hahaha :) very hilarious John. somehow i feel connected to u (pun intended). I worked at Motorola India, Bangalore for 2 years and i think i know the guys who developed and tested ur phone :). shall i say hello to them on ur behalf.

Oh, please give them my best regards!

I'm sorry... but I can't find it in me to feel sorry for you. It almost seems like you wanted to get angry with them... why not stop by a store (that has the ability to replace phones) instead of calling Nextel Care over and over which already told you they couldn't do it. For an intelligent and articulate person such as yourself... that sure seems like the dumb way to do it....

Can't do it at a store. The policies are the same, and since I purchased the phone over the phone from Nextel care, i went to the source.

John - I definitely feel for you. I decided to use my Nextel (i530) in place of a landline in order to save money.

Wanna talk about dropped calls? I lost signal THREE times while on a phone interview!

Interestingly, it never loses signal when a creditor or telemarketer is on the other end.

I find the automatic shut-offs particularly problematic. While at work, my fiancé suffered a severe Asthma attack, and went to the hospital. One of her co-workers tried to call me, but my phone shut off by itself, unbeknownst to me. I received the message several hours later when I pulled out the phone to make a call.

I certainly learned my lesson. I'm going with Verizon or Cingular when my contract is up.

That's terrible...the i530 is supposed to be "military-strong" and it turns off by itself...
If you're suffering from dropped calls and the i530 bug, Nextel may offer you the "lowest possible price" on a new phone if you want one--of course, that means you'd have to pay money to replace what was basically a defect and not our fault.

Well John, here's a news flash. As of Feb 06. Sprint/Nextel changed policy on how they deal with "bad" phones. If they have a issue within 30 days of purchase, they MAY let you hand it over to a inhouse repair tech to fix. After the 30days, you have 2 choices. Send it back to the manufacture or activate a phone you may already have that was replaced by the junk you just purchased. Welcome to the world you and I created John. We DEMAND 100% customer service but want to pay nothing for it. Sprint/Nextel don't have to stand behind a product made by another manufacture, they just sell a phone that works (or in your case, doesn't work) on thier network. You could pay an extra 6 bucks and get the replacement insurance. Then, pluck down your deductable of $50 and walk away from the store with a new phone. Nextel has to be the worst service in the country. Maybe you will do a little homework next time you pick a carrier (and phone). Good luck. You may be looking for awhile.

Oh, forgot to mention, as I have had different carriers, Lady Dragonfly, good luck. If you really think Verizon or the others have a better way of handling your (or Johns) issue, you need to put the pipe down and go into rehab. I just came back from a week camping trip in the middle of michagan. We had people with nextels, verzon, t-moble and AL-Tel service. To my amazement, my trusty Sprint Sanyo MM7500 was the ONLY phone that worked 100% of the time, no roaming and even my EVDO features worked. During storms, everyone gathered around me to watch the radar of the approaching weax. I was amazed that the 2 verizon phones had such a problem staying up. One did roam some but for the most part, were useless. Hearing them also complain about "service" was funny since you see so many people blowing smoke and making threats about moving to other carriers when after they move, the majority wish they didn't. But to you, good luck and hope you find what your looking for. And no, I'm not a hornblower for Sprint. They work for me and since all customer sucks across the board, I get the most bang for my buck...

I'm amazed at the "facts" people present here. Telesales does not have the same policies on replacing phones that the retail store has for starters, and the whole 30 days from the time you get your phone rant was only about 10% based on fact. I, unlike the apparent others in here, do my homework. People should definately use the company that works the best for them... but ALL companies have customers that have bad experiences. In my area its mainly Cingular that pisses people off.

Anyway, onto my point. I have Sprint (had Sprint before the merger)... but the policies are the same on phones now (in corporate markets), so I will speak to that. In the first 30 days if you just want to exchange a phone for personal preference you have to go through the sales channel you purchsed it in. Phone issues should always go to a corporate repair store because they are the ones that can REPAIR or replace the phone. After the first 30 days if you do not have the service plan on your phone, you have the option of using your MANUFACTURE'S warranty or paying a repair fee (15, 35, or 55$) depending on what "level" repair it is. In the first 30 days though MOST issues are able to be taken care of no matter if you have the service plan or not.

Call me a "Sprint Koolaid" drinker if you want, but I carry a $650 phone and have never had a problem getting it fixed or replaced. My old Cingular phone was a completely different story. Like I said, use the best company for you, but don't rant about YOUR problems. Tomorrow it will just be another person that didn't get what he/she wanted ranting about another company. They can't make everyone happy....

If you spend $650 on a phone, it better not break...

You would hope, but alas... thats why I have insurance...

John, I can confirm that what you;ve described is indeed "FACT". If I didn't know better, I'd swear you wrote this stuff describing my experiences. I have, alas given up and decided to ride out the contract. I, too, purchaced over the internet, and after multiple efforts to get satifaction, I went to a Nextel store, stood in line for 20 minutes (LONG minute as I am phyically handicapped), only to be told that that they could not help me...not even politely at that. My calls get dropped 2-3 time a week.My calls to Nextel got dropped. Further, and I do not mean to come off racist, but I talked to so many folks at Nextel who could not enunciate English, about a communications problem no less, that I often hung up the phone in frustration. I believe in quality customer service. When did that become unrealistic? I will bide my time until I can get back to CIngular and never leave again.

tc1uscg: I'm actually thinking of switching over to the Sprint side. Before reading your post, I didn't know that there was any difference in their service area.

Actually, I've never had a problem with Nextel's customer service.

I had a simiar problem today. I had an i275 for just around 2 months and the earpiece quit working. I went to the store thatI purchased it from and they informed me to go to the local "warranty" store. I was informed that this is the only store in the area that can handle warranty claims. Because my phone was over the 30 day mark, I could either pay the store $35 to replace the phone or do an express service with motorola with me paying the shipping and waiting up to 5 days (this including the weekend). After about an hour in the store with the rep on the phone with motorola confirming the defect. Everything was finally covered free of charge. Other than the time I was pleased to get everything taken care of. As far as the service - no complaints.

Add Texas and Florida to the Droped calls as well as crossed calls!!!!

nextel is the best phone service out there. if you wanna know why your service doesnt work its becasue of the coverage area. the phone... duh you would have to send it to motorola... why because they manufacture the phone and the service agreement if you would have read it says that nextel doesnt have warrentees ... the producct manufacturer does. i love nextel and never had a problem with it and i think people should read about what they are getting into before they get into it and save them selves the trouble.

So what was the cause of the problem with your phone? Was it easily fixed and did you have to send it off to motorola or did you just have it fixed locally?

I just left a message on the sprint/nextel site to complain about their policy of "warranty starts on the date of manufacture not the date of purchase" That's right you can actually buy a phone that is already out of warranty. And isn't anybody else tired of the long methodical verbal instrucions we must tolerate whae retrieving messages or any number of functions. The purpose of this redundant prattle is only to increase our minutes used.