Database Develop

[Q] Returns through Radio Shack

I recently purchased my Captivate through Radio Shack using my upgrade an re-upped for another 2 years. Like a lot of folks I too am having problems with random shut offs and poor GPS performance so I'm contemplating bringing it back. I can't live with a phone that shuts off randomly. I'm not sure I want to get another Captivate. Not because it's not an awesome phone because it is, but more to do with the fact that it doesn't appear like there's any solutions to these problems in the near future.
My question is if I return it what are my options for a replacement from Radio Shack? Another Captivate (obviously but how will it perform?) the Aria which my wife has but is too small for my taste, the Backflip (no way) or ??? RS doesn't carry the Xperia or iphones. If I flat out return it for my money back and just stick with my Nexus what is the deal with my contract? Null and void or am I stuck? Can I return it to a regular ATT store and get another phone there? I went with RS because the Captivate was $50 less than through ATT.

Honestly I think if you get an exchange you have a very good chance of getting one that will work right. The GPS issue will get resolved but in the meantime its really not as big of a deal as everyone frets over.
You cannot take the phone to ATT for a different one because they will know that you didnt buy it through them and therefore wont take it back. The other phones you mentioned that RS had are garbage compared to the Captivate.

bsinc1962 said:
I recently purchased my Captivate through Radio Shack using my upgrade an re-upped for another 2 years. Like a lot of folks I too am having problems with random shut offs and poor GPS performance so I'm contemplating bringing it back. I can't live with a phone that shuts off randomly. I'm not sure I want to get another Captivate. Not because it's not an awesome phone because it is, but more to do with the fact that it doesn't appear like there's any solutions to these problems in the near future.
My question is if I return it what are my options for a replacement from Radio Shack? Another Captivate (obviously but how will it perform?) the Aria which my wife has but is too small for my taste, the Backflip (no way) or ??? RS doesn't carry the Xperia or iphones. If I flat out return it for my money back and just stick with my Nexus what is the deal with my contract? Null and void or am I stuck? Can I return it to a regular ATT store and get another phone there? I went with RS because the Captivate was $50 less than through ATT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AT&T has no other phones that can even compare to the captivate (besides the xperia or iphone like you said). Radioshack carries both of them via direct2u (ask an associate about it) which just means they ship you a brand new phone directly to your house for free so if you really don't want the captivate again you can pick one of those instead.
you have 30 days from the date you got your captivate to back out of the upgrade and un-extend your contract. After the first 30 you are stuck with the renew of your 2 year contract. you cannot return the captivate anywhere else besides radioshack (can be any radioshack).
Options:
*exchange it for another captivate (30 days to exchange for any other at&t phone and 90 days exchange for the same phone if defective)
*return it and have the upgrade reversed and get an xperia or iphone (both suck in my opinion, iphone 4 has lots of problems and xperia x10 only has android 1.6 with no update in sight)
*return it and have the upgrade reversed and go back to your nexus one
I work for radioshack so this are your actual options :/...good luck with your decision

Thanks for the input, I appreciate that you took the time to respond.

[Q] Advice on the Captivate....refurbished ?

Thinking of buying a "refurbished" at&t captivate. does anybody have any advice to if the device is worth buying if it is refurbished, if any of you guys have bought it that way..and also is it really worth it in att network or should I be warned and wait till MARCHH! to switch over to another carrier ?
currently have a iphone 3g but i really want to switch over to android

Mine is a insurance replacement so it is refurbed, have had other refurbed phones and haven't had any problemss out of either. I love the phone itself. Go to any sub forum and you can tell the phone has gps issues, some worse then others. This is my 3rd (first couldn't go into recovery, and second was lost), and gps is worse then all the previous ones. Even with the problems, I still wouldn't give this phone up. Probably because I love the hardware and its my first android device and apple wasn't a choice for me. As for the network I hadn't any problems with att since 2004. I'm sure that depends on you location tho.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Two weeks ago I bought the HTC Aria with rebate for $29. Then another employee wrote saying they wanted to upgrade their phone, and wanted the Captivate. I looked online and saw that it was $299. A few days go by and he agrees to the price, and when I go to order it, lo and behold ATT has refurb for $50 each! I bought two, one for him and one for me . I like the aria and it is now my backup, but I love the Captivate and for $50, it's hard to go wrong.
tl;dr, buy it.

Did the refurb unit have any signs of use or scratches or anything? I might get one soon too.

Go for it..it's a great phone. Just make sure you can check it out in person first,or can return it if broken.
Mac

I got a refurb.
And it's perfect. Looks brand new. And no problems

I have a refurb......... no major issues. One thing to look for though.......... I got my first one 4 days ago, worked fine, but after being on for a little bit the battery went completely dead after being on standby for 30 min. yeah, something was wrong with the battery, on top of that it would randomly exit me out of screens.
turned out they sent me one that had NOT been fixed yet, their boo boo. They sent me out a new one and I got it today. This one looked brand new, all the stickers from samsung still on it and everything. Let it charge and turned it on....... no more issues.
It lags a little and the battery life REALLY sux, but those are issues with brand new ones also. I turned on my task killer and put the security level to low so that I could kill everything but non essential apps. Now the battery life seems MUCH better. It seems like this phone takes a long time to charge as well though. I think i wll just allow the battery to fully drain then plug it in, see if that will work, maber get rid of any potential battery memory.

Thanks for the help, appreciate it....I ordered it already and should get it in 2-5 business days so i will post back on my thoughts!
cant wait to start using the android OS!!!!

I am on a refurb now. I love this thing. No [hardware] issues at all.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

i have a refubished phone and its better than the new one I had

I got a new Samsung Captivate and it keeps rebooting on me at random and the keys (especially back key) are really bad. They dont recognzie my touch half the time unless I press really hard on them.
My question is....if I get a replacment how will I be able to tell if its a refurb or not?
Are the refubs typically better since they have had more extensive testing?

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

with anything there are defect but these phones are built like a rock and if you think about it, if there is a x probability that a device has a defect the probability that it has 2 is x^2(in theory, obviously the nature of the defect factors in) so if the phone had a defect that was fixed there is a pretty slim chance that it will be defective after it is repaired.
i wouldn't worry about a refurbished phone, there may be cosmetic damage ect. but i would recommend this phone to anyone on build quality alone. wear and tear related problems should be minimal. id say go for it.

I had 3 refurb fuzes and 2 razr9s. Only real problem you have to worry about is physical defects. Hinges mostly. If there is a software or hardware problem you can send it back.
Edit: you can also get insurance on an unused refurb through at&t
From a phone on an app

Any one who has replaced a phone using insurance or warranty thru ATT is most likely using a refurbed phone. I have replaced every phone i have ever had in 10 years with ATT due to my being really hard on phones at work and all the replacements have been refurbed. I personally have never had an issue with a refurb, they all lokked and performe like new. I actually just got my cappy a few weeks ago and ordered the refurb cause i knew i would end up with one anyway.( and got lucky in doing so and got a batch 1007 phone so my 3button download mode doesnt get wiped.)
Works Perfecly and only set me back $50

I messed up my first captivate. Was able to return it through warranty and got a refurbished unit. I have been using it for 3 months with no issues. Of coarse there is no guarantee
Captivate
Cog 2.2

[Q] Question. returning phone to bell

Hello i have a bell galaxy s and have had a lot of problems with it. I've had it for 4 months and it has gone it for service twice and is f#@kup again after havivg it back for 4 days. Has anyone had any luck returning a phone after this length of time and if so how did you do it? Even a trade for a brand new one or a desire z.
Thanks

I assume it's for the internal SD card?
Honestly, this would be my approach (2 times in 4 months in for repair!!):
1. Go to Bell store with receipt (if possible) and phone
2. Demonstrate that the phone is once again not functioning
3. Remind them that you got this back 4 days ago from repairs
4. Ask for a new one on the spot. No more waiting for repairs.
5. If they don't comply, get the store manager. Re-explain the situation.
6. If they still don't comply, remind them that a Rogers Wireless/Wind (or whatever carrier you choose) mobile location isn't too far away, and that being a highly dissatisfied customer with Bell selling and returning defective products isn't very motivating to keep you as a customer
7. Enjoy your brand new phone! (Hopefully).
I'm usually very aggressive in these kinds of situations so if I attempted this the police may need to drag me away, but honestly if you just got it back I wouldn't tolerate that bulls**t.

sorry to steal thread
but I dont have receipt since I brought it off craigslist..
Any tips?

Well i flashed a new rom and it seems to be working now so not sure what happend but im getting a little sick of having to carrie a spare cell around because i cant trust my galaxy.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I think full recall needs to be implemented. This is obviously a wide spread issue and Bell needs to step up to the plate.

[Q] Got Tab-Won't boot-Exclamation point & triangle

Apologies if this has been addressed but I have been trying on and off to get this going all week now with no luck.
A friend sold me a "dead" AT&T Galaxy Tab for a good price that he got from someone at work who tried to flash it to make voice calls.
The Tab starts up with the Samsung GT splash and plays a little melody but shows no video at all. All I can get it to do is show the phone--yellow triangle + exclamation point--PC screen. It will power off if the power button is held down.
I assume it's the victim of a bad flash but I don't know if it's truly bricked or not--I am new to Samsung ROMs and GSM devices in general.
Perusing the forums here revealed Roto's stock AT&T firmware as well as the links to Odin 1.7 and Heimdall 1.1.1. I assume I need to do a full reflash of this thing but I didn't want to get too adventurous out of fear of making the problem worse than it is already so I haven't tried to flas anything yet. I fiddled around and got the proper drivers installed from Samsung and Odin shows the yellow box on the far left.
I am fine with getting this thing back working on AT&T stock firmware for now. I will then play with it and if I like it, I'll look at getting more adventurous with ROMs on it like Overcome or CM7.
Many thanks!!!

It can be recovered.
Get Odin from samfirmware.com, find the p1_hidden.pit (its in the forums somewhere) and download a Roto rom and flash them
That should bring the life back into your tab.
Sent from inside a whale.

This happened with me as well. For some reason odin was failing, only took me 30min to turn the tab off and on for it to work with odin
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

Well, after a bit of fiddling with the Tab and Odin, I am glad to say I got this sucker re-flashed. Whew! Time to start playing with it.
Quite impressive little device, I must say, especially for what I paid for it. MANY thanks to Ganj for the quick advice.
One more quick question:
I'm not an AT&T user and this thing didn't come with a SIM card. Can I just buy a regular AT&T 3G SIM from E-Bay (for a buck or whatever) or does this one require a specific prepaid and/or data-only AT&T SIM? Can I just activate a regular AT&T SIM under a prepaid plan on AT&T's web site?
I will use it on wi-fi 99.9% of the time and have no interest in using the Tab for Texting or voice regardless of ROM, but it would be nice to have 3G data "just in case" while traveling. Thanks again!

hkklife said:
Well, after a bit of fiddling with the Tab and Odin, I am glad to say I got this sucker re-flashed. Whew! Time to start playing with it.
Quite impressive little device, I must say, especially for what I paid for it. MANY thanks to Ganj for the quick advice.
One more quick question:
I'm not an AT&T user and this thing didn't come with a SIM card. Can I just buy a regular AT&T 3G SIM from E-Bay (for a buck or whatever) or does this one require a specific prepaid and/or data-only AT&T SIM? Can I just activate a regular AT&T SIM under a prepaid plan on AT&T's web site?
I will use it on wi-fi 99.9% of the time and have no interest in using the Tab for Texting or voice regardless of ROM, but it would be nice to have 3G data "just in case" while traveling. Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use t-mobile, so I can't speak 100% on the AT&T topic, but yes, all you would need to do is take it to AT&T, or the website, and activate a data plan for it.
Good buy, and even better buy now that you got it working. Good stuff, great to hear stories like this.
Just because I'm curious, what did you pay for it?

Yup, thanks again to everyone for helping me figure this one out.
I was originally planning on waiting for something like the HTC Flyer or a 7 "next-gen" tablet running Honeycomb but when this offer came along I just could not pass it up, as the asking price was just $250 "as is" and the unit is in mint condition cosmetically and included the charger and USB cable. I popped in one of my spare microSD cards and after getting this thing reflashed, I am all set!
I love the Galaxy Tab's formfactor, even more so than my Nook Color (which is now gonna go up for sale soon), so I figured I'd take a chance on a supposedly bricked device. And I'm glad I took that chance, as it let me "graduate" to a GT from the NC.

just a warning: there have been reports of non tab sims (ie users putting the sim from their galaxy s into the tab) being forced to pay for the data they use on the tab. how do they know? roumers say IMEI

brilldoctor said:
just a warning: there have been reports of non tab sims (ie users putting the sim from their galaxy s into the tab) being forced to pay for the data they use on the tab. how do they know? roumers say IMEI
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T-mobile just prevents data usage if the IMEI doesn't match the data plan. Not sure about at&t, but seems doubtful... Now if your APN isn't right you can encounter extra fees...
Sent from my "better than an iPad" tab.

Saw one of these units for sale. The seller said that the service center told him that the board needed replacement. Is this true or can it just simply be reflashed using the instructions above? Thanks.

it very well may..
you'd have to see if it at least turned on, in any mode. water damage could cause board damage for instance.

It may be a locked bootloader and your friend tried to flash it.
Look at my other posts, I hax to have tje maonboard replaced!! Fortunately the service centre changed it under warranty
Good luck!
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

k3nnynapalm said:
it very well may..
you'd have to see if it at least turned on, in any mode. water damage could cause board damage for instance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The pictures show that it's turned on. It just has the PC to Triangle with an exclamation point to a Phone display. So it's promising right?

Upgrading to sgs2

I can get my upgrade for a new sgs2 for 199$ or get a refurbished one for a penny. I would like a brand new one but would like to save the money too? What would you do? How long would you think til it goes down in price? I need opinions please.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I would avoid refurbished. It will be 199 till the new flagship phone is launched. Probably another Samsung device.
sent from cm7ed touchpad

Look around at other retailers, radio shack, best buy,newegg,etc. They can seta let price than att.

Would I still have a warranty? I saw target has it for 99.
mrhaley30705 said:
Look around at other retailers, radio shack, best buy,newegg,etc. They can seta let price than att.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Well, def have Samsung warranty. I would think the initial 90 warranty would be from the retailer where you bought it. I think. Call them up and see. What's the worst that happens, you pay $199?

I generally have a lot of faith in factory refurbished products. Generally, they have been used minimally. They were returned due to a defect, or simply because someone wanted something else.
Typically, they will be completed tested by the factory. If there are any defects that caused the return, they will be addressed . I generally look for refurbished and have always had extremely good luck in doing so. My current Captivate is refurbished. I bought it for $18.00. It is the greatest phone I have ever owned and the warranty is intact as if you bought a brand new phone.
Refurbished all the way!

I'd like to think refurbished would be like new but I too have a refurbished captivate after bricking my new old one. Everything runs fine but the usb door doesn't stay closed & is loose and the vibration doesn't feel/sound right like my girlfriend's new one. This is why I'm asking, just trying to weigh out my decision. I'm almost content enough to keep my cappy for a while but I'd really like to see how much better it is & why waste a perfectly good upgrade.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

From my experience buying new or factory refurbished is a lottery. You can get a brand new one and have issues on it as well as a refurbished and have a issues. But I can't say refurbished = more chance for issues. But thats just my 2 cents. I've had 2 captivates (new and refurb) and had no issues what so ever (except new had the sleep death).

I have a refurbished Cappy from ATT that has 0 issues (knock on wood). Got it for $10 last year.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

you get ATT warranty, even if u buy it from other retailers. I got my cappy from Amazonwireless.com last year and got replaced 4 times by ATT...

My wife and i both got refurb captivates about a year ago for free, with our upgrade. My phone has had no problems and I've flashed the crap out of it. Hers Has been returned once for the shutdown problem, but the problem showed back up after the w warranty (90 days) expired. Just putting it out there, so you know.

I think I'm gonna get one at target. After I figure out what is the easiest way to root it are there any precautions I need to take using tibu to restore my apps? I know don't do system settings but can I do my contacts & bookmarks?
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I got mine a week ago today. I had BestBuy match the SamsClub price. Got my AT&T Galaxy S II (i777) for $98.88.

Galaxy S III
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium

b-eock said:
Galaxy S III
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I'm on this bandwagon, too. After seeing the battery and signal issues with the Vexus, I have no intention of jumping to Verizon. By the time the Galaxy Nexus is available on AT&T, Samsung will probably have announced the SGS3 (looks like MWC this February). If it's not too long a wait, I'll hold out for it.

Will I be able to transfer all the stuff I need to the sgs2 using tibu without any problems?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I would assume so. But like always only user apps and no data to be sure.

ZephCr said:
Will I be able to transfer all the stuff I need to the sgs2 using tibu without any problems?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should be fine. The one problem that seems to pop up every once in a while is that after you transfer the apps to your new phone, you may notice that all the market links are busted. TiBu can repair them, but they still might not appear to work.
They are actually fixed, but need a little help to take effect. If the market links are still broken after you try to restore them in TiBu, just clear your Market data (settings/applications/manage applications/market and click the clear data button) and reboot the phone. The market links should be back to normal.