Thinking of taking my Captivate back

[radi0chik]

So with the most recent comments stating the GPS update may not be out until September possibly when Froyo comes out, I'm going to take this back and get my money back. Problem is, we only have 30 days to return the phones. If they don't fix them within 30 days, or worse yet, don't fix them AT ALL, I'm stuck with this POS phone that won't lock onto gps 90% of the time.

Anyone had experience with returning a smart phone? I'm wondering if I can roll back to my media net plan (with proper phone on the account) or if that's just gone for good.

Thoughts?

 

[Chromag]

I'm betting they'll fix it prior to the Froyo update. I'm sure they'll release a firmware patch or whatever they need to do to fix the GPS problem rather than make everyone wait months.

 

[harryzwd]

you just have to outweigh the pros and cons of how the phone is working for you. the gps issue is really a problem for me, but i can't see either samsung or at&t not pushing an update for this - and i'm thinking it won't be bundled with froyo but that's just my 2 cents. but that's only ONE issue, other than that the phone has been amazing...pictures, movies, music, and the overall usefullness of this phone compared to my old blackberry bold is just incredible. i'm not sure i could go back...

 

[Space Cowboy]

If you purchased a phone simply for GPS capability, why didnt you just go out and buy a REAL GPS unit?

To say the phone is a POS is a little strong.

 

[Sledutah]

Yes, they will roll back your plan, upgrade eligibility and contact dates to what they were before.

 

[jmreed97]

If you purchased a phone simply for GPS capability, why didnt you just go out and buy a REAL GPS unit?

To say the phone is a POS is a little strong.

Seriously Cowboy???

I agree POS is a little strong, but the GPS is a major part of a smartphone.

 

[Markdek]

Seriously Cowboy???

I agree POP is a little strong, but the GPS is a major part of a smartphone.

Agreed, gps is important...like the camera, wifi, and 3g....or 4g. It's a smartphone we're paying for after all.

 

[lilo]

While GPS clearly has serious issues, it actually works well enough for car navigation. So what's the rush to exchange? If we knew that the issue was not fixable than it would be a different story.

 

[sremick]

While GPS clearly has serious issues, it actually works well enough for car navigation. So what's the rush to exchange?

Because it doesn't work well enough for car navigation for many of us.

95% of the time, I can't get a fix inside my car. Only if I have the sunroof open, it's on the passenger seat, and oriented just-so. Pick it up and move it to my lap: no signal.

My friend's iPhone and my Magellan Maestro work anywhere in the vehicle, facing any direction, with strong full signal.

 

[Infinite-t]

Because it doesn't work well enough for car navigation for many of us.

95% of the time, I can't get a fix inside my car. Only if I have the sunroof open, it's on the passenger seat, and oriented just-so. Pick it up and move it to my lap: no signal.

My friend's iPhone and my Magellan Maestro work anywhere in the vehicle, facing any direction, with strong full signal.

Very true, although with about 10 minuts of fittling I can get a GPS lock on my phone. Move it and I lose it. Once my vehicle starts moving the signal gets unreliable and "skips" around.

My wifes iPhone 4 sitting right next to the captivate worked just fine.

The GPS is clearly a problem and I am in the same boat as everyone else. I have 30 days (well, 23 now) to return my phone. Mixed reports say Samsung is working on it, and some say nothing. I spent 45 minuts on the "live Chat" customer service at samsung. I realize that these my not even be Samsung employees and might be some 3rd party company with a manual and website in front of them, but the girl I chatted with "Ruth" was very nice and knew a bit about the phone. But when I asked her about the "GPS Problem" she said she is unaware of any GPS issue with these phones. She had me clicking around in the settings for a few minuts changing settings with the picture GPS function and stuff but nothing helped. I told her that in online forums, many people have been reporting the same GPS problem. She quicky spammed my this macro refering me to call Level3 tech support. I think I am going to try and call them.

Is this issue just with the Captivate, or is it the whole "Galaxy S" line?
The more people we can get to hound these guys, hopefully they will hurry and fix it, or at least publicly acknowlege it and asure all new and would be purchasers that it is being fixed... Or this whole fiasco could really hurt samsung in the smart phone race.

 

[DT]

Is this issue just with the Captivate, or is it the whole "Galaxy S" line?

That's a good question. What's currently out? The T-Mob or Verizon SGS models?

If only there was a website where owners of other Andr....

Oh wait....

Checking it out now.

[Update]

Yep, looks like the Vibrant is having some GPS issues too.

 

[radi0chik]

If you purchased a phone simply for GPS capability, why didnt you just go out and buy a REAL GPS unit?

To say the phone is a POS is a little strong.

Space, I'm not saying it's a POS. I'm saying if they don't fix it within 30 days, and then don't fix after that, I have no recourse after 30 days. If I return it now, and wait for a fix, I can purchase it again after the fix is verified, and feel confident I'm getting a good deal. I HAVE a real GPS unit. But I didn't pay the money for this phone to NOT have one included in it too.

 

[Surfer]

Just throwing it out there, if you are a good driver just looking at the map/ directions would work. Even if you can't get a lock on your exact location I am sure that you would be able to find your way around. I have actually found GPS that lock onto your location but just say thing to get you from point A to point B aren't trustworthy

 

[tonyc]

Will the upgrade/activation fee also be refunded? There was a clause stating that if contract cancelled within 4days, activation fee is also refunded. What happens between 4-30 days for returning defective hardware?

Another point about making sure GPS works on the phone is that a lot of other features are starting to use GPS now (location tagging for pictures, video clips, google latitude and facebook) not just navigation.

The navigation aspect was a big selling point for me because of the whole Google/Navigation integration thing. When it works, it works great, but just like many others, only working 5% of the time is not acceptable. When I travel, I'd much rather travel light and feel secure that GPS is always available if I needed it.

BTW, I have already exchanged the phone once. The first unit would lock only 5% of the time on GPS alone, so I suspected bad hardware. This second unit is a lot better, locking > 50% of the time. But, it takes a good 5-10 mins on average to acquire lock.. Oh, and yes, If I enable "use wireless network" for location assist, the phone turns into a coffee warmer and batter dies with 2 hours. Is it hardware? software? ... I'd rather not wait until 3 months later to find out it's hardware..

Yes, they will roll back your plan, upgrade eligibility and contact dates to what they were before.

 

[Space Cowboy]

I guess different things are important to different people. Don't get me wrong, the GPS is cool to be included into the phone, I just wouldn't put it at the top of my priority list.

At first, the Galaxy was being touted as an iPhone killer based on several articles I read, but it doesn't even have a forward camera, so you really cant compare apples to apples between the two. Even if it did have a forward camera for video conferencing, ATT's network couldn't support the extra data load.

 

[Infinite-t]

Just throwing it out there, if you are a good driver just looking at the map/ directions would work. Even if you can't get a lock on your exact location I am sure that you would be able to find your way around. I have actually found GPS that lock onto your location but just say thing to get you from point A to point B aren't trustworthy

Very tue dude, We could also go to mapquest and print out a map on our computer and use the map to get us where we are going. But the issue is, at least for me, We paid 200 for a phone that claims GPS capability, and right now, that ability isnt working (for most people). Yea I have A GPS built in my car that works just fine, and I use it for driving and not the phone. But, with the phone, for me, I would like to be able to be walking down the street in a strange town (or even my home town) and jump into google maps and look for the closest coffee shop or something. That is not possible if my phone doesnt know where I am.

 

[Space Cowboy]

As others have said... why not give Samsung a chance to fix the issue. After all, the phone is still brand new to the market. If it were that big of an issue for myself, I would create a ticket with ATT to prove that I had an issue. Then if Samsung doesn't fix the problem in a fair amount of time, take the phone back referencing the ticket number. I'm sure they would do the right thing.

 

[radi0chik]

I'm willing to give them the 30 day chance. I don't think I'm brave enough to push it more than that.

 

[Android_J]

As others have said... why not give Samsung a chance to fix the issue.

Samsung has had their chance. The released the phone in Europe with a faulty GPS and haven't formally acknowledged it. That was months ago. Now they release the same phone (essentially) in the U.S. with the same fualty GPS and haven't formally acknowledged it either.

I think if they officially came out and said "we are working on a GPS fix" a lot of people would feel better about hanging on to the phone. As it stands now, there is just heresay about "a fix coming".

If I return the phone within the 30 day window then I'm out nothing if there's no fix. If a fix comes, I can always repurchase. However, if I hang on to the phone in hopes of a fix coming and it doesn't materialize then I'm stuck with a fualty phone for 2 years.

If Samsung wants to be a real player then step up and officially announce a fix. Don't expect the customer to be the beta tester and hope for a fix that might or might not come.

 

[cshanon]

I had the phone for about a week now and it has just too many problems for a high end phone. I don't feel I should be debugging Samsung's problems or finding ways to circumvent things that should work.

Here are my reasons for taking the phone back:

*Poor battery life even with many background tasks turned off. Battery lasts just about a day.
*GPS fails to work as expected. Takes 10 minutes to lock on outdoors under a clear blue sky. Works about 1% of the time in a car.
*Bloated software bundle from AT&T, and no easy to remove the software. Why purchase a phone with 16GB when there is only 1.6GB available for new apps out of the box.
*Can't sync contacts with Outlook using any software that I tried. Had to manuall enter all my contacts.
*USB drivers fail to recognize the phone on Win 7 64-bit. Tried three different versions without success.
*Poor selection of add on apps--even if they could fit!

In summary this phone is not ready for prime time but is still in beta test mode. Perhaps in six months or so Samsung will fix some of these problems but I have my doubts. In the meantime back it goes!

 

[artvandalay22222]

Go buy a tomtom

 

[ilusv]

I had the phone for about a week now and it has just too many problems for a high end phone. I don't feel I should be debugging Samsung's problems or finding ways to circumvent things that should work.

Here are my reasons for taking the phone back:

*Poor battery life even with many background tasks turned off. Battery lasts just about a day.
*GPS fails to work as expected. Takes 10 minutes to lock on outdoors under a clear blue sky. Works about 1% of the time in a car.
*Bloated software bundle from AT&T, and no easy to remove the software. Why purchase a phone with 16GB when there is only 1.6GB available for new apps out of the box.
*Can't sync contacts with Outlook using any software that I tried. Had to manuall enter all my contacts.
*USB drivers fail to recognize the phone on Win 7 64-bit. Tried three different versions without success.
*Poor selection of add on apps--even if they could fit!

In summary this phone is not ready for prime time but is still in beta test mode. Perhaps in six months or so Samsung will fix some of these problems but I have my doubts. In the meantime back it goes!

I feel pretty much the way you do... great phone but not there yet. What's bugging me the most is the fact that I can't sync it with outlook and being able to have a backup copy of it (the entire phone). I once drove over my iphone and plugged my replacement phone into my pc and got everything back including my text messages.

 

[Intervenient]

I had the phone for about a week now and it has just too many problems for a high end phone. I don't feel I should be debugging Samsung's problems or finding ways to circumvent things that should work.

Here are my reasons for taking the phone back:

*Poor battery life even with many background tasks turned off. Battery lasts just about a day.
*GPS fails to work as expected. Takes 10 minutes to lock on outdoors under a clear blue sky. Works about 1% of the time in a car.
*Bloated software bundle from AT&T, and no easy to remove the software. Why purchase a phone with 16GB when there is only 1.6GB available for new apps out of the box.
*Can't sync contacts with Outlook using any software that I tried. Had to manuall enter all my contacts.
*USB drivers fail to recognize the phone on Win 7 64-bit. Tried three different versions without success.
*Poor selection of add on apps--even if they could fit!

In summary this phone is not ready for prime time but is still in beta test mode. Perhaps in six months or so Samsung will fix some of these problems but I have my doubts. In the meantime back it goes!

Tell us how it goes down after you do so we can know exactly what they refund (hopefully everything but the restocking fee). I might return mine as well. As much as I like this phone and Android, these both have some serious problems

 

[Intervenient]

Go buy a tomtom

Why should he? That's as silly as Apple telling iPhone 4 users to buy a case. He wants to use what he paid for.

 

[PuffinNugz]

I had the phone for about a week now and it has just too many problems for a high end phone. I don't feel I should be debugging Samsung's problems or finding ways to circumvent things that should work.

Here are my reasons for taking the phone back:

*Poor battery life even with many background tasks turned off. Battery lasts just about a day.

Battery may be an issue to some, but what's so hard about putting the phone on it's charger every night or day when you sleep? I've been doing that for years with all my previous phones.

*GPS fails to work as expected. Takes 10 minutes to lock on outdoors under a clear blue sky. Works about 1% of the time in a car.

GPS, again, not an issue to everyone. Mine works sometimes, and sometimes it doesn't. Hopefully it gets fixed, but if not it's still an amazing phone.

*Bloated software bundle from AT&T, and no easy to remove the software. Why purchase a phone with 16GB when there is only 1.6GB available for new apps out of the box.

The 16 gb is on in internal SD card. That is what has the 16 gb, well a little less, but with a bunch of stuff on my phone, it is still sitting at 12.96 gb. Look closer. It shows "External SD Card" which would be one that YOU would put in. It shows "Internal SD Card" which is the "16gb." Then it has the 1.6 gb phone storage. Did yours not come with the Internal?

*Can't sync contacts with Outlook using any software that I tried. Had to manuall enter all my contacts.

Haven't tried yet.

*USB drivers fail to recognize the phone on Win 7 64-bit. Tried three different versions without success.

Had no issues on Win 7 64 bit. Actually, I have it set up on my 64 bit tablet, my win 7 32 bit pc, and my XP box at work.

*Poor selection of add on apps--even if they could fit!

What type of add-ons? Wouldn't that be up to the droid community vs Samsung?

In summary this phone is not ready for prime time but is still in beta test mode. Perhaps in six months or so Samsung will fix some of these problems but I have my doubts. In the meantime back it goes!

I think you're being a bit too hasty with your decision here. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't care less if you return it, but of what you mentioned, GPS is the only real issue.


just sayin...Not tryin to start an argument here. Why don't you swap it for a new Captivate?

*disclaimer* No, I do NOT work for Samsung. Stuff just seems to get blown out of proportion.