIT!!!!



Also the VZW store has been updated with the Dinc2 and the commando...and the charge isnt up there soooo....cry

 

[jrdfox]

That's weird, I just activated an HTC Thunderbolt online without any problems! Of course the 4g doesn't work but the phone is working great!

 

[Droid800]

It seems as though they are slowly ramping the 4G network back online. If its fixed (which its looking like it is) I bet they still launch the Charge tomorrow.

 

[w00tw00twhat]

It seems as though they are slowly ramping the 4G network back online. If its fixed (which its looking like it is) I bet they still launch the Charge tomorrow.

I certainly hope so, i have my money on the side and have been excited all day for tomorrow. This would ruin my weekend if its not released tomorrow. But it does seem like peoples 3G/4G is coming back. Hopefully this will be resolved fully tomorrow and i can still go in store and pick up my phone.

 

[Accrete]

I guess i need to do some homework/research...i'm a bit puzzled when i read through this thread with comments such as "Verizon can't activate the charge without the 4g network up". ??

Last Wednesday my wife and i bought two Tbolts (that we are luving) from a vzw store in Portland Oregon which is not covered by 4g, yet the phones were activated just fine. I never had a 4g signal except when i purposely drove by the Portland Airport which has 4g coverage, then onto my home on the coast which has 3g coverage (except for today's craziness when it was at 1x).

: ) thanks in advance for clearing the fog in my noggin'

 

[Droid800]

I guess i need to do some homework/research...i'm a bit puzzled when i read through this thread with comments such as "Verizon can't activate the charge without the 4g network up". ??

Last Wednesday my wife and i bought two Tbolts (that we are luving) from a vzw store in Portland Oregon which is not covered by 4g, yet the phones were activated just fine. I never had a 4g signal except when i purposely drove by the Portland Airport which has 4g coverage, then onto my home on the coast which has 3g coverage (except for today's craziness when it was at 1x).

: ) thanks in advance for clearing the fog in my noggin'

The LTE devices do not activate like any other normal Verizon device, especially in a 4G area. The normal *228 procedure doesn't work. I suppose if you're in a 3G area they could still activate it, but I can't speak to the specifics of that because I don't know.

Long story short, without there being an active 4G network, they can't activate 4G devices. (especially if the network is down)

 

[Psykonate]

4G

I live in an area where the closest 4G coverage is about 300 miles away, I have a Thunderbolt and have never been anywhere near there with the phone. All I did was plug in my SIM card and tada, the phone activated just fine over the 3G network. So, I'd have to say that 4G is not needed to activate the phone.

Also, first thing I did when I got the phone was deactivate the 4G radio and my phone never even hiccuped today.

If the delay (if there is one for sure) is somehow related to the outage, I'd guess its more along the lines of Verizon not wanting to sell a device that cannot be used in order to avoid the thousands of constant phone calls complaining and asking about it on top of the ones they are already getting from the Tbolt owners.

I'd be purely speculating but, I'd imagine the average owner of a smartphone has about zero knowledge of forums such as these nor are they reading them daily studying devices. So, average Joe walks in and buys a new Droid Charge and it doesn't do what the ad says it does and they've got a lot of unhappy doubting new customers. Not what they want.

Just my opinion.

 

[Stang68]

Walked by my local Verizon store in Manhattan this morning and they had Droid Charge posters up everywhere. Could still be coming out today...

 

[Senraeth]

I don't know if this is useful information to anyone, but I pre-ordered the Charge from Wirefly yesterday and I already have a Fedex tracking number showing it is in transit to arrive tomorrow (4/29).

 

[newdad28]

I don't know if this is useful information to anyone, but I pre-ordered the Charge from Wirefly yesterday and I already have a Fedex tracking number showing it is in transit to arrive tomorrow (4/29).

The information isn't so much helpful or useful as it is making me envious.

 

[barrycinti]

Walked by my local Verizon store in Manhattan this morning and they had Droid Charge posters up everywhere. Could still be coming out today...

I just called my local VZW corporate store and asked if they were selling the Charge today. He said no there was a 4G outage. I asked if he had an estimate when 4G would be back up, he responded no. My location is cincinnati.

 

[VideoEngineerAJS]

I just called my local VZW corporate store and asked if they were selling the Charge today. He said no there was a 4G outage. I asked if he had an estimate when 4G would be back up, he responded no. My location is cincinnati.

Cincinnati must be about the only place where LTE is down still. Over on the Thunderbolt forum, just about everyone has LTE back. LTE is back up here in St. Louis.

 

[WhoMe]

From what I understand the activation process for LTE phones is different than the other smart Phones, regardless if its actually activated in a 4G covered area. Obviously there is some sort of connection because even living outside a 4G zone my Thunderbolt was affected by yesterday's outage. I couldn't even get 3G, I was knocked all the way down to 1x.

That being said it looks like LTE is back up..or getting there. But I still believe Verizon wont be launching today. They told all their employees it wasn't happening today, there was all sorts of confusion at the stores this morning.

Itll be delayed weather they are technically able to do so today or not...just till they get the management confusion sorted out. That'll take more than a day. Id wager if they cant get thier stuff together by tomorrow they will push it back a week.