Cell Phone question - Samsung

[Matt²]

Hello.. got a question of two for you cell phone users (assuming that's all of you) here...

My story in brief: late last summer I had to replace my Samsung t809 phone because I got hit by 3 rogue waves while on the Oregon coast.. I replaced it with a similar model, a Samsung t659 phone.. almost the same phone, slightly better features, can hold 16 gigs of memory through the microsd chip (sold separately).. I bought a 2 gig chip a month or so ago. It was at that time I discovered that when I took pictures and video or tried to retrieve them, the phone would lock up and either it would reset itself after a minute or two, or I would have to hard reset it by taking out the battery.

I put the original microsd chip in it, a 512 card, and it still had the same effect... I returned the 2 gig chip and got a replacement - same effect.. today as I type this I am awaiting the UPS truck to get here with my "fixed" phone ...Samsung says they found nothing wrong..
literally:...

"Original Problem:Technical Inquiry, Phone Freezing / Locked U Freeze/Delay Between Menu

Problem found: NO TROUBLE FOUND, SW,PRL,OTSL RESET

Solution:
Passed All Functional Testing "

so ok, that was my brief description of what's been going on with my phone... my question for you guys is, have you had any problems with Samsung (or any other phones I should know about to stay away from) and can you recommend a certain type for me to consider in the future? I don't need a really really fancy phone, and I wouldn't ever consider an iphone, and my phone is serviced by T-mobile.. that said, advice please?

 

[Matt²]

nono, please, rant away! I want to know SPECIFICS! I've come to HATE Samsung (and UPS over this last week but that's another rant) since this occurred and dealing with their tech support. I'm very interested to know any technical details of bugs and errors.

 

[Ravenpoe]

nono, please, rant away! I want to know SPECIFICS! I've come to HATE Samsung (and UPS over this last week but that's another rant) since this occurred and dealing with their tech support. I'm very interested to know any technical details of bugs and errors.

I sell cell phones for Verizon, but I'm familiar with t-mobile's lineup.

If you're looking for a high quality phone, I wouldn't recommend Samsung. While there's nothing wrong with the manufacturer per se, their continual usage of proprietary, non-standard equipment (just look at their charging ports) seem a little backwards today. Also, they tend to make straight middle of the road phones.

You said you didn't want anything fancy, but I'd highly recommend any of the android phones by HTC. If you want to get really fancy, you could get a Nexus One (sold by google) to put on your t-mobile service, but that would be pricey. A G1 or other earlier model android phone will serve you well, and you'll be amazed at how much it can do, and how easy it is to use.

If you're absolutely opposed to a smartphone, then anything by nokia tends to be of good quality.

 

[Matt²]

I didn't mean to say I was opposed to a really fancy phone... I'm just totally opposed to the PRICE of one of those!
I think I looked at one of the Droid phones at a Verizon store recently and it was $699 I think? That's two months of rent for me.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I didn't mean to say I was opposed to a really fancy phone... I'm just totally opposed to the PRICE of one of those!
I think I looked at one of the Droid phones at a Verizon store recently and it was $699 I think? That's two months of rent for me.

They're $199 in some places, with a two year contract. And while the Droid is an awesome phone (I have one myself) there are other, cheaper android phones. If you wanted to stick with T-Mobile, which may or may not suck depending on your area, there are a lot of android phones to choose from. You can pick up a used HTC G1 from ebay for around $150.

 

[Matt²]

hmm... well that's something to think about.. my phone is actually still under warranty since I bought it in September... also $225 if I remember correctly.. I buy mine straight out - I hate contracts and my credit sucks - so I think my prices are going to be higher than the standard prices... I honestly hadn't considered Ebay, so that is one avenue I can try.

oh, and I got my phone back yesterday and guess what? Still does the EXACT SAME THING. grrrrr
I called them up and did some guesswork with a supervisor, then told them I'm probably not ever going to buy a Samsung product again if they are this troublesome.
Their response was to buy either a 1 gig sdcard (mine is a 2) or a 16 gig card.

where's my flip off finger pic?

 

[Ravenpoe]

hmm... well that's something to think about.. my phone is actually still under warranty since I bought it in September... also $225 if I remember correctly.. I buy mine straight out - I hate contracts and my credit sucks - so I think my prices are going to be higher than the standard prices... I honestly hadn't considered Ebay, so that is one avenue I can try.

oh, and I got my phone back yesterday and guess what? Still does the EXACT SAME THING. grrrrr
I called them up and did some guesswork with a supervisor, then told them I'm probably not ever going to buy a Samsung product again if they are this troublesome.
Their response was to buy either a 1 gig sdcard (mine is a 2) or a 16 gig card.

where's my flip off finger pic?

I'm at work at the moment, so I don't have the time right now, but I'll look into what t-mobile/ATT (they run the same network type) have to offer. Being that I work at, and use, Verizon, that's where most of my knowledge is. I really can't recommend Android enough though. It's open source, and runs on a modified linux kernal, making it extremely moddable. Depending on how much you like to tinker with your phones, this may or may not be a selling point. I recently overclocked my droid and loaded a custom ROM onto it, so stuff like that is high on my list.

As for Warranty people, good luck. Their entire job is to try and keep you from getting a replacement. The best advice I can give for dealing with them is to bitch and bitch and bitch and keep getting transferred higher and higher up until someone can get you what you want.