Galaxy S3 w/o battery or back cover . . .

DemDog · October 3rd, 2012, 06:19 PM

I just got my 3rd replacement phone for my HTC Rezound from VZW. Second one in the last week and third since ICS was sent to my phone. All 3 were factory reconditions to new condition.

So the VZW tech support gal was very friendly and tried to help me with my phone problem. The major problem was that all these phones and my original one gave me a "No SIM card" error when I started the phone. Of course once I unlocked the phone screen it recognized the SIM card and worked just fine. There was also two other problems like the voice dialer would not work on one and when I did dial a call using the key pad on the phone as soon as I hit the call key the screen went to sleep.

All three of the replacements failed to fix the problem. So she offered to send me a reconditioned Motorola Razor this time.

Wasn't satisfied as I think the Razor is a lesser phone than the Rezound. I asked her for a Galaxy S3. She hesitated at first but went to her supervisor and got permission to send me a reconditioned S3. Only catch was that it did not have a battery or back cover. Neither did I so she helped me search Amazon for a cover and extended battery. Cost was like $24 shipped from Amazon.

My question is what you other smartphone aficionados think I should do. Got ahead and take the chance that this S3 might work for the next year and just buy a decent extended battery and back cover from Amazon or whomever sells decent batteries.

Need to know asap what you folks think of this deal by tomorrow afternoon so I can get back to VZW. I want to hopefully can get this phone by Friday and a battery and cover by Saturday so I can have a useable phone in a couple days.

Thanks in advance for any advice you all can give me.

Digital Controller · October 3rd, 2012, 06:36 PM

Honestly, i dont know it is a little risky, but it wont cost that much to get an extended battery and/back cover from amazon.

I have an extended battery for my GNex, and it was like 15 bucks, on sale of course, 20 orig, and works great.

It all depends on the condition of the phone, i would say it is going to have to be a play by ear thing, where you will have to try it out for sometime.

The only problem with reconditioned phones are, they either had a problem, were sent back and fixed, or someone just returned it, so you either get a phone that had a prior problem or possibly a phone that didn't.

It is all luck of the draw man.

SIII groupie · October 3rd, 2012, 06:49 PM

I find it odd they can't ship with cover or battery. I just mean that seems so simple and basic? Maybe a red flag.

That said I guess I would roll the dice. But if like the other a no go no refund on the $24.

DemDog · October 6th, 2012, 08:32 PM

I got the batteryless, backless S3 from VZW and a Hyperion Extended Battery and cover from Amazon on Friday.

Got it all together and running with one slight problem. The S-Voice feature did not produce any sound when "Galaxy" replied. That meant the I could not really do any dialing with my bluetooth headset.

Spent over an hour with about 5 reps at my local VZW store trying to fix it. They checked with VZW Tech Support and were told that Samsung was aware of the problem and were working on a fix that is to come out at the end of the month. Not a happy camper here.

Well this morning I was messing with the thing and low and behold "Galaxy" began to talk to me and I could actually hear her. All is well now and I could not be happier with the phone. Yes it cost me about $50 when you consider the extended battery and some screen savers but I would have bought those anyway.

Just keeping my fingers crossed that the S3 will continue to work for the next year or so til my contract runs out.