Get the VZW Extended Battery FREE!

[Stockmoose16]

So I called VZW yesterday, complaining about the Incredible's crappy battery. I had returned my first Incredible, which I got on launch day, because I thought my phone had a problem. Since then, of course, it's been shown that all Incredibles have poor battery life.

I explained to the rep that I was very unhappy with the phone and that the battery issue is documented all over the forums. She then sent me to a tech, who verified that the battery problem is a VZW known issue. I then asked for a free extended battery, for which Verizon usually charges $59.99. The tech said she was limited in what she could give me in terms of a "warranty customer care" rebate, and asked if I'd be willing to buy the battery for $26, which was a 60% discount. I said, "absolutely not. You just admitted it's a known issue. You sold me a phone with a battery problem, you admit there is a battery problem, and now you want me to PAY to fix that problem?" She agreed, and said that she'd send it through, heavily notated, to a supervisor for approval. I called back today and just found out that I am, indeed, getting the extended battery for free.

Now, I still think this is BS, because I bought a small phone and the extended battery makes the phone big, but at least I didn't have to pay an extra $60 so I can use my phone like a normal person. I don't understand why people on this board are willingly shelling out extra money for the battery when VZW admits there is an issue. Just call and repeat the steps above and I'm sure you can get it for free, too.

 

[v941726]

Now this is a real post. We all pay good money every month. We should get what we pay for. They advertise perfection, so we should get it

 

[Terabethia]

Wow, that's awsome! Congrats.

I remember back when I got my Dare I was having huge battery problems, replaced the phone after 3 days because of it. Went back and they offered me the extended battery free of charge for all my troubles. I had actually forgot all about it until this post.

I ordered the $15 1500 battery which reports here say is really good. I am not too unhappy at having to spend $15 since I wouldn't like the extra bulk of Verizons one but it's nice to see that they are taking care of it either way!

 

[Stockmoose16]

Wow, that's awsome! Congrats.

I remember back when I got my Dare I was having huge battery problems, replaced the phone after 3 days because of it. Went back and they offered me the extended battery free of charge for all my troubles. I had actually forgot all about it until this post.

I ordered the $15 1500 battery which reports here say is really good. I am not too unhappy at having to spend $15 since I wouldn't like the extra bulk of Verizons one but it's nice to see that they are taking care of it either way!

Yeah, I agree, the extra bulk stinks, but I literally can't get through half a day with the battery the stock battery. I would've got the 1500, but it doesn't sound like that would get enough of a boost to make it worth it. I need more than a 10 - 15% increase in usage time.

In a perfect world, I would've gotten VZW to give me the Droid X, since that's less likely to have the problems that this phone has. I tried to get the tech to do that, but she said that since the phone wasn't even out yet, we couldn't even try to cross that bridge.

I have to say that overall, I'm very disappointed with both the battery and HTC's integration of Facebook, which is super buggy. Not sure I'd buy an HTC phone again after this experience.

 

[mo25]

Did they send you a different backdoor? Since the extended battery doesn't fit properly in the stock backdoor I'm sure you would have to get a different one. I'm wondering (if they did send you one) what the different backdoor looks like cause some of the ones I've seen online are REALLY ugly. If it wasnt' too much different from the stock one I will probably do this as well.

 

[SeattleYanksFan]

Yeah, I agree, the extra bulk stinks, but I literally can't get through half a day with the battery the stock battery. I would've got the 1500, but it doesn't sound like that would get enough of a boost to make it worth it. I need more than a 10 - 15% increase in usage time.

In a perfect world, I would've gotten VZW to give me the Droid X, since that's less likely to have the problems that this phone has. I tried to get the tech to do that, but she said that since the phone wasn't even out yet, we couldn't even try to cross that bridge.

I have to say that overall, I'm very disappointed with both the battery and HTC's integration of Facebook, which is super buggy. Not sure I'd buy an HTC phone again after this experience.

I really would love to know what you people getting less than half a day of battery life do on your phones. Either you don't interact with humans, have 100 social networking site widgets running, or have something setup incorrectly. I use my phone a fair amount and get 24-30 hours on average with the stock battery. So do a few other people I know with Incredibles. I'm not going to go thru all my settings again (I have other posts detailing them more), but I run a bunch of widgets, display at 50%, and always surf the net on 3G.

I would hardly call it a known "problem." Sure, the battery life could be better, but neither HTC nor Verizon advertised this phone as having the best battery life. Even so, it still works just fine.

That said, Verizon customer service continues to be at the top of its game by giving you a free $60 battery. I just don't think it's necessary that you still complain about it. Be thankful you got anything, most companies would tell you "too bad."

 

[Stockmoose16]

Did they send you a different backdoor? Since the extended battery doesn't fit properly in the stock backdoor I'm sure you would have to get a different one. I'm wondering (if they did send you one) what the different backdoor looks like cause some of the ones I've seen online are REALLY ugly. If it wasnt' too much different from the stock one I will probably do this as well.

I haven't received it yet, but I can reply on Thursday when I'm supposed to get it. I assume the backdoor will be the ugly one that's been documented in the "Accessories" threads on this forum. Some people have modified a case to make it more presentable, but I don't have any skill in doing that, so I'm stuck with ugly. This is why I was hoping VZW would just let me upgrade to the Droid X, given that I've only had this phone for a couple months.

 

[Stockmoose16]

I really would love to know what you people getting less than half a day of battery life do on your phones. Either you don't interact with humans, have 100 social networking site widgets running, or have something setup incorrectly. I use my phone a fair amount and get 24-30 hours on average. I'm not going to go thru them all again, but I run a bunch of widgets, display at 50%, and always surf the net on 3G.

I would hardly call it a known "problem." Sure, the battery life could be better, but neither HTC nor Verizon advertised this phone as having the best battery life. Even so, it still works just fine.

That said, Verizon customer service continues to be at the top of its game by giving you a free $60 battery. I just don't think it's necessary that you still complain about it. Be thankful you got anything, most companies would tell you "too bad."

I get about 75 emails a day, with my FB syncing every couple of hours. I probably talk on the phone less than 45 min per day, and do about 10-15 minutes of surfing. My phone is dead within 6 hours of coming off the charger. Yes, this phone can do more than most, but it's definitely not power managing well. I mean, if VZW is ADMITTING there is a "known issue," then there must be a real problem, right? They usually don't just give away $60 batteries for free.

I'll admit, it's nice of them to give me a free battery, but they sold me a small phone, and now I'm expected to be okay with a bulky phone. That seems a bit unfair given how much this phone retails for. Yes, I could just not complain, but I'm under the "unfair" assumption that you should get a product that works as it says.

 

[sta7ic]

In a perfect world, I would've gotten VZW to give me the Droid X, since that's less likely to have the problems that this phone has. I

why is less likely to have problems?
I have to say i'm getting tired of people talking out of their ass with the Droid X. Nobody has this phone but people automatically assume it'll have less problems than the incredible. I mean we can ignore that the incredible still got rated higher than the droid x on engadget and cnet.

The Droid X is a brand new phone, with a different skin on top of android. An UNPROVEN skin. It has just as high of a chance of having problem.

 

[Stockmoose16]

why is less likely to have problems?
I have to say i'm getting tired of people talking out of their ass with the Droid X. Nobody has this phone but people automatically assume it'll have less problems than the incredible. I mean we can ignore that the incredible still got rated higher than the droid x on engadget and cnet.

The Droid X is a brand new phone, with a different skin on top of android. An UNPROVEN skin. It has just as high of a chance of having problem.

I meant in terms of battery. The Moto Droid didn't have nearly as crappy a battery as the Inc. Yes, I am making an assumption that Moto will be able to carry over this process to the X, but the Inc has the worst battery life of any phone I've ever had.

 

[Reddog80p]

I get about 75 emails a day, with my FB syncing every couple of hours. I probably talk on the phone less than 45 min per day, and do about 10-15 minutes of surfing. My phone is dead within 6 hours of coming off the charger. Yes, this phone can do more than most, but it's definitely not power managing well. I mean, if VZW is ADMITTING there is a "known issue," then there must be a real problem, right? They usually don't just give away $60 batteries for free.

I'll admit, it's nice of them to give me a free battery, but they sold me a small phone, and now I'm expected to be okay with a bulky phone. That seems a bit unfair given how much this phone retails for. Yes, I could just not complain, but I'm under the "unfair" assumption that you should get a product that works as it says.

My usage is pretty comparable to yours but I get about 14-16 hours out of the stock 1300 mah battery. I charge my phone every night from about 10 pm to 5 am. I leave the phone on when charging but occasionally do the bump charge method if I have a few extra minutes prior to leaving for work. I don't use gps or Wi-fi very often. Are you in a bad coverage area where perhaps your signal is poor? There are a few apps/widgets known to keep your phone from sleeping properly perhaps that may be your issue.

 

[Angels Punishment]

I tried this. I got an extended battery and door for free but I have to send my old one back free of charge. I would like to keep it but they said they have to get something back. Oh well.

Thank you for the tip

 

[SeattleYanksFan]

I get about 75 emails a day, with my FB syncing every couple of hours. I probably talk on the phone less than 45 min per day, and do about 10-15 minutes of surfing. My phone is dead within 6 hours of coming off the charger. Yes, this phone can do more than most, but it's definitely not power managing well. I mean, if VZW is ADMITTING there is a "known issue," then there must be a real problem, right? They usually don't just give away $60 batteries for free.

I'll admit, it's nice of them to give me a free battery, but they sold me a small phone, and now I'm expected to be okay with a bulky phone. That seems a bit unfair given how much this phone retails for. Yes, I could just not complain, but I'm under the "unfair" assumption that you should get a product that works as it says.

You either have settings not setup properly or had a bad stock battery. I use my phone more than you (although I get less emails) and get at a minimum 4x the battery life and often 5x.

At least you're set now, though. Don't be too disappointed about not getting a Droid X. It too will have issues. They all do.

 

[nickreich]

So you are a power user that can't get through a day on a single charge, and god forbid, you have to either charge it sometime during the day (the car, the office, break room at work, etc) or find some other means to provide supplemental extended power and you expect Verizon to pay for an extended battery? That's pretty lame and cheap on your part. Sure they could have thrown in a slightly larger battery into the Incredible but still. Lame and cheap.

You know. Truth be told. I'm not impressed by this personally. It's a power/data intensive portable device. Battery technology hasn't quite caught up with the feature sets on these new high-tech phones.


There is no problem with the phone's battery. It's a power hungry device, end of story.

 

[nickreich]

I really would love to know what you people getting less than half a day of battery life do on your phones. Either you don't interact with humans, have 100 social networking site widgets running, or have something setup incorrectly. I use my phone a fair amount and get 24-30 hours on average with the stock battery. So do a few other people I know with Incredibles. I'm not going to go thru all my settings again (I have other posts detailing them more), but I run a bunch of widgets, display at 50%, and always surf the net on 3G.

I would hardly call it a known "problem." Sure, the battery life could be better, but neither HTC nor Verizon advertised this phone as having the best battery life. Even so, it still works just fine.

That said, Verizon customer service continues to be at the top of its game by giving you a free $60 battery. I just don't think it's necessary that you still complain about it. Be thankful you got anything, most companies would tell you "too bad."

Seattle, I jumped the gun with my reply, you hit the nail right on the head. I'm glad I'm not the only person with this mentality.

Us kids like to say... "You are a gentlemen and a scholar.."
Keep up the good posts.

 

[manguard]

I don't really have problems with my battery life but tried this (hey free battery why not) and the tech said he can't troubleshoot it over the phone and to take it into a store for them to do testing on the battery to make sure it's not defective.

An aside: I am on my second replacement Incredible (Inc#3), so I have had documented issues, and the tech wasn't willing to mention anything about giving me freebies.

 

[jackdubl]

When I'm on the internet my battery is going down roughly one percent per minute. My wife and I both have the phones and I got each of us extra stock batteries; same rate no matter which battery I put in the phone.

 

[A.Nonymous]

I guess I'm one of the lucky users who has no issues with the battery. I get about 30-40 e-mails a day and I probably talk on the phone about 45 mins a day. I sometimes use the phone to look up stuff on the web if my tablet isn't handy or doesn't have a wireless connection. I charge my phone from about 9-10 pm until 7 am when I leave for work. I usually have about 40-60% of my battery left when I get home. I then play with the stupid thing constantly at home and the battery will die around 8ish or so.

I do usually have the phone tethered at work which charges the batter and I also have a car charger that I've never used.

 

[WTF_PWNED]

Maybe it has to do with the way people break-in their battery on its first charge.

Did you guys do the whole bump charge thing before playing with it the first time or not?

 

[5150Marley]

Verizon told me that I could get 25% off the cost of the extended battery... :/

 

[necosino]

I agree regarding the x battery life. You can't compare the incredible to the MOTO Droid and use that as your reasoning. The incredible has a faster processor than the Droid, thus worse battery life.

The X has a 4" screen. Pretty sure that is going to make a small impact....

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[SeattleYanksFan]

Maybe it has to do with the way people break-in their battery on its first charge.

Did you guys do the whole bump charge thing before playing with it the first time or not?

I have never "bump charged" my battery.

The first time I charged my Incredible, I let it charge (phone was turned on) for like 8 hours. I let it die out the next day and recharged fully.

I usually charge it for 2 hours now, which is a little bit more than it takes to turn the light green. Sometimes I charge for 3-4 hours, but rarely more than that. I did a couple overnights, but try to avoid it (for no reason other than psychologically I find it doesn't last as long).

I've had the phone since April 27th and the battery life has remained pretty consistent. Every now and then I'll have a day where it lasts 15 hours or so, but I usually find some app was running keeping the awake time close to the up time.

Right now I have 2 bars left and phone has been "unplugged" for 1 day, 8 hours, 57 minutes. My display has been used for 2 hours and 35 minutes of that time.

 

[Stockmoose16]

I don't really have problems with my battery life but tried this (hey free battery why not) and the tech said he can't troubleshoot it over the phone and to take it into a store for them to do testing on the battery to make sure it's not defective.

An aside: I am on my second replacement Incredible (Inc#3), so I have had documented issues, and the tech wasn't willing to mention anything about giving me freebies.

I would just call back and try to get a different tech. They definitely have the ability to offer customer care refunds. The 60 dollar battery needs supervisor approval though.

 

[ckali7]

If anyone does this and/or has an extra standard battery and door give me a shout PLEASE....I have a refurb unit on the way to replace my jacked Eris. I was able to work out the swap but they had no batteries to send. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mo25]

So you are a power user that can't get through a day on a single charge, and god forbid, you have to either charge it sometime during the day (the car, the office, break room at work, etc) or find some other means to provide supplemental extended power and you expect Verizon to pay for an extended battery? That's pretty lame and cheap on your part. Sure they could have thrown in a slightly larger battery into the Incredible but still. Lame and cheap.

You know. Truth be told. I'm not impressed by this personally. It's a power/data intensive portable device. Battery technology hasn't quite caught up with the feature sets on these new high-tech phones.


There is no problem with the phone's battery. It's a power hungry device, end of story.

This is a really ******ed way of thinking. So because vzw/htc were to cheap to put in a bigger battery when they knew that the stock battery didnt have enought juice we the consumer should just sit back and them over more money?