Bought a Motorola Triumph (carrier: Virgin Mobile) a few weeks ago, it's not charging reliably. Wiggling the jack sometimes works, not always. Tried several chargers, pretty sure it's the phone. I want to return it to the store (Best Buy) and exchange or replace it with another model. Never had to bring a phone back before, seeking advice.

My main question is this: if you delete photos, are they still available on the storage area of the phone or on the SD card? Can you recommend a secure data removal app (something similar to Eraser)?

Other things I'm looking for:

1. A good way to save my texts
2. A list of any other kinds of data I should save
3. Info about any other privacy concerns I should be thinking about when returning a phone to a store
4. Tips on navigating Best Buy's return policy
5. Suggestions for other phone models. I had an LG Optimus V and was fairly satisfied with it; I might go back to it if the Triumph really is a lemon. My carrier is Virgin Mobile. Please feel free to weigh in.

Thanks very much for your time.

 

stef7 gave the following (excellent) reply:

Well, before I would consider selling or returning mine, I'd probably do the following:
1). Copy all your content from the SD card onto a personal computer using drag and drop over the USB cable.

2). Perform a SD Card Format
Menu | Settings | SD card and phone storage settings | Unmount then Format

((alternatively, you could power down the phone, pull the 2GB card out, and put in a blank 2GB card... you could re-use the 2GB card by removing the one from the replacement phone and putting the saved one back in)).

3). Clear your phone number using the Phone App and entering ##VIRGIN# and View, then doing it again and selecting Edit and entering 0s for your phone number. I don't think there's anything wrong with leaving the other number alone - just alter the one that was your phone number...

4). Perform a Factory Reset (follow the procedure here)
https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/64814/~/motorola-triumph---master-reset-%2F-factory-data-reset

As for saving your texts, I suppose you could download MyPhoneExplorer from the Market (for the phone), and from the Web (for the PC) and use that. But honestly, you want to save them?