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Help How do i claim warranty with a Vibrant purchased off Craiglist?

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Lurker
Jan 13, 2011
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I payed $350 for this phone back in late August. Every time I hold this phone in my hand i have a strong urge to bash it against something. I won't even mention foryo, yes it would be nice but I don't mind 2.1. I have AT&T.. I called t-mobile, who told me to call Samsung, who told me to call t-mobile or AT&T. Obviously at&t won't do shit, and i've been told to basically "f off" by both t-mobile and samsung.

Problems with the phone? LAG. LAGGGGGGG. LAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!
Can't slide the button to answer calls, something simple as turning on the phone and going to my phone book takes forever, CAN'T ANSWER CALLS, apps lag, everything lags basically. Apart from the lag the phone very often completely freezes and i have to do a battery pull. Frequently texting glitches and my text gets sent to someone else who i wasn't talking to(can someone confirm if this is a Vibrant glitch or Android glitch?)


What are my options? How can i get a new phone? I hardly have any apps on my phone so excess amounts of apps isn't causing the lag. I called Samsung and they told me all they can do is a master reset, which i've done, twice. Samsung doesn't even offer a manufacturers warranty on their products? This will be the LAST time i buy a samsung phone. It's quite obvious(crystal clear from the Vibrant 4g) that the only way to receive support and upgrades to your current samsung product is to purchase a new model completely. Even apple have the decency to wait a year before making your current model deflate in value and outdated. It's only been what, 6 and a half months, since the Vibrant was released? Why couldn't they have added the FFC and 4g from the start? What's next, an "upgraded" Vibrant 4G with flash? Samsung gives me a new appreciation for Apple.

As much as i want the Infuse 4G, I'll never buy another Samsung phone again, EVER. Hopefully another 4.5 inch+ GSM phone hits the market soon. :D

Now that the damn iPhone went to verzion hopefully finally AT&T will start rolling out real smart phones. At&t built their company on the iPhone and as someone who've been with them for 8+ years i'm glad it's finally going to verzion. Maybe now at&t will start putting out decent smart phones, which their set for in the coming months! IMO the only decent Android they have currently is the captivate. Due to that being my ONLY option with at&t, I went for the imo, sleeker Vibrant.


I realize this post is a unorganized mess. I need to vent my frustration somewhere lol.
The matter at hand;
Helping me get my vibrant replaced somehow. If anyone who doesn't have t-mobile or purchased the phone off Craigslist manged to get this done, please help me out.
 
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Warranty exchanges for T-Mobile USA phones are only for original buyer and not secondary buyers. It's a pain in the butt. Yeah, when I resell my T-mobile phones (I usually don't keep them that long) I am very courteous an give them my receipt. But I am a nice craigslist reseller. Most people don't keep stuff like I do.

As for the lag, it's really a software issue. If you are using the Vibrant with ATT (I have both ATT and T-mobile) you will not get the OTA update.

You best bet to fix it yourself is to use a Windows computer.

Download samsung mini-kies (not kies) but download samsung mini kies

This is the direct official link to mini kies (it only works for for windows and not mac)
How Do I Update The Software On My T-Mobile SGH-t959 (Vibrant) Phone To JI6 Through Kies Mini?

It will update you to JI6 which fixes the lag you are probably having.
 
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I recently had my phone brick on me and I also purchased off Craigslist. I called Samsung and told them that my phone had bricked, the screen it got locked on and it wouldn't load up. They asked me for the serial number, looked it up, and luckily they said it was still under warranty and had me send it in to get reflashed. They reflashed it to 2.2 and it took about a week to get it there and back.

That's my story, from reading the forums here it sounds like I got lucky since every other story I've read was awful about Samsung. Especially the fact that my phone was rooted and I was playing with new kernals when it got bricked and was totally my fault, and some reason they didn't bother to check that stuff and just reflashed it anyways.

Also, you can try to reach Samsung again and hope you get someone nicer and someone that offers a reflash or something, always helps to be nice and you'd be surprised how willing a lot of people are to help you. You could also mention the reflash and ask if they could do it if they don't offer it. Not sure if when they mentioned a "master reset" for you if that they meant a reflash or just going to settings and all that, you could always ask what that includes.
 
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