I have been an AT&T ( or CIngular ) subscriber for about 7 yrs. We presently have 4 devices operating on a family plan. 3 of the phones are eligible for upgrades this month, while 1 phone is not eligible until Nov. For the past 2 weeks or so three of our phones have been having trouble completing calls, getting voicemail messages, sometimes even turning them on or freezing up. Guess which three phones they are??? This is the second time this has happened, but last time was two years ago and we decided to just upgrade. ( renew contract) I didn't really think much of it but now I am just angry. How could all three eligible phones coincidently have trouble just when we are due to re-new?? I havew spoken to friends who have experienced the same unethical phenomenon. Any comments?
Because most phones under average use are pretty much worn out after 2 years, unless you take extra special care of your phones or you buy exceptionally good quality. -Jay
all the phones i have are still working, but im a verizon customer. ive only had 2 phone in my lifetime that were used, although i got a box in the garage full of old phones dated between 1987-2005 that were never activated by me. i only had to buy another phone so i can text and use cdma when im in town, the microtac was reused by cloning(yes its illegal, but i cloned my self!) as for at&t im not sure if there doing it on purpose, but it looks like it. jay is right too, phones eventualy break, mabey 2 years was as much as a chinese built phone can take. 1993 motorola microtac- still works :googlyeye 2003 samsung a310 - still works 2013 ???????????
Yeah, they are not built like they were in the DynaTac/MicroTac days. Especially if you are getting the free phone, or one that costs less than $50 w/ a contract. Even the Motorola Razr was cheapened when it became a free phone. When you compare my 2 year old V3 to the free ones they sell now mine is a lot heavier. There is a lot more plastic in it now. Mine has an aluminum hinge, the free ones now have plastic hinges. It even worse if you are getting a free LG or Samsung. They are built with the idea that they will be technologically (?sp) obselete in 2 years anyway, why should they build it to last longer than that? -Jay
I hate the free or cheap phones LG, Samsung, Motos and even some of the Nokia. I have had many customers complaints and the majority of the complaints are from cheap phones, these cheaper phones dont perform good 850 to 1900 handoffs so in enviroments were you have both and you bounce back and forth these phones will drop a call. Buy a decent phone. I have a Moto V400 thats over 4 years old with only a battery replacement and I have a Nokia 6010 on its 3rd battery but still going strong. Do not drop the phones I have dropped so many phones due to the nature of my job and drops are not kind.
My Motorola V551's are 3-4 years old, and I haven't even replaced the batteries in them. My Moto A845 was made in 2003 or 2004, and that works well too. I really like my original black V3 though, when I drop it and scratch it I just touch it up with a sharpie marker. -Jay
Thanks for the replies. I suppose I could give ATT the benefit of the doubt and blame it on the phones. I would accept that if the three of them all went haywire within 2 days of each other, without any prior trouble with any of them. I'm inclined to think it is a ploy to force a contract renewal. Too coincidental.
Speaking from experience you can not mess with the phones as you talking about. You can either turn them on or off or update the SIM card. If the phone was turned off from the network it would just say EMERGENCY USE ONLY. The batteries tend to crap out first, buy a battery off of ebay I have bought a few and the shipping has always been more than the battery. I just got 2 nokia replacement batteries for 8 bucks with shipping. Brand new and not chinese rip offs. Good Luck
If you don't want to renew a contract, go to Wal-Mart and buy a Go Phone. Put your SIM card into it and don't even worry about telling AT&T. As far as two years, everything in the world gets old and goes bad, and I find from my personal experience, phones only last 18-24 months.
I agree with everything that's been said here so far. Phones today have average life-cycles of only a few years. Altho if you get a high-end phone and take care of it it can last longer than 2 years. But even if they do survive longer, they do become technoloically obsolete anyway. One other thing that could be worth considering was if ATT sent an Over-the-Air (OTA) update to the phones and something went wrong? You can maybe try taking the phones to your local ATT shop and ask if they can re-flash the phones to the lastest firmware? That may work out any bugs or glitches you've been having.
Probably the best thing to do is to take the batteries & SIM cards out for at least 10 minutes, then put it all back togeather and turn the phones on, If you still have problems call 611 and see if there are any OTA updates that can be pushed to the phone. If it was a firmware issue they probably would have had problems the whole time they had those phones. Personally I think they are just worn out. -Jay
