poppycat

I was thinking... my second Eris from Verizon is working okay, but it's beginning to show signs of impending doom like my first one did. Rather than pay out $90 each month for services I can only sort of use, I'd rather trade in the phone for the current $132 offer, use that money to pay the Early Termination Fee (which leaves like, ~45$ out of pocket for the ETF?), then start a new contract with a different phone.

Will Verizon allow something like that? I'm pretty happy with their service other than the defective handset and the fact that where I live, I have zero signal most of the time -- but that isn't going to change no matter what provider I would go with. Oddly, I got better reception out here when I had my old (non-smartphone) handset.

doogald

Not sure, but you can always keep your contract and just pay non-subsidized price for a new handset instead. I agree with you - in my experience, the Eris has a mediocre radio. It's one reason I prefer not to buy another HTC handset in the future.

ETF for a smartphone is pretty steep, isn't it? It started at $350 and went down by $10 per month.

VA_Joe

I was told by a Verizon rep that you'll lose your current number if you go the ETF route. You'd think they could port it to a new plan but once you "terminate" it's not available to transfer. Probably just to discourage this option.

00smurf

Also be aware that any new account would have a credit check ran and possibly incure a security deposit of anywhere from $0 up to possibly $450 per line. And yes you lose the number the only way to retain the number would be if the service was reactivated and it is only available up to 30 after termination. After 30 days any reactivation would credit the early termination fee, but you would sitll not retain the number.

00smurf

poppycat

Doogald, that's good to know. When shopping for phones, is there a concise way to research the radio quality specifically? (I mean I can always google phone model + 'radio quality' or strength or .... )

Thanks for all the replies. I wasn't aware that I'd lose my number if I went with the ETF. It still might be worth it though. I can't afford to buy a new smartphone handset out of pocket in order to make use of the data services that are part of my contract. And I refuse to pay $30 a month for nothing if I were to get a cheaper phone that doesn't use data plans. But the only only leverage customers seem to have with Verizon is "well I'm going to sign up with [your competitor]" if you don't help me out. I don't want to be that guy. But they've already told me after sending a replacement, refurbished phone, there's nothing else they can do. There's got to be something!

Disregard that last sentence. Only one rep told me that, the last person I talked to said they could keep sending replacements. And that the current ETF is 260$ (AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH).

Last edited by poppycat; January 2nd, 2011 at 03:49 PM. Reason: new info

Demache

Mediocre? I can get 3G service in some areas that other phones can't. It can't be that bad.

But then again I have a refurb, and they tend to be higher quality then non-refurbs.

doogald

I compared dB numbers side-by-side with a Droid and Droid X in a weak signal area, and the Eris was consistently reporting about 10 lower (more negative.) Also, in an area where the Eris was having calls cut in and out, Blackberry phones were making calls without problems (I didn't know how to check signal strength with the BB, though.)

I'm not sure if the Incredible is this bad, but the Eris was/is not good. I've talked to others who had old HTC WM phones who also had problems with reception compared with other phones that they owned going back a ways.

Demache

I've made calls in areas that a Blackberry Storm couldn't. Then again, that was a Blackberry Storm. 2 bars of 1X according to the signal meter (so probably -90-100?).

I suppose getting any reception on any phone is amazing at my friend's cabin when the nearest Verizon tower is 7 miles away behind a hill. But getting 3G is pretty easy if your on a bunk bed.

poppycat

I looked at signalmap.com and cellreception.com, and it looks like I would have better coverage in my area if I went with AT&T. The nearest towers (and there are only two) are about 5 - 10 miles away, with A LOT of hills in between.

I'm not sure about the reliability of these maps, but signalmap is made of user-submitted data, so I hope it's accurate and not subject to corporate sabotage. But I'm surprised how few towers there are nearby, I'm only finding about four within 30 miles and signal quality appears to degrade quickly as the map spreads out around them.

Hmph. Still can't decide what to do with this.

jumperwire

I saw on Tiger Direct, that you can get a Droid X for like $19 and a couple other phones for a tad more. May want to check it out.

kobel1up

You could open a second line, get a new phone, drop the eris from the first line put your old phone on it with like the bare minimum calling plan then switch the numbers around. Just a thought, you can keep your number and get a new phone, you pay 10 dollars a month untill that contract is over which could be cheaper then ETF. Or trade in your eris and use that toward the new phone. Just some thoughts.

blueamcat

Too bad they don't take broken ones. ;] Ah well.