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I argued with my mom for like an hour straight about switching from Cricket to Verizon, or T-Mobile. My friend and I got frustrated and so I bought this kick-butt Q9 Phone. (love love love!!!) I had it flashed, to cricket. BAD IDEA! Not only am I paying for features I no longer get because of this "non-compatible phone" is it's a fully loaded phone and I can only call text and video and take pictures. I cannot send pictures, receive them, I can't send or get video. I no longer get mobile web and roaming will cost now. So I'm paying 60$ a month for 2 features!! UGH! I went to shut down my service from 60$ to 45$. In reality, I have the 45$ service, I forgot why it ends up being 60$ a month. But when I went to do that, they said I would lose my voice messages. >.< I cannot win here!  It sucks being 17. Well, in this case it does. My mom or step-dad refuses to co-sign for me. In the 2 years I have had cricket, I've not once been late on a payment. I have gone through close to 7 phones. I had the Candid 2. I hate hate hate cricket phones, they break so easily. My last one would turn on and restart immediately. So I couldn't do anything. Basically I was fed up with the service. So, I got my phone flashed. And finally got my friends dad to co-sign for me. But you can't unflash a phone unless you send it back to the maker. So I'm hoping I can get my $250 back and go do the 79.99 (with mail in rebate) and first months bill (59.99) And get my same phone, with fully loaded feature, with 450 minutes, (I never really talk on the phone) All this would cost 180.00 total. I'm just *hoping* it will work. This is one big mega frustration. I can't do anything because I'm not 18.  :doh:

Oh well. I'm done ranting. If anyone has any advice that'd be great. How do you guys like verizon, so far I'm in love with my Q9 phone. My gawd it's so pretty :D  :rattysmiley:

Get a Virgin Mobile phone, you can get monthly plans or pay by the minute. Unlimited texting, picture, IM, and E-mail package for $10. They're great and probably cheaper then what you are paying for. Check it out www.virginmobileusa.com

Part of why anyone under 18 can't 'do anything' is because they tend to not think things through before acting on an impulse.  I'm sorry you flashed your phone and now it's not working, but did you talk to someone first, to find out what features would be disabled?  Unfortunately, experience can be a cruel teacher.  I, too, hope you can get a new phone, but ultimately it's not the company's fault that you did what you did ...  perhaps it can be reflashed, or something, but maybe next time you'll do a bit more research before jumping in feet first.

That being said, I've had Verizon for 4.5 years now, and am overall satisfied. Most of the people my daughter and I chat with have Verizon, so it's nice to not use all of our minutes.  :)

Dearpie, The flashing is not really concerning me. I can send it back to the manufacturer to get it fixed. My mom told me to flash it. No, I didn't really think about it, I took the guys word. I don't mind losing my features. Well it is annoying but it's something I can live without. The cricket guy said that I never was paying for pic messaging and mobile web, they just "throw that in for free" Well what was I paying for then?


My friends dad agreed to co-sign for me. I will get my 250 back on my phone and switch to verizon and get my fully loaded Q9 phone WITH warranty! For 79.99. :) So up front it's 179.99 which is still cheaper than 250. Shweeeeet!!!
I am very excite!

See? everything works out! Have faith!

I'm honestly in shock at how much this costs!  I used to get all free phones but finally decided I wanted a razor because it was small (and my first flip phone and camera phone) and paid $30 or $40 for it.  My bill is $45 a month altogether though I never use all my minutes but its the cheapest plan there is.  I just can't imagine paying so much!

exactly who is going to give you the $250 back on the phone you had flashed?  I would think that would invalidate any warranty/exchange privileges.

And if you're so hard on phones, you may seriously want to consider the extra warranty that runs about $5/month.  Also, research the Verizon plans carefully -- you may not get the same level of messaging/web/etc included that you got with Cricket.  You also need to be aware that on Verizon, you are usually going to be signing a 1 or 2-year contract, so you're stuck with the plan and the phone for 2 years.

Switch to AT&T...they rule :P

None of it was my fault about the phones not woring. It was technical problems I had no control over. Like the restarting phones, they just get wore out.  I don't mind paying so much for a phone. It's actually pretty cheap to me. I like my Q9 and I think I'll stick with it. It all works out!

I guess my experience is that for some reason, certain individuals seem to have a disproportionate amount of these "technical" failures.  Some people go through 3-4 phones a year, others have the same phone for 3-4 years with no issues.  I don't know if it's just dumb luck, how much it gets used, habits for carrying/storing/charging the phone or what.  My hubby has had WAY more issues with his phones over the past 3 years than I have.  Even the phones we have now that we got at the same time -- he has more issues.  No way of knowing if it's the particular model or something about the way he uses/handles his phone or just dumb luck. 

In the last 10 years, I have NEVER had a technical problem with a cell phone except for when the store fried one trying to upgrade the software.  They gave me a replacement, refurbished phone that worked fine for years until I decided to get a new one that supported text messaging.  I am on my 4th phone since 1998.  Hubby is on his 4th phone since October 2005, although only one was actually a technical problem with the phone (throwing the phone doesn't count as a technical problem).  The phones we have now we got new last summer because we switched carriers, so that doesn't really count against either of us as "going through" a phone (although his old phone had taken a dunk in the toilet, but continued to work).   Now, part of my "luck" is simply my lifestyle -- I work from home and use very few minutes so I'm not trying to use my phone all over the place and may not notice signal problems as much as somebody that uses it all the time all over town.  My phone doesn't get left in the car while I go to the gym or work on a job site.

That said, even with the extra warranty, if you file 2 claims within 12 months, they cancel your insurance until you have less than one in the last year.  And then I'm not sure if you can add the warranty since it's usually only available when you first get a new phone.

What is flashing a phone?  :poke:

Sorry if this isn't the correct definition, but I flashed a Verizon Q9 phone to have cricket service, It's supposed to have verizon, but they reset the software to be compatible with cricket carrier. So I get a cool phone and can have whatever service I want. I just never knew about the draw backs :(

Yeah, like she says, what the heck is flashing a phone!?!?


I have to agree with Andrea, it does seem that some people seem to have all kinds of 'technical difficulties' - cough cough.

I know this is going to be hard for some of you to believe but I have had the same phone for going on six years now.  Yepper, it is a phone, (and I guess I could text with it too if I was so inclined) it does not take photos or any of those other fun things.  It is a phone.  It has no technical difficulties at all.  And yes, it goes just about every where with me.  I admit, we did have to buy a new battery for it recently.  The old battery was not holding a charge well.   

My hubby upgrades every two years because his/our contract allows him to do that at no cost and he likes to play with the new features.  He too has never had any 'technical difficulties'.


The main reason that you as a minor can not sign for your own cell phone is because you as a minor can not be legally held to a contract.  It would be very stupid for them to have you sign one because you could back out of it at any time.

I have tech difficulties with my land-line work phone.  2 years, and 5 are dead with never heard of before problems.  I have NO idea what I'm doing wrong...

Flashing a cell phone is buying it based on one carriers plan, then having it "flashed" to work with another carrier, AFAIK.  So if I smoke enough illegal substances and decide to take my US Cellular Razr and go over to All-Hell, they'll flash my Razr to work with their programming.  Not the best example, since All-Hell sells Razrs also.  The more real option would be taking the afore mentioned Razr and flashing it over to AT&T.

I still want to know who's going to be paying back the $250...

The place that sold me the phone. Said they would gladly take it back with receipt. Problem is, and I have witnesses, he never gave us one. When I asked yesterday he hung up the phone. I'm at a loss for what to do about that one.


ETA:
I'm just throwing this out here. I don't know if this is true but I head GM, Chevy and Ford ofter sell cars with defects that will show up in months so the owner has to go pay them to fix it. Whereas the Japanese companies are rated to not have many of these defects show up in months because they don't worry about profits? And I guess Chevy Ford and GM will do anything to make a quick buck. Maybe thats how cricket works. My mom had  cricket years back and her phone whacked out on her too. Maybe it is dumb luck. Because I never knowingly did anything that would damage my phone.   ::) Figures though!

I have a hard time believing you managed to leave a place like that with out a receipt.

I also know that your age I could have easily gotten a whole gaggle of friends to walk in with me and say, "You never gave her a receipt".  So I doubt they are going to fall for that.

Add that I would put money on it that the phone has to be in working order for them to 'gladly take it back'.



You have to be kidding me?  Right?  Please tell me yes.

If you think about it logically you will realize how that whole thing can not make any sense.

First reason so you can start your thought process - EVERY company everywhere is out to make money, that is what companies do or they will not stay in business.  Add a second thought to your thought process....warranty.

You know your really rude right? Only one other person was with me at the time. The phone is in working order and He can check the cameras.

And I did say I didn'tknow for sure ok? I *heard* that from som people.

Please keep tones polite. We don't need a war over thought processes and how the world works...

-Melina

I would call flashing your phone to work on another company's network knowingly damaging your phone.  My guess is you voided your warranty/exchange privilege by doing that just as much as dropping it in the toilet.  If it were me, I would assume I won't have that money in making the decisions to sign up elsewhere.

However, if you bought the phone at Verizon and you're going to sign up for Verizon, would it make sense to see if Verizon will just restore the phone you already bought instead of trying to get a refund and buy a new one?  If you already own that phone, you also would not HAVE to be on a contract -- the contract is usually only if you get the phone cheap.

Cricket doesn't manufacture the phones -- they buy them from manufacturers just like everyone else does.  The LG phone from cricket is the same as the LG phone from Verizon or Alltel or Sprint or Cingular (if it's the same model).  The difference is the network and the software.  And that falls into the category of "you get what you pay for".  Simply put, Cricket does not invest as much in infrastructure as some of the other cell providers.  They keep their service more affordable by saving on operational costs.   ALL the cell phone companies put their own software on the phone.  A RAZR from Alltel may have different features than a RAZR from Sprint.  The availability of a phone's features depends on the software the service provider installs.  Cricket is a low-end service provider - it makes sense that their software might be less robust and have fewer features than another provider, especially if it's put on a phone that is not one of "their" phones.  Their software has been developed and optimized for the phones they sell.

Cricket also has a much less reliable revenue stream because of the market they target and the high turnover.  In a nutshell, you can't expect the same level of reliability and service from Cricket that you get from the bigger companies that require contracts and credit checks and collect more revenue.

And I'm pretty sure car manufacturers in Japan are interested in making a profit.  If you haven't noticed, a Honda Accord costs quite a bit more than a comparable chevy or ford.  Japanese car makers generally make about $2k more in profit than a similar American car.  SOme of that is the Japanese costs of building the car is lower (largely due to labor issues), and some is due to the higher price they can get because of the perceived better reliability. 

I really don't think the American manufacturers design in defects that will magically fail at a certain time in order to make you pay them to repair it.  They certainly do a cost-benefit analysis based on the mean time to failure and use that information in determining how to price and warranty a car, and whether or not to improve the design or manufacture of a specific part to improve the mean time to failure.  ALL car manufacturers sell vehicles with known imperfections -- they ALL calculate the cost of fixing that defect and decide whether or not it makes sense to do it.  Any manufacturing process is prone to produce individual pieces that are imperfect for whatever reason -- it just happens.

I must admit, I still do not understand.   :doh:

Here is what I got out of it. You know all the fancy phones you see ads for like the Razor or whatever? Well the company that physically makes the Razor only sells that model to a specific phone service provider (like Verizon/ATT/etc) so the phone is programmed only to work for that provider. Flashing a phone is having the programming changed so that it works for a second provider which it was not intended to be used with.

I'd guess it voids a warranty.

I had the same phone for a long time, but we switched to Virgin pay by the minute so I had to get a new one.

Thanks.

Um, how does one Flash their phone?

Ok.  Every provider sells certain phones that are programmed with their info and everything.  It's why when I turn mine on, it says US Cellular.

Now, the reality is ANY phone can work with ANY provider.  They just aren't programmed to do that.  What I understand is that it's the providers who cause the problem, not the phone.  But I may be wrong.  But I think that's the right answer, since I know my USCell Razr doesn't work with All-Hell.  And both are just your standard Razr.

Flashing a phone may or may not void a warranty, depends on who is flashing the phone and the phone itself.  

As for HOW to flash a phone.  I know All-Hell here flashes them in the store, which yes, voids the warranty.  What I got from a co-worker, if you send to the company (like Motorola for Razr) to be flashed to another company, the warranty is still intact.

Perceived reliablity is no longer really a fair statement.  They ARE more reliable.

How many late 80's/early 90's Hondas/Toyotas are on the road vs the same time frame for Ford/GM  At least here, I can find a good 10 old Hondas/Toyotas for an old Ford/GM.  GM has the exception in their Saturn line, but now even those have gotten poor.

Granted, I drive an 02 Pontiac.  If the stupid thing would stop eating brakes and alternators, I'd be happier with it.

That makes sense!

Ok then :)  I actually have NO idea how to flash a phone other than giving it to someone who does know :)

Uhhhhmmmmm, actually they suck big time. I constantly lose calls. The phone doesn't ring but I get a notification that I JUST received a voice mail.

Yeah, AT&T is a regional thing.  It's sucky here, but I know people who ADORE it.

USCell is good where I'm at.  Which is why I'm with them.  But there are odd dead spots on I-80.

That happened with cricket a lot!


I bought the phone used at a store that flashes phones. It has no warranty and I didn't know much of the process. Well now I do so it's not really a big deal and If I can't get my money back I'll just sell it on craigslist. It's not damaged by any means. You can send it to Motorola and they will reboot the system with it's original formatting. Not a big deal actually. And with the car things, also not a big deal. I just thought it was an example, which is proven now, a false example!

There was also no packaging with the phone, he gave me a charger off the wall of chargers. There was no bar code to scan, he pulled this phone from a stack of used phones with a sticker that said 299 on it. I payed 240 for it because I talked him down. I should have known something was up when he said his credit card machine was down, he made us go get cash. Reason being? No proof I bought the phone. You can't track it. But there sure as heck is a video camera that will show we didn't walk out with a receipt! Idk.Everything will work out. It always does! I'm sure this phone will sell in a second off craigslist and I can go to verizon and get a contract there. As well as a warranty for if my phone breaks. With this one, if it would have broke I would have been bent.

So why don't you send it into Motorola to be flashed again, then let Verizon do what it needs to do? Or just see if Verizon, or whoever you go with, will flash it?

Because by doing that it will take probably more then a week to send it to motorola and have it reset to have regular service. Then I will be a week without a phone. You can't flash a phone again unless it's been reset to normal. Also, this phone doesn't have a warranty. I bought it used. For 250 I got a phone and the charger. I now pay 60 a month with cricket, no warranty and most of my features are cut out. If I get my money back I will go down to verizon, buy the phone brand new, with a warranty and all my features plus VCast and internet for the same charge of 60 bucks a month. I do only get 450 minutes but I rarely ever talk on the phone as it is. I mostly text and do internet. So I'd get the phone in better condition, warranty, a phone case, all my features and it will in total cost me $180 dollars up front with a 50$ mail in rebate. so 130$ it will cost me in the end. I would have done this at first but I didn't have a cosigner but now I do. Does that make sense?

How long have you had the phone?  Some stores only keep a day or two's worth of video, if nothing happens.  A week, at most, and then they record over what's been recorded before.  So, I wouldn't be relying on the video...

It's been three days. And since he hung up on me when I stupidly mentioned the video, and he's the owner of the store I'd be willing to bet he disposed of it. I'm going down there on sunday to try and get my money, if not, craigslist will work!

It makes me giggle to hear you worry about not having a phone for a week. I can't even remember the last time I actually charged my phone and took it with me somewhere. I'd guess the last time was in March when I went to Seattle. :BlueDumboSmileTongue:

I know right? Well last weekend or the weekened before I went to Port Hueneme for nearly 4 days and I didn't have service. Surprrisingly I didn't care too much! It wasn't that bad, maybe it's because I still had my phone with me, but without it I just have nothing to fiddle with and it feels weird! I'm too attatched!

AT&T sucks around these parts.  I will NEVER go to Verizon as their company is a bunch of flipping hiring idiots.  Sprint is horrid.  I finally settled on Alltel and I really for the most part like them.  I do drop calls occassionally when I am out at my house but I also live out in the middle of no where inside a building with concrete walls.  I can't expect too much.

Story on Verizon.  Verizon builds a huge call center here in Lincoln. My mom who has been doing customer service for 30+ years goes out there to see if she can get hired on.  Verizon is hiring over 300 employees or something like that.  They turn her down for the job but can't tell her why they turned her down.  Then one of her co workers at her current job shows up for work one day to put in her 2 weeks.  She got hired at Verizon.  Problem is...This co worker has only been doing customer service for a year and REALLY REALLY sucks at it.  She hung up on a customer one day.  And has been known to have an attitude with customers.  WTF?  Yep I won't ever use a verizon product.

Staci

Wow, I'm in So Cal and haven't even heard of some of these companies!  And I guess company loyalty depends on one's experience.  I have used Sprint for about 6 years now, and absolutely love it; never a dropped call, great customer service, awesome phones, etc.  Most of my family and friends are Sprint users as well.  I hope you are able to resolve the issue to your satisfaction, Mischief Mistress!

I've been with verizon for two years and my biggest complaint is that you get specific times to get discounts on phones... you can't just use it whenever you want to... It seems when ever my discount comes out NOTHING is offered and i get stuck with some crappy phone that sucks and doesn't let me do anything -.- I'm more into the games, text video and pic part than just chatting away on the phone.

I have been with sprint for a really long time.  Actually my dad and i are on the same plan and we share the bill (he talks more then me but he pays most of it).  Sprint works REALLY well here so a lot of people have it.  T Mobile is probably the next best around here.  I have had t mobile in the past and they have worked really well.  Actually the phone I had I drenched twice in water and it never fried.  I still have it tucked in a box somewhere.  Anyway I wish sprint would get some kind of sidekick.  I REALLY want a sidekick but I don't want to leave sprint.  They have the rumor now but really that's not my kind of phone I guess.

 :eek: amazing how much cell phones and service cost!

i have T-mobile. I have had them since 2001. i go through about 3 phones a year. usually i drop them or the dogs chew on them or well, hey i work at an animal shelter, things get broken quite easily around the workplace.  so i always go for the free or inexpensive phones. service is great. i even brought them a mangled chewed up cell phone which they replaced on the spot for no charge. as long as you have a contract or agree to extend your contract for a year if your contract is due to expire, there are no headaches. they have a great warranty and i've never had a problem with billing. and i've never spent much money on my bill or my phone.
money is tight, and i admit, i don't spend a lot of money on technical toys. i spend a lot of money on my "kids" (my animals). to spend $100 or so on a cell phone is outrageous to me. but thats me.

This year I splurged on a phone, I got the waterproof military version phone that Verizon plans have.  With my job and well my ability to drop phones into water, expose them to fire etc... I figured it was the best bet for me.  So far it has been great.  It pretty much has no bells or whistles and the picture quality sucks, but that really doesn't matter since I can't get the pics off the camera without buying expensive attachment pieces which I refuse to do.  I spent the money on the phones ability to withstand my life :) 
What's not to love about a phone that works underwater and doubles as a hammer?

Lmbswimmer, you can send your pictures to your email!  ;)  Somehow, too, you can retrieve them from online picture account, but I totally forget how that's done.  I think they're automatically there, though, which is pretty scary, if you think about it.  One of my friends found this out the hard way.   :-X

You can only e-mail pics if you have net access on your phone.

Net access?  No.  It's sent via a Txt msg.  ;)  I don't have VCAST on my phone.

I don't have text messaging service, so text messages are $.99 each and I can't justify that added to my bill for crappy quality pics :) 
Though, I have in the past used the phone as a back-up when I have run out of room on my camera for my job (before we were issued digital cameras last year).  Thankfully I have never needed those pics for court so I haven't had to pay to send them to my computer.

See, I've got text ability (and use it :) ) - but I can't send piccies because I don't have internet.

SGB, I guess it depends on your service provider.  With Verizon, txt msgs and photos are the same thing, and are sent via txt.   Since I've never known anything other, I didn't realize that other carriers aren't the same.  Too bad for you!

And no, I wouldn't want to pay $.99 each either!  I have 250 txt/photo msgs per month for $5.  My daughter has 500/month for $10, and unlimited msgs within Verizon.

Wow -- didn't know they could be THAT expensive without a plan.  I thought it was about 25-cents to send pix.  I think Verizon's method is the norm -- pictures are sent like text messages and charged like text messages.  I know people with Cingular/AT&T and Sprint and that's the way it works.  I did have a sprint phone before that simply was not capable of sending/receiving picture messages.  If someone sent me a picture message, it came as a text message with a web link.  Which was not helpful because that phone was not web-capable either.  But those were limitations of my specific phone, not Sprint.

When we got Verizon, we got the family plan with unlimited messaging.  We did that because I get a corporate discount off the monthly  plan, but not text/data packages. Since the messaging is built-in to the plan, I get my discount off the whole thing.   So it cost about the same per month to have unlimited messaging built into the plan as it would have to buy a cheaper plan and add the message bundles to each line.  And it applies to all lines on the plan, so if we ever get a phone for our son, that will have unlimited messaging as well.  Although the reality is we'd probably be fine with the cheapest message bundle on each line since 90% of our texting is between each other.

And Lmbswimmer -- hubby got the same phone.  He has been forbidden to test out its claims.  He's had a few technical issues with it and since they upgraded the software he occasionally gets an error that is only fixed by removing the battery.

Do you have the actual texting plan?  Or are you doing pay by the text?  You use US Cell?  With Alltel pics are part of the texting plan as are vids.  Trust me.  BIL sends a crap load.  I believe his last count on the bill last month was 5000 outgoing text/pics/vids and 5000 incoming.  I double checked with Alltel to make sure that sending pics was just like a text and they told me it was.

Staci

I wish I had forbidden my hubby from testing his "military" phone. I got home two days after he had gotten it and it was sitting at the bottom of the fish tank. I was not amused (well maybe a little, but he will never know that). It did survive. It didn't how ever survive being slammed in the car door and ran over. Apparently it's indestructibility is limited if it is open. Now hubby is using an really old phone that doesn't have a battery cover and shuts off randomly. Every time he complains I remind him that it was his idea not to get insurance since the phone was "indestructible."

Sprint was/is goofy that way too.  I can send a bazillion pic messages without a fee. Send one little plain old text message and it costs 5 or 10c.

The next stupider thing is hubbys blackberry just wont send a pic message and text costs $. So he has to email his pics out of his phone. great idea until you want to send it to someone who doesnt happen to be at their email at the moment  >:( 

The phone states that it has to be closed to "survive".  However, there are some neat videos online showing the phone on speaker and working in water.  I have been tempted, but I have not purposefully done stupid things to the phone - yet...  Now, I am sure over the next year it will be tested to the extreme and I will get a lot of answers from accidental misuse.  

We also have a family plan, actually my parents in VT have the plan and added us to it, and we even get to have ME numbers which is cool.  We pay half the bill every month.  The reason why texting is so expensive is also because my dad has a special rate through his work for family plans and texting is not an option, so when/if they get sent they are expensive.  On occasion I will send a text message, but only to my friend Kurt since he is deaf and can't hear the phone :)

I do really like this phone so far, sure is heavy enough - probably can double as a weapon if needed :) The stop watch and the flashlight are the only "cool" features on the phone.  I may splurge one of these days and download a game or two for those boring wait times that occur.

Are there limitations on the waranty on those "indestructible" phones?  I mean I think the manufacturer would hate to replace phones because of people doing stupid things to them.

The regular manufacturers warranty only covers defects, like any other phone. The manufacturers warranty is void if there's been water inside the phone, and it doesn't cover damage.  The extended warranty that you pay $5/month for will cover damage just like it would for any other phone.  Most of these warranties have non-trivial deductibles, and there is a limited number of times you can use it.  Hubby got his canceled by the insurance company after he had 2 claims within 12 months.  And most people have some stuff on their phone they really don't want to lose. So I don't think people are any more likely to just abuse the phone than any other phone.

On the military grade phone, it's not so much a guarantee as it is a selling point.

Well, I'm on my family plan still - and since my sister doesn't actually CALL on her phone, just sends messages - yes, I have a texting plan :)  And it's US Cell.  They are wonky, but they are the best in the area since All-Hell sucks.