lempfla

Dear AT&T,

I would like to thank you for taking such good care of your customers. I was so excited about my purchase of the Captivate and the abilities of the phone. I patiently waited for you to work with Samsung to work out some of the kinks and quirks that this phone had with your version of operating system on it. Yes it was a hassle that one of the main features of the phone, the GPS, wouldn't sync with satellites and wouldn't track and was almost useless. I tolerated the lag the phone had knowing that Froyo would fix that. I even tolerated your bloatware, that only works on 3G and not on wireless, that you pre installed on my phone to increase my 3G usage so I would be forced to get the $25 data plan vs the $15 plan to increase your revenue. I patiently waited for you to roll out your 1st update to address some of these problems and was excited last week when it finally arrived. I admired AT&T for their relatively quick response to the problems and pushing out an update fairly quickly.

So I excitedly updated my phone and rebooted. That's where my excitement ended. I quickly went outside and turned on my GPS, anticipating a quick sync and great tracking. After 5 minutes outside, I turned off the GPS and went back inside. I figured I would simply go in and change some settings to the GPS (skyhook, server, etc) and be ok. WHAT??? I can't use the backdoor anymore??? You blocked it??? Hmmm.

So then I thought, lets run a quadrant test and see if it is any faster. Nope. No faster. Well lets see what else has changed on my phone. Hmmm...under USB settings I now have "KIES (Firmware Update)". Wonder what that's about. So I hooked up to my full KIES program. It took longer to sync but ok. Lets sync my calendar. WHAT??? Connect my phone? It is connected. WTH?? Well how about syncing with my contacts? WTH? Won't do that either? DANG.

So now, upon further review, your "update" didn't fix the GPS, the lag or forced 3G usage. But it did fix those "problems" that you were obviously worried about. In this update AT&T has:

1. Blocked access to the GPS controls.
2. Blocked access to the full Kies program.
3. Blocked the ability to sync with outlook.

AT&T has NOT:

1. Fixed the lag issue.
2. Fixed the GPS issue.
3. Fixed the backdoor 3G usage leak.

Well, today I am flashing my phone back to stock and returning it to AT&Ts stock. I am moving my account to a different carrier that is more concerned with fixing the phone rather than keeping its customers in line. It appears that AT&T has been taking lessons from Job and the fruit company. Don't worry about fixing the problems with updates but instead, further restrict the phone.

Thanks

robhs

Good letter.
I think AT&T will get a lot of letters just like yours, if they haven't already.

sremick

And who might that be?

__________________

lempfla

What has pissed me off is that the "update" did not do ANYTHING to improve the phone. No GPS fix (per AT&T and SAMSUNG), did not fix the lag, did not fix the volume problem or any other problem. What it did do was change Kies to Kies (firmware update), change the code to the GPS backdoor and left a file on your computer the disabled the full kies program (if you installed kies mini).

So while I know that other cell companies are slow to react to fixes, I am not aware of any updates (other than the fruit company) fixing no problems and only further restricting the phone. Maybe you are right though. There may be no company that is any better but I will find out. My 2nd Cappy was returned to AT&T yesterday within the 30 day warranty period. I can go buy my 3rd whenever I desire if I dont move. So the good news is that I have had use of a Cappy for 2 months of use for no rent ... just $30 for data plan. I guess I could keep doing this every month until they catch on....

CrimsonPride

ive noticed several fixes in the update. the screen is able to get dimmer, the media scanner runs faster, my gps works much better, i am able to send mms messages over edge with 0 problems(that was a biggie for me), i can also download mms messages faster. there are a few more i cant remember off the top of my head