Motorola® Renegade™ V950 Details at Sprint.com

[Boss_Hog]

2 hours later phone still not working. Girl from activations called me back and ordered a replacement but i have to pay for overnight shipping again. That pretty bad you sell a product that doesn't work from the get go and you charge for shipping the replacement. And they wonder why they lose over 300,000 customers a month!!!

[Boss_Hog]

ok at 9:30 this morning text messages came to my v950 and the phone started working. data services and dc were not working. so i call cs and they change my msid again. Magicly the phone and data start working.But still no dc this is at 11:00 am after an hour and a half on the phone. This rep comes to the conclusion that the dc was not applied for that line and she could not apply it because she was getting an error that the system was upgrading my device to call back later. So I ride around the normal areas where i work (rural areas i own/operate an hvac company) to check out the phones reception. So at 3:30 I call back to see if the update was complete and activate the DC. The first CS rep gave me the old line that there is no EVDO coverage in my area. So I tell her to transfer me to cancelations. She transfered me to account Services which is the next step above CS. This rep was very nice and had wonderful listening skills (lbecause I said I would Cancel all of my lines) .She checked about the updating of the line and said it was still upgrading/updating because some of the conversions have to be manually pushed and they run a skelaton crew on the weekends. I asked about the coverage thing and she said she checked the actual tower map not the map on sprint.com and that the towers in my area where ready for Qchat. She could not fix the problem herself but gave me a ticket number where she submitted to her manager for monday and that the problem would be resolved by tuesday afternoon. She also gave me 2 $50 credits for my next two bills. So we will see what does get accomplished.
Now for the real heartbreaking news . After riding aroundand using the phone side by side to an Ic502 .THE V950 IS NO COMPARISON IN RECEPTION TO THE IC502 OR ANY OF THE IDEN-ONLY PHONES I'VE HAD IN THE PAST TWO YEARS. It does not compare to my palm centro , the three sanyos I PREVIOUSLY HAD (8400,4200,7400) or the little piece of junk a500 samsung I had. In my home verizon, Alltel,and att have no service. Iden only has all bars.Ic502 has one bar but talks excellant. The V950 goes from one to none and is very distorted. And unlike all other Sprint Phones you can't switch it to roaming only just sprint and automatic. BY the way The Palm centro was the worst for reception before this one. So my end conclusion is that for me the ic502 is the best working nextel I have had for my area outside of my home . Every once in a while It will have walk-talk only But most of the time It has both. There is only 2 iden only towers in the 20 mile radius I am in most of the time so voice is in and out But the 3 cdma towers and the ic502 cured that. I am considering trading out the V950 for The Ic902 but i am skeptical because of the issues I had with the Ic602 with the dc off most of the time and read some where that the 902 had the same problem. Just tired of the 502 and i read that other users have tried the other qchats and they say that the 950 was the best one yet. If this is the best I am not wasting anymore time with qchat and would not suggest anyone else in rural areas to either. Thats bad that that was supposed to be one of the biggest advantages of qchat and it turns out to be worst. WAY TO GO SPRINT!!!! YOU SCREWED UP FOR THE LAST SHOT YOU HAD. THE BEST WAY FOR THAT GUY TO GET THAT 1MILLION $ BONUS CHECK IS TO LEASE A BUT LOAD OFF IDEN TOWERS FAST LIKE NOW!! Enough of that does anybody have any feedback on the ic902 vs ic502

[al904]

Originally Posted by Boss_Hog

does anybody have any feedback on the ic902 vs ic502

I have used both the ic502 and the ic902. In fact, my wife is currently using the ic902.

In my experience, the two phones provide the same service as far as connectabilty. The extra features (camera, etc) of the ic902 are the biggest difference between the them.

My problem with all the hybrids is the lack of roaming ability in the 850 mhz band. I spend quite a bit of time in rural areas of the southeast. Alltel has very good 850 mhz CDMA service in many of those areas, and Sprint relies on Alltel for roaming in many spots where the 1900 Sprint network is extremely weak or completely unavailable. With the hybrids, I would frequently find myself in areas where I could not make or receive phone calls. To make it worse in some of those areas, my ic902 would sometimes show that I was digital roaming, making me think that I had service. However, when I attempted to make a call, I would connect to Cricket and my call could not be connected because of a lack of roaming agreement with Sprint. I always had an uneasy feeling that I might not be able to receive an important call.

[Boss_Hog]

Originally Posted by al904

I have used both the ic502 and the ic902. In fact, my wife is currently using the ic902.

In my experience, the two phones provide the same service as far as connectabilty. The extra features (camera, etc) of the ic902 are the biggest difference between the them.

My problem with all the hybrids is the lack of roaming ability in the 850 mhz band. I spend quite a bit of time in rural areas of the southeast. Alltel has very good 850 mhz CDMA service in many of those areas, and Sprint relies on Alltel for roaming in many spots where the 1900 Sprint network is extremely weak or completely unavailable. With the hybrids, I would frequently find myself in areas where I could not make or receive phone calls. To make it worse in some of those areas, my ic902 would sometimes show that I was digital roaming, making me think that I had service. However, when I attempted to make a call, I would connect to Cricket and my call could not be connected because of a lack of roaming agreement with Sprint. I always had an uneasy feeling that I might not be able to receive an important call.

I live in the southeast also We are half way through south carolina on I-95 . My 2 years of using the 502 I think I dropped 4 calls I talk an average of 1300 min a month during the day and use about 1500 dc min a month and I am always on the road. But the problem I had with the 602 was the dc was almost always off. I swaped it out three times and had that issue with everyone. Keep in mind iden coverage is lacking in myarea but I only noticed that problem with the 502 when i was inside sometimes but no where near as much.I also notice that the battery life on the 602 was twice as good as the 502 with the same battery in it. Seems like moto tried to cure the battery problem of the 502 with making the DC less active are like it doesN'T check for signal as often. I know for sure that the 930 takes alot longer to find service once its lost than the 355 and the standby time on the 930 is extremly good . Thats were I got that Idea from. So I guess the question is does the battery on the 902 suck just like the 502.
I have to agree that Alltel has the best coverage here also. They have 12 towers wHere sprint has 3. But the 502 really worked fine for me.
Back on the v950 . AFTER USING IT MORE IT GENERALY HAS 1-3 BARS LESS THAN THE 502 AND 2-3 BARS LESS THAN THE SANYO 8400. Another thing I came across was that the 8400 usaully roams on Alltel but the v950 likes verizons 1900 band first. And here Verizon isnt much better than Sprint. I checked this by checking the frequency in the phone menu and dialing *228.And on Sprint coverage I found that there are some towers not supporting evdo and it will actually switch to a tower with little to no coverage further away when i was parked in front of a tower without evdo just because of the evdo. The 502 showing 6 bars v950 showing 0-1 bar. My wife was so excited when I told her that I ordered the qchat phone because she has kept her alltel on for the last two years for security reasons because the hybrids didnt support 800 mhz roaming and she thought she would be able to quit paying the extra bill and stop carrying 2 phones around. Now we are at a crossroads wondering which way to turn. I am as hardcore Nextel fan and user as there is I always get many many people asking me about Nextel service because they are interested in itand want it. I WAS hoping I could finally refer I dont know about 300 of my customers a year to it and numerious other people that just see me use it, but now I am lost for words and very dissapointed. Alot of my distributors and other contractors I work along side have Nextel I know for a fact wont be swicthing to verizon because of alot reasons including coverage So i wont be going anywhere. But I dont see It growing because of Qchat much and probally IT will get a little worse of a name because of Sprint's small Native coverage. I am going to switch back to the hybrids after tuesday.
BOTTOMLINE THE V950 SUCKS AND QCHAT WAS A 5 YEAR WASTE OF TIME . THEY BETTER BE ADDING IDEN TOWERS TO THE NETWORK LIKE THEY SAY THEY ARE IF THEY EVER WONT TO SEE THIS THING TURN AROUND..

P.S. USED I880 IN HAWAII ALONG SIDE ALLTEL , HYBRID , SPRINT , AND ATT .THE I880 KICKED SERIOUS *#*

[Boss_Hog]

well since this morning still no dc I was forced to buy a boost starter kit and pop in my 930 so I could stay connected with my workers. My experience today with the v950 wasn't much different. At about 3:30 will I was in an attic in the booneys. MY working wife hit me up on the I930 to tell me to call my father that he had been trying to get it touch with me for a while and keeps getting voicemail. So I pop out the v950 to call to conserve money on the boost card and its showing 3 bars roaming. Try to make a call and wouldn't go through. My helper that has a 502 was there with me his phone was showing 2 bars so he makes a test call to his voicemail and it goes through. So I switch the v950 to sprint only . It says no service. So I go outside to get a signal. I end up standing on top of my service truck to squeeze one bar off and make the call to my father . While I am on the phone with him a notification comes through that I have 4 new voicemails. I check them and they range from as soon as 10:32 to 2:45 pm. This is by far unacceptable. I was moving around during these times. I have never had any thing happen like this happen with any of my previous NEXTELS iden-only or Hybrids. Way too go SPRINT.

[Boss_Hog]

well since this morning still no dc I was force to buy a boost starter kit and pop in my 930 so I could stay connected with my workers. My experience today with the v950 wasn't much different. At about 3:30 will I was in an attic in the booneys working . my wife hit me up on I930 to tell me to call my father that he had been trying to get it touch with me for a while and keeps getting voicemail. So I pop out the v950 to call to conserve money on the boost card and its showing 3 bars roaming. Try to make a call and it wouldn't go through. My helper that has a 502 was there with me his phone was showing 2 bars so he makes a test call to his voicemail and it goes through. So I switch the v950 to sprint only . It says no service. So I go outside to get a signal. I end up standing on top of my service truck to squeeze one bar off and make the call to my father . While I am on the phone with him a notification comes through that I have 4 new voicemails. I check them and they range from as soon as 10:32 to 2:45 pm. This is by far unacceptable. I was moving around during these times. I have never had any thing happen like this with any of my previous NEXTELS iden-only or Hybrids. Wat too go SPRINT.

[AlexKidd]

OMG WOW, that's a terrible experience! I'm getting humerous visuals of you standing on top of your truck to make a phone call though. Thanks for the amusement.

I really can't help but think your phone has something seriously wrong with it. If your not faced with a deadline, you might try to get it replaced?

--Kidd

[Sean Holmes]

I had no problem activating the phone. THe voice calls were fine.However I stayed on the phone with customer service all weekend trying to get direct connect to activate. I spoke to numerous reps no one could get it to activate. I had one rep tell me that direct connect wasnt available in my area yet. That was the thing that pissed me off more than any thing because if you go on line the V950 is on the web site for my area. The other problem with the phone was every time I would watch sprint tv then exit the media player the front screen display stays on even if the flip is closed.This runs down the battery. I think it will take some time to get the bugs worked out of this phone,so until they do i will return the phone get my money back and maybe give it a month or so and try it all over again.

[sputnicstory]

Originally Posted by al904

Thanks for the info, sputnicstory' !

I think you are the first member of Direct-Connect.net to have the V950.

Did the Sprint store have extended batteries for that phone? It sounds like it needs one.

I took the BK10 out of my 602 and put it in the V950........(1500 MAH), works good! Got the big cover for the phone, it is easier to hold now, less likely I will drop it!.And the battery gauge hardly moves!

[mightymouseroc]

That is absolutely 100% correct!! BK10 does ffit and will operate the phone. You can find it on Ebay. Also, the extended battery Door can be found on Sprint.com, but not the BK 10 extended battery.