The Radio Shack Saga Continues. I Get A Call Today....

[BetterMost]

that is, of course, if this Evo doesn't have any problems. And if it makes you feel any better, I did the exact same thing. RS replaced my phone once, and I had problems with that phone. They told me it would be at least 2-3 weeks for a replacement, so I called Sprint and they sent me another brand new replacement. Of course, this one has problems too, and I am now waiting for my 4th evo to come in the mail.

The only real issue this phone has is the sunkin power button an issue I never had with phones 1 through 3. The button is somewhat crooked its low on one side and higher on the other but it still works as long as you press it on the high end. Otherwise the phone is great. I can live with the power button issue. The very last one I had #3 was 110% good until the OTA wrecked it.

 

[Slug]

[...] don't post negatively in the thread because we will discipline the negative posters and close the thread

Please heed this advice.

 

[LisaFitz]

Sorry for your troubles, sometimes these devices that Sprint & Coordinating companies bring to us aren't perfect and its really luck of the draw.

In our home we have went through many situations like yours with devices (if i can remember correctly we owned at least 4 HTC Sprint Touch's before getting a credit for a pair of new Centro's, We also went though 3 Airrave Units because they ended up not being able to connect, and no-one could figure out the problem over the course of a months time, also had 3 Pre's from Sprint directly that were wacky, one of which was a refurb unit with someonoe else's software additions inside)

So These things happen, and will continue, unfortunately for you it happened though Radioshack.

I actually got mine at RS and had a very smooth transaction, still having my launch Evo today.

One of the biggest issues i see from dealing with our Sammy Moment (our other phone in the family) is the fact that RS and Sprint do not play nice together, quoting one rententions rep from Sprint, "I would never buy a unit from RS because i here all day long there phones are not up to standard and often they get batched supplies."

While Sprint gives you refurb. phones after your first brand new one which will more than less be an overlooked problem phone, who suffers the user.
So it will always be luck of the draw, Good luck to ya ...

**Look on the brighter side at least you don't have to wake up to the morning news to see your shiny new device being laughed at because you have add black tape to the bottom of the unit to get better reception** lol

 

[jcthorne]

I actually find the ongoing story line interesting. I can see myself in a similar predicament. Let him post his ongoing saga.

 

[Phantom_LS2]

I actually find the ongoing story line interesting. I can see myself in a similar predicament. Let him post his ongoing saga.

ditto

 

[ballr4lyf]

You know, I think BetterMost actually has legitimate beef this time. I'll agree that he has created his own reputation here, but I'm not willing to speak out against him on THIS issue.

I'm sorry to hear that it's happened to you, and I hope you get it all squared away. Best of luck to you.

 

[BetterMost]

Wow what a difference a day makes. I just now got a call from the R/S district mgr. that was demanding the phone back yesterday. SWEET AS PIE on the phone asking me if the new phone was working alright and that they apologize for my "inconvenience" and they talked to Sprint Corp. and they said not to take the phone back that they will work it out between R/S and Sprint. HELLO! I went on to tell him that Radio Shack is in the toilet now because they have gotten a bad reputation for C/S and the two kids at the store did there job properly and did everything right to satisfy me the customer. He was very sorry this whole "situation" got out of hand and we want you to stay being our customer yadda yadda yadda. What a difference from yesterday. My guess someone at Sprint reamed them a new you know what after I got ahold of that C/S Mgr at Sprint Corporate yesterday. I Win! END OF RANT!

 

[ballr4lyf]

Glad to hear that man! Now, stay out of trouble.

EDIT: And, for the love of everything holy, use a smaller font.

 

[mrpickem]

Glad it all ended well for you. Make sure you buy the full insurance plan as I'm sure you will eventually need it.

I'm not a big fan of the Shack either, but I did pre-order thru them this time because I hate dealing with rebates.

I picked up my phone June 4th. The store employee took about an hour to get the paperwork done and it activated. Data didn't work until I called sprint the next day. Overall I give RS a B-.

The phone has been fabulous, absolutely no problem other than battery life...which I am now managing better.

Just thought I would say that not all RS / Sprint deals go that bad....I had a good experience and love the phone/service!

I was a Blackberry Tour user for the past year and I could never go back.

 

[BetterMost]

Glad it all ended well for you. Make sure you buy the full insurance plan as I'm sure you will eventually need it.

I'm not a big fan of the Shack either, but I did pre-order thru them this time because I hate dealing with rebates.

I picked up my phone June 4th. The store employee took about an hour to get the paperwork done and it activated. Data didn't work until I called sprint the next day. Overall I give RS a B-.

The phone has been fabulous, absolutely no problem other than battery life...which I am now managing better.

Just thought I would say that not all RS / Sprint deals go that bad....I had a good experience and love the phone/service!

I was a Blackberry Tour user for the past year and I could never go back.

Up until this point my Radio Shack deal was fine also. I just had no idea that by taking that replacement phone from Sprint it was going to bollix everything up like it did. I always felt that Sprint would make good on the phone to R/S since they themselves replaced it and I had all the documents to prove why and how it happened. Why the huge over reaction on R/S part over the replacement phone I guess I will never really understand. My conversation yesterday with them was quite heated and ugly, today it was like I was talking to a different person. From now on I'm not going to ever buy a phone from a third party such as R/S only through the carrier.

 

[BetterMost]

Thank You to the Moderators for leaving this up and watching over it as you did.

 

[gx1400]

My only request: Can you please use PLEASE use paragraphs and separate your writing into discernable sections of writing?

 

[beano52]

I actually find the ongoing story line interesting. I can see myself in a similar predicament. Let him post his ongoing saga.

^^ this

 

[nahpungnome]

I read through the original issue (or saga as BetterMost calls it) and it's unfortunate for everyone involved. From the customer perspective, if you dish out a good amount of $$$ for a high class smartphone, you should be satisfied with it.

I bought 2 EVOs from RS and mine had pretty bad light leakage. However, I contacted HTC directly and got a quick replacement through them. I fully expected that if I replaced it through HTC directly, that I wouldn't be able to deal with RS...not a huge loss in my opinion.

My replacement isn't perfect either. The Menu button led is a different shade of white than the other buttons and there's a VERY small sliver of light leakage under the Home button, but only perceptible in a dark room...I have a polyurethane case anyway so it covers the leak, but nothing will correct the off colored led Nothing I consider enough to gripe to HTC again about and try to get a replacement though.

From the retail store/Sprint store perspective, the fact that they'd even replace 3 phones is pretty amazing. After a while, I would think they'd just say you know what, get a different phone. Granted that the issues might or might not have been valid for a return, still the number of returns would be questionable after a while.

Logically speaking, why would RS take a phone from the Sprint store back? That's like buying a Toyota from a dealership in a different town and trying to exchange it at a different Toyota dealership. They're both the exact same model, but it's not the one you bought from the original store. If it was a different RS that exchanged it for you and you're going to another RS, then that'd be more plausible.

Anyway, the whole EVO shortage sucks for everyone and if HTC built the phone properly in the first place, none of this would be an issue. Oh well, I hope HTC and Sprint learned a hard lesson.

 

[CriticalCritic]

Anyway, the whole EVO shortage sucks for everyone and if HTC built the phone properly in the first place, none of this would be an issue. Oh well, I hope HTC and Sprint learned a hard lesson.

I can assure you that they will not. For precedence I point to the Palm POS that has disastrous build quality issues. Oh, and the Samsung Moment... my 6th one should be arriving today. I wouldn't be surprised if the issues are well documented going back well over this year-long timespan.

It seems to me that Sprint's business plan is to just get people over to their service with the promise of a good phone... then hold on to them with their superior prices. I don't think they care about actually selling a highly dependable product.

 

[Slug]

Glad things have worked out for you, BM.

 

[eric3316]

You know, I think BetterMost actually has legitimate beef this time. I'll agree that he has created his own reputation here, but I'm not willing to speak out against him on THIS issue.

I'm sorry to hear that it's happened to you, and I hope you get it all squared away. Best of luck to you.

That is exactly it. The OP created a reputation for himself so the only person he needs to blame is himself. If anyone else would have posted this story the thread would have turned out totally different.

 

[nahpungnome]

I can assure you that they will not. For precedence I point to the Palm POS that has disastrous build quality issues. Oh, and the Samsung Moment... my 6th one should be arriving today. I wouldn't be surprised if the issues are well documented going back well over this year-long timespan.

It seems to me that Sprint's business plan is to just get people over to their service with the promise of a good phone... then hold on to them with their superior prices. I don't think they care about actually selling a highly dependable product.

Relatively speaking...The Pre was a bit popular, but nowhere near the EVO. The Moment barely made a splash compared to the EVO.

Now given how popular the EVO is... Sprint may take a harder look. It's hard to deny hard numbers. 20% of Pre owners reporting issues would be significantly less than 20% of EVO owners reporting issues based on sheer numbers...

I'm not saying what you said is completely incorrect. In the end, it's all about $$ for Sprint, but I will disagree when you say Sprint doesn't care about selling a dependable product.

Palm is a different company from Samsung and HTC. I've never personally dealt with Palm or Samsung, but HTC genuinely tried to resolve the issues with my phone. Hopefully they'll work with Sprint to give the consumer a warm fuzzy feeling about the EVO build quality.

 

[sagedil]

It seems to me that Sprint's business plan is to just get people over to their service with the promise of a good phone... then hold on to them with their superior prices. I don't think they care about actually selling a highly dependable product.

Please tell me what carrier sells "better" phones. I am really curious since you make this out to be a Sprint issue.

 

[sitlet]

Please tell me what carrier sells "better" phones. I am really curious since you make this out to be a Sprint issue.

I was going to say, no carrier is perfect when it comes to this. My girlfriend is with verizon, and is currently on her 13th replacement "refurbushed" phone in the past year. I have witnessed each and every phone have problems dropping calls, screen not working, screen not turning on, etc.

I've gone through 2 replacement 47" tv's in the past year due to defects, 3 laptops replaced, and 3 ps3's replaced due to defects. Seems that NO company cares about making things last anymore....

 

[BetterMost]

I was going to say, no carrier is perfect when it comes to this. My girlfriend is with verizon, and is currently on her 13th replacement "refurbushed" phone in the past year. I have witnessed each and every phone have problems dropping calls, screen not working, screen not turning on, etc.

I've gone through 2 replacement 47" tv's in the past year due to defects, 3 laptops replaced, and 3 ps3's replaced due to defects. Seems that NO company cares about making things last anymore....

Yep its all made to be tossed in a land fill or recycled once it fails, nothing much today is made to last or even be repaired.

 

[blakethomas]

Does it seem to anybody else like some people just buy a new phone hoping for something -- ANYTHING -- to be wrong with it so they can throw a fit and show everyone how smart they are for having such high standards?

 

[edlex]

Sprint is just the middle man in this process. All the defective phones go back to the manufacturer. The only issue comes when it's a hot phone they would rather use their inventory to lure new subscribers rather than replace an existing subscribers defective phone. In the end, all the returned evo's go back to htc and sprint gets a credit.

 

[CriticalCritic]

Relatively speaking...The Pre was a bit popular, but nowhere near the EVO. The Moment barely made a splash compared to the EVO.

Now given how popular the EVO is... Sprint may take a harder look. It's hard to deny hard numbers. 20% of Pre owners reporting issues would be significantly less than 20% of EVO owners reporting issues based on sheer numbers...

I'm not saying what you said is completely incorrect. In the end, it's all about $$ for Sprint, but I will disagree when you say Sprint doesn't care about selling a dependable product.

Palm is a different company from Samsung and HTC. I've never personally dealt with Palm or Samsung, but HTC genuinely tried to resolve the issues with my phone. Hopefully they'll work with Sprint to give the consumer a warm fuzzy feeling about the EVO build quality.

"The Pre was a bit popular?" It was the summertime flagship phone for Sprint like the Evo is now. The Pre had a huge advertising campaign behind it, as did the Pixi did later on (every time I think of that phone I hear that damn music from the commercial in my head). People were chomping at the bit to get their hands on the Pre. However it QUICKLY faded due to the reputation it picked up for bad hardware issues and Sprint/Palm's denial of those issues.

I'll admit that I was drooling for the Pre last summer. Though by the time I was eligible for an upgrade, I had done enough research to know that I should avoid the thing. Oh, check this out... When I was going to buy my phone, the Sprint sales rep told me I should go for the Pre. He said that he had one and the operating system was great. Then he went a step further saying that he had a tip for me that he had gotten from the tech support. He told me that if, after I bought the phone, the phone split in half (because it was a typical thing for the tech support to hear!?!?!?) I could just place my fingers, as he showed me, in such a way that the phone would all snap back together... I told him that the mere fact that he knew to do something like that was enough of a reason to stay away from that phone.

So, back on topic... I think we're gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. Sprint allowed the Pre fiasco to go on for so long that ultimately the sales were killed. If they had learned their lessons they might have forced a recall on the Moment when it was apparent that it was built with irreparably flawed internals.

On second thought... maybe they have learned? When was the last time anyone saw an Evo for sale?