(very long)Conclusion to the I need a new phone for my sprint plan. It long but wanted to give everyone the complete sto

[62Fuelie]

Ok here is the whole story of my phone saga and how I wound up going through 4 phones in 4 days. I have been with (my first cell phone) Sprint since March of 2001 the first phone I had was a one piece Sanyo. I got the one piece because I always break all my flip TV remotes and anything else that flips open so I went with a one piece. I kept the Sanyo till January of 2003 and got rid of it because the non-flip design left the screen unprotected and it got too scratched to read. I almost never had a dropped call the entire time I had it, this was my primary phone, no land line, and I always was able to make calls from inside the house. I stopped off a Costco and bought a new flip phone Samsung SCH-A460 $125. On the way home I tried making a few calls but they didn’t go through or winded up getting dropped. I just figured that the battery needed to be charged, but when I charged up the battery with the car charger and tried to make a few more calls from the car I had the same problem. I went home and called Sprint on the cell phone from inside my house to complain they could only pick up every 3rd word I said. I never had a problem making a call inside my house with the old phone. I returned the phone the next day and got LG 5350. The LG worked fine from Jan of 03 till a few weeks ago when I stated getting dropped calls. After numerous complaints to Sprint I was told to go down to the Sprint store and they would take care of it right away. When I got to the Sprint store I was pretty aggravated with a few weeks of dropped Sprint calls. I had a lot of things on my schedule that day and I really wasn’t thrilled with taking time out to drive to Sprint, but I figured it would be a quick in and out and I would be on my way-----WRONG! They told me to leave my phone and come back in two hours. I asked for a loner phone but was refused. I then made up my mind to dump Sprint. I went to the Cingular store across the street and checked out their plan. It turned out that for the same amount of money I could get rollover minutes plus 7 PM nights instead of 8 PM nights. I could finish out my sprint plan till the end of the contract and have my 1,500 unused Cingular rollover minutes carried over to Jan when the sprint plan ended. Great plan but one minor flaw in the plan presented itself when I got home. The Cingular phone (phone #1) was totally useless inside my house. So now I was back to my original LG5350 that was now fully functional. The only problem was that when they took it apart the flip part was loose and now had a wiggle in it. I called Sprint customer service and didn’t get anywhere with my problem of having got the phone back in worst condition than when I left it off till I requested to talk to a supervisor. That is when I was offered the
$200 credit for my old phone, I was given a $200 credit to my bill and was told to go buy anything I wanted, all I had to do is mail in the old one. So that is when I began my search for a new phone. Unlike the rest of the people on this forum I was clueless to the latest developments in cell technology. I went to the sprint store intending to get a Samsung A-600 or a Sanyo SCP-5300, they didn’t have the SCP-5300 in stock so I went down the street to Best buy. I somehow wound up walking out of Best buy with a (phone #2) Samsung VGA 1000. When I got home I read the advice of this forum and realized I made a mistake in getting the Samsung VGA 1000 so I decided not to activate it. I made up my mind to get the Sanyo SCP-5300. So dropped off the Samsung VGA 1000 at Best buy. I checked the Sprint store to see if they had the Sanyo SCP-5300 in yet, but still no luck. So then I tried Costco they had plenty of 8100s but no 5300s. They told me there were 2 left at a different Costco store about 15 miles away. When I got to Costco the Sprint guy told me the two 5300s were returns and they didn’t have any to sell. He told me he usually works at the Best buy Sprint department but he was filling in at Costco for the day. He said the 5300s are in short supply but they had super deals on the 8100 ($169.99 including bonus pack car charger, earpiece, and dashboard mount). So I left with the (phone #3) 8100 and activated it. I figured I made a good choice because the 8100 didn’t require you to pay for Internet service to retrieve photos from the phone. I had a two month free Sprint vision internet trial with the LG5350 back in Jan of 03 and didn’t keep it after the free trial because it didn’t seem like it was worth it. When I tried the 8100 I realized two things, the Internet had gotten better, and the pictures from the 8100 were not up to my expectations. So the following day I did some more calling to try to try to track down a 5300. I must have tried 10 to 20 places then gave the Sprint store one more try. Success at last, I now own the SCP-5300 (phone #4) and am very happy with it. My one big complaint is that Sprint doesn’t have the Cingular type chip in their phones. The Cingular phones allow you to transfer all your info into the new phone by changing SIM cards. But now I will have to spend the next 3 to 5 hours copying my phone book and my calendar from my old phone to the new one. Sorry if this was a bit long but I am grateful for the help I got here and felt the least I could do islet everyone know what the outcome was. Now that I have settled on a phone I will make an effort to keep myself up to date with the latest developments in cell technology

[kranium007]

well, good luck with the new phone. i hope you have a better outcome with this one.

[62Fuelie]

I wouldn't have had so many changes if I was more up to date on the latest phones when I started shopping. I also allowed myself to be talked into buying something that the seller was trying to push because he didn't have what i wanted in stock. From now on I will make a point to visit here more often. The 8100 is a great phone but if I am going to get a camera phone I want it to take a quality picture.

[HLS]

With all of those trials you should have gotten more help!
A Sprint store rep would have transfered your phonebook entries to your new phone while you waited in the store!

BTW - I have the VGA1000 and I find it is great. Great phone, voice operated, fair camera, easy to use browser and now the SMS is improving text messaging!! I cannot complain!

[jjdu4]

I just reactivated with sprint from Nextel and I tried out the Samsung 1000 and it was a very nice phone. The only reason I didn't get it was because we kinda liked the Direct connect with Nextel and went with the Ready link phones....but I don't think you would have been dissapointed with the Samsung....Just be glad your still with Sprint, I have had just about every service with the exception of Verizon and Sprint has been the best especially with the $5 free and clear. Good luck with your new toy and enjoy