Goodbye i7500

Hark,

I'm on O2 and am unhappy about the lack of 3G also. The lack of support, lack of 3G, and now their brush-off combined are pushing me to another network once i've done what O2 told me to do and waited out the contract! Unfortunately this was the reply from O2's complaints service so I'm not sure where higher I can take it . Not what I expect for 18x

@Hark: I asked what the latest firmware for my country is, but if I can't get an answer, I'll just put I7500XXIH8 on it.

@Meh: You think that's bad? I paid 350

@Demon: The last phone o2 sent me was on II4, not sure if that's the latest firmware that you get when trying to update the phone but probably better to use that than IK8.

As a joke o2 just sent me another i7500 instead of the i9000 they promised me. Mix up at the depot they claim, should have gone with a Desire...

Well...

... complaint email sent. Wish me luck.

Yeah good luck
o2 have lost a customer in me due not only to the Galaxy debacle, but their shit service. To rub it in, just got a Nexus One to play with at work and it shits on the Galaxy. Its soooo smooth :'(

In hindsight, I may have shot myself in the foot by mentioning I'd tried Samsung's firmwares. Ho hum.

Yeah good luck from me as well.

To be honest Bomberman in the end I'm happy enough with o2. We bought a phone that was an "early adopter". The problems with it are more Samsung than o2. Sure you could argue o2 shouldn't have taken on such a buggy phone, but then we're early adopters, we looked at the specs and WANTED this phone (I know I did anyway) and o2 were the only company brave enough to offer it. Probably they should have replaced it for me earlier with all the bugs I had, but in the end there's fairly stable 1.5 (and 1.6) firmwares out there for it. Sure we want Eclair/Froyo but the lack of updates is more at the shoes of Samsung than o2 there again and really o2 never did promise updates, we just assumed.

Fact is after some complaining I've got a Galaxy S, it's the phone the Galaxy should have been. It runs beautifully (ok I've had to apply a lagfix to it, and Froyo has been delayed til the end of the month), but the screen is lovely, TouchWiz is actually fine and adds to the experience, the phone feels good and not as cheap as I expected with the plastic back. There's lots of development going on for it, and as it's one of the newest Android phones I expect it'll get future updates to Gingerbread, custom ROMs and all the rest and there's not really anything else out there (currently released) I'd rather have. So all in all while I'd have liked a faster replacement process I'm happy with o2.

@Cougar, yeah probably not worth mentioning. But at the same time given that there's 1.6 builds out there it is a disgrace that o2 are still stuck on 1.5. So maybe it'll count in your favour. I do wonder if they really are bothering to spend resources on testing 1.6, and what their holdup could be. I'm sure the few remaining owners would rather have 1.6 than be stuck on 1.5 even if there were some kinks in the build (which there isn't anyway so much).

The problem is Samsung I agree, but the fact remains that my contract is with O2 so they're ultimately (and, legally) responsible.

Hark said:

@Cougar, yeah probably not worth mentioning. But at the same time given that there's 1.6 builds out there it is a disgrace that o2 are still stuck on 1.5. So maybe it'll count in your favour. I do wonder if they really are bothering to spend resources on testing 1.6, and what their holdup could be. I'm sure the few remaining owners would rather have 1.6 than be stuck on 1.5 even if there were some kinks in the build (which there isn't anyway so much).

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To be fair to O2, Samsung's official 1.6 firmware is horribly buggy. I wouldn't approve it for use either.

And since Samsung appear to have completely abandoned the i7500 now I don't think that is likely to change.

On O2's website it lists two firmwares, uh, II5 and IK5, I think. The newer says it's "unavailable".

I've only ever installed Samsung's official firmware. I can understand the 'invalidate your warranty' stance, the last thing they want to be doing is supporting random custom ROMs and bricked phones; but hopefully common sense will prevail over jobsworths.

I've been with O2 since I got my first phone like ten years ago... hopefully they'll value my custom.

We'll see, anyway. Can't hurt to try.

Cougar said:

The problem is Samsung I agree, but the fact remains that my contract is with O2 so they're ultimately (and, legally) responsible.

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I agree with you there Cougar. I paid my

Hark said:

Yeah good luck from me as well.

To be honest Bomberman in the end I'm happy enough with o2. We bought a phone that was an "early adopter". The problems with it are more Samsung than o2. Sure you could argue o2 shouldn't have taken on such a buggy phone, but then we're early adopters, we looked at the specs and WANTED this phone (I know I did anyway) and o2 were the only company brave enough to offer it. Probably they should have replaced it for me earlier with all the bugs I had, but in the end there's fairly stable 1.5 (and 1.6) firmwares out there for it. Sure we want Eclair/Froyo but the lack of updates is more at the shoes of Samsung than o2 there again and really o2 never did promise updates, we just assumed.

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Most of that's fine, but the fact that it won't work as advertised is what's finished me off. I have and do miss calls regardless of which firmware I'm on. They're happy to accept my cash, but won't even engage with me when there are problems? That's poor service - add that to the bollocks phone and you have a disgruntled Bomberman

I'll add my sentiments, as I've left this phone (and forum) to move up in the world of phones.


I was a happy Galaxy i7500 owner as of last September...at least for a little while. But the bugs and the continual wait for what ended up being only slighly better firmware made me realise I had to take more drastic action, like run Galaxo.

I got tired of messing around, reinstalling apps around November and although I would keep watching the forums and for an decent announcement from Samsung about 1.6, then 2.1...I finally gave up.

Just recently, I complained to O2 and was given a reduced fee for leaving months early (they don't know how happy I was to pay it) and decided to AVOID the Samsung world altogether and go with an HTC Desire. Wow. It is what I think we always expected the previous smartphones to be like like. Snappy response. Great interface. Cool features. Yes, battery trouble is still a factor, but (as its been said before) when you take a micro-laptop and use battery intensive features, what do you expect?

Sadly, now that I no longer have my Galaxy as my main phone, I have the freedom to install ROM's and mess about with it. I will say that the recent improvements to Galaxo are quite good. And running 2.2 with GAOSP is very impressive, but until you feel just how slick a 1ghz Desire feels, you realise the Galaxy (even overclocked) is being stretched to run it. I can almost concur with Samsung that their decision to not want to put 2.1 and 2.2 forward for the Galaxy keeps them from dealing with a lot of negative feedback about performance. But saying that, knowing how great the negative feeling is about Samsung because of their rather blatant 'dropping' of the phone for the new models, like the Galaxy S, I don't know if they've still shot themselves in the foot regardless.

In any case, I wanted to add to the appreciation of all those that spent a lot of time discussing the options available and answering questions (Kam and Rastaman specifically spring to mind). And even more credit to Drakaz and others who have been able to achieve so much. I now have a fairly decent phone running GAOSP (don't need a sim, just good as a hi-tech device on its own) which I don't know whether to sell, hang onto for for fun and testing new ROM's or keep as a spare (hopefully never needed).

One last comment: enjoy your Galaxy. Take the step to upgrade the ROM with Galaxo, GAOSP, etc., because Samsung just isn't going down that path. Get as much pleasure as you can from it...but as and when you decide to upgrade, you will definitely be pleased. It's not a world away better (esp. as the battery is always a factor) or 'game changing' better, but if you're impressed by the way Android works on your phone, then the next improvements and the faster phones should put a nice, big smile on your face.

For me, its:
Say hello (to a HTC Desire)
Wave goodbye (to my Samsung Galaxy, that was badly treated, like a poor step-child)


P.S. Sorry for the long post. I guess that's months worth of bottled up frustration spilling out. ;-)

Nine days later,

O2 just rang me to discuss my email.

My HTC Desire arrives tomorrow.

Cheers everyone for all the support, it's been quite a ride. I'll see you in the Desire forum soon no doubt.

Cougar said:

Nine days later,

O2 just rang me to discuss my email.

My HTC Desire arrives tomorrow.

Cheers everyone for all the support, it's been quite a ride. I'll see you in the Desire forum soon no doubt.

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WTF? I don't believe this. They have flatly told me to **** off and deny ever replacing handsets due to them being poor quality Two faced sods. Nine days! I've been at them for months!

Evidently, they're fibbing...!

On multiple occasions

I wonder if part of it might be, I've worked in and around Support for years; I'm fairly well versed in what works and what doesn't. If I do say so myself, I write a very good shitogram. (-:

The other thing that might be a factor, and I'm only speculating, is that I've been with O2 since having my first phone some time around the early Jurassic.

It's heee-ere.

First impressions; there's no SD card supplied because I'm expected to use the one out of my Galaxy. Er, oops.

Congrats Cougar on the free change, but I hope you'll still post around here sometimes.

Oh well, I guess fortune favors the bold.

I'm still lurking. Some good people here.

The Desire really is a paradigm shift. It's everything the Galaxy should have been.

Everything Just Works, no waiting 30 seconds every time I click an icon, no 'stopped responding...' errors. Came with Android 2.1, into Settings and Check for update, running 2.2 painlessly inside of 30 minutes. Very happy camper.

Sorry to hear of your problems getting a replacement Bomberman. Keep at them, hopefully if you get a different person next time they'll be more receptive. Tell them your friend had the exact same phone and theirs was replaced.

It's nothing to do with how long you've been with o2 (as Cougar suggests) as I *joined* o2 to get the Galaxy after being on Orange for years. God, that was a mistake. Anyway, got my Galaxy S (yes stayed on the dark side) and like people with the Desire I couldn't be happier. Being the newer and more powerful phone with a better screen I think it's the better choice. Running Froyo, things just work, everything is nicely integrated and looks lovely. Samsung finally have made the phone the Galaxy should have been. I still feel they should give everyone who got the i7500 a free upgrade (like i've finally gotten) plus something else as a thank you for being a beta tester. Shouldn't have been such a fight and o2 that did the decent thing.

As stated above by Hark, try again. I did and have now got a Desire

I was offered an 'as new' handset, they wouldn't give me a new handset as my contract runs out in a few months - it was described as being a return due to dislike/lack of signal/whatever under the 14 day return period.

Handset arrived in a plain box, with a battery, but minus memory card, manual, and handsfree kit. A new boxed HTC charger was also sent. Phone is in perfect condition - it had protective covers on the screen and camera, and if it wasn't for the packaging/lack of accessories it is indeed as new.