Cell phones forum: planned obsolescence / bait and switch / Verizon

I'm sure that your cell phone company will be pleased that you're going to leave after seeing your post. I can only imagine how that conversation went. You obviously don't know much about how cell phone companies and cell phone manufacturers operate. Your cellular provider didn't make your phone. No cellular provider makes their own phone. Most manufacturers like Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, Audiovox, Kyocera, etc only have a 1 year warranty on their phones for good reason. They generally only last from a year&half to 2 years. You've actually beat the average if your phone lasted more than 2 years. That's why you should certainly get insurance on your phone if anything goes wrong. Do you think these manufacturers are putting out solid quality phones that will last more than 1-2 years? Get real! Do you think car manufacturers make cars that last forever? NO! The want to sell you more and more cars and autoparts to keep them in business. If you've got a gripe with your phone, direct it to the manufacturer. You cant expect any celluar carrier to keep you in stock with replacement phones and accessories forever. Try calling your manufacturer to see if they have a battery in inventory they can ship you. Most cell phone users dont even realize that the life expectancy of a phone is shortened by common user mistakes, like dropping it occassionally. Sure, it may have worked after everytime it was dropped, but you shortened it's life. Moisture and condensation build up in the phone as well over the life of the phone due to different climates and conditions you expose it to. Also, leaving your phone on the charger overnight is the worst thing you can do to a phone and ruin it's battery over the life of the phone as well. It should drain completely and only be charged for as long as needed to be completely charged and be removed from the charger.
Your cell phone carrier has done nothing wrong and you should take them up on their offer to get another phone with a contract renewal. If you go anywhere else, you're going to sign a new contract anyway. If you think that leaving your carrier to go to a new carrier because of this issue is going to be different at any other carrier, you're sadly mistaken. All of the cell carriers are going to make you purchase a new phone given the exact same circumstances. Save yourself a little embarassment and get a little education about cell phone lifespans before talking to your friends and family

Depending on the phone, there might be a battery available on some of these accessory only websites like factorydirectcellular.com, cellularaccessory.com, eforcity.com, and a few others. Those are a few sites, besides the manufacturers websites to get an extra battery. Luckily for me, Verizon Wireless still had an extended battery available for my Samsung a650. I'm in the market for a new phone in July, but haven't decided on a phone yet, as I don't know what will be available during that time. I do know I have been turned off by the Samsung a950 now that you can't play mp3 files on that phone. I like mp3 over wma anyday. The Samsung a950 & a970 will likely be discontinued by the time I upgrade, earliest July 1.

Sorry, but I'm with Verizon Wireless, not Cingular or T-Mobile. Sony Ericsson doesn't make CDMA phones for the USA anymore. So Sony Ericsson is out of the question. And don't suggest switching to Cingular. While I would because their network matches that of Verizon in NW Indiana (always has), too many people I know who have Cingular complain about customer service, whether it's rude CSR's, overbilling, or even turning off their service for no reason. That last reason happened to my Mom a lot, and eventually she decided to pay the $300 ETF ($150 x's 2 phones). She had Cingular for 3 years when it was originally Cellular One. She's been with Verizon for 2 years now, and 4 years for me.

The main reason I won't go with T-Mobile in my local area is because their coverage is spotty. I have 2 co-workers that complain that they get more dropped calls with T-Mobile than the people I know on Cingular. Another reason is for where I travel, I would roam more than be on the network. For one Indiana county, Benton County, there is no GSM coverage. That would make a GSM phone useless in that county. With my Verizon phone, my phone would at least take advantage of what little coverage that US Cellular has in that county. Since T-Mobile doesn't allow more minutes to be used off the network, I would easily get my service terminated. A T-Mobile repesentative wanted to sign me up, but when I explained my travel situation; they thought that I was right that it wouldn't be in my best interest to sign up with T-Mobile, because they want a customer that will be able to utilize T-Mobile more. I wouldn't because most calls would end up on Centennial Wireless's network, and in Wisconsin outside of the Milwaukee & Sheboygan markets, my phone would be using Cingular or Einstein PCS the most. As it stands, the only 3 carriers that cover most areas I travel are Sprint (original choice for service), Verizon (who I'm currently with), and Cingular (after merging most of the old AT&T netowrk into their network, and will soon be renamed AT&T), with little to no roaming. As it stands now with Verizon, I only roam at the most 5 times a year, and that's in Michigan, but that might drop as they added coverage from licenses they acquired from Leap Wireless (parent company of Cricket) in areas that Alltel picked up my calls.

Or actually, what about this one:

http://www.mobiledia.com/phones/samsung/sch-a870.html

Verizon, integrated MP3 player, etc. It looks pretty cool, too.

I haven't upgraded yet. I'm still using my Samsung a650, which I've been using since August 31, 2004. My upgrade date is July 1, so I still have a few more months to go before I can upgrade. As for phones, LG is a hit or miss when it comes to a good phone. My brother had too much trouble with his old LG VX4400, and my Uncle Bob & Uncle Terry had problems with dropped calls and weak signal issues with their LG VX6100's. My Uncle Bob has 4 LG VX6100's on his plan, and only his gives him problems. I don't care too much for the LG VX9800. I wish a CDMA version of the Samsung SGH-D307 were available for Verizon, but I don't expect Samsung to release a CDMA version of the that phone, which was released for Cingular, even if it didn't have the mp3 player in it. I still have time to decide what I want in a new phone, but I won't get LG or Motorola. My experience with Motorola is even worse than my brother's experience with LG. At least he could use his LG at his home. My Motorola wouldn't, but my current Samsung does. But the idea of using wma in my opinion sucks. The RIAA wants to kill mp3.

I totally understand your frustration, Polly. When you pay for something, it makes sense to expect it to function for a reasonable period of time. Frankly, I don't really understand the tone of some of the responses to your post. You might want to reconsider leaving Verizon for some other carrier. Over the past 15 years or so, we have had service from CellONE/AT&T, Sprint, and Nextel, and now Verizon (never t-mobile because friends say service is very unreliable). Of them all, Verizon has the best coverage area, and by far the best customer service. If the issue with the battery cannot be resolved at the store, call the customer service number and speak with a manager or supervisor before you commit to another carrier which may not meet your needs. No, I don't work for Verizon or any affiliate. Good luck!

IT DOES NOT MATTER WHO YOU HAVE SERVICE WITH FROM WHAT I HAVE BEEN TOLD A CELL PHONE BATTERY WILL LAST ANYWHERE FROM 18 MONTHS TO 2 YEARS. I DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS TRUE OR NOT. I HAVE CELL A PHONE BATTERY LAST LONGER. DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS A EXCEPTION OR NOT. I HAVE SEEN THAT IT IS MAYBE BETTER GETTING A NEW PHONE IF YOU WANT TO GET INTO A NEW CONTRACT. REGUARDLESS IF IT IS VERIZON CINGULAR OR WHOEVER BATTERY LIFE MAY BE THE SAME.
GOOD LUCK

I hear ya, benzinger, but if people DO want to hang on to their old relics, they should at least have the option of replacing the battery... there must be fresh batteries kicking around somewhere, no?

Yes, I understand that... it seems like there'd be some batteries for two-year old phones on ebay or something, though.

If youre going to use such a fancy term as planned obsolescence, you might have wanted to take the time to look up 'American System of Manufacture', which started about 150 years ago. At the same time, you might as well look up commodity fetish, or just the word commodity.

This is really striking that you only catch on to something thats been in practice for over a century.


{Commodity <- Incentive -> Innovation}

The absolute worse place to buy peripherals for a cell phone is usually through the carrier. Punch in your cell phone make and model(+ battery if that's what you want) on Google or E Bay.
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It's highly unlikely any current or semi current cell phone battery couldn't be purchased in such a manner at half or less of the "carrier" price. The fact many of the batteries come out of China only makes them "OEM" in the case of Motorola. I was the first person on this continent to touch my new Chinese (in their eentirety, including batteries)V-60S phones. Likewise on my new HP laptop. The last person to touch it too was a Chinaman.

Cell phones now on average cost less than 20 bucks each to manufacture, so the prices the consumers pay are way over overpriced. How much money do you think that the carriers pay for the phones themselves when they buy them from the manufacturers? Nowhere close to what they tell you the price will be, so no sympathy there.

Cell phone minutes used were the only way that they could figure out to charge us consumers. Many landline phones used to charge by the minute as well in earlier times until one company decided to give unlimited usage for a set fee. It doesn't cost Verizon Cingular or T-mobile any more money if you use the phone 20 minutes a month or 2000 minutes a month. Cell phone carriers all make huge profits off of overage minutes as well. If you think that they are doing us a huge favor by selling us a phone at 200% markup and then sticking it to us if we dare to go over our alloted minutes you are sadly mistaken.
In the future there will be carriers who will sell you a cell phone for a reasonable price and you will get unlimited usage for a set fee.

The original post is almost 4 years old and the post you replied to was at least 2 years old.

Did you ever realize that computers are replaced on an ever increasing rate? By the time you leave the store w/ your shiny, new computer there is already a newer, faster, cheaper model ready to hit the shelf. Try buying computer components for a 3 year old computer and you might have a hard time finding certain components. Even computer manufacturers design new computers that cannot use some older components to due changes in technology. There is no conspiracy theory by anyone.

In the example of batteries, try to find a cellular phone NiCad battery when virtually all current batteries are either Litium Ion or Lithium Polymer. In as little as a few months or years, an even newer technology battery may eclipse current technologies (fuel cell batteries are already on the near horizon). Either keep up with technology or just move on and quit complaining.

How much was that bulb?

And how much have you paid to burn it for that long?