Are Palm Pre defects getting in your way?
Being on the cutting edge of technology is never easy. Whenever you buy version 1.0 you’re almost guaranteed to be a little upset by your decision. Many people may not remember but in California there were classaction lawsuits with people upset about the performance of the original Apple iPhone. It looks like Palm and it’s new Pre may not be far away from something similar.
I’ve personally never experienced the issues many other people are making claims about but it all jives. Palm isn’t making these things. Instead they enter into agreements with other companies (called ODM – Original Design Manufacturers) to pump these bad boys out with they try to take the money in as fast as the register can ring. Microsoft experienced something similar with the XBOX 360. Even though millions of people wanted to get one, there were so many stories about the units failing that Microsoft set aside about a BILLION dollars to address these claims.
None of this will make you feel better if you’ve started to see your Pre fall apart on you, but it stands to reason that it’s more about a bad batch than about Palm not caring about their customers. With their upcoming launch with GSM providers around the world and the CDMA release on Verizon the last thing Palm needs is news to make people reconsider picking one up.
If you’ve had problems with your Pre, please let me know in the comments. Depending on how many comments are left, it sounds good to write an open letter to Palm. Engadget has done it before and while it may not have worked it isn’t excusable for people to feel taken advantage and feel like they have no way of communicating their frustration.
The only saving grace is that the Pre comes with a one year warranty which should cover most of the issues people are seeing.
My Palm Pre was the greatest thing ever when I got it a week after it was released. But after 3 weeks of having it, i’ve noticed that when the phone is closed (sliding keyboard stored), the phone is can wiggle a little bit between the two halves. When the phone is open (sliding keyboard out), it doesn’t have that problem. Also I’ve had issues with the battery (or the way the power allocation is being monitored) Ever since I downloaded the latest OS patch (webOS 1.0.4), I’ve had problems with the life of the battery. I get a notification from the phone that I have very little battery power left (red icon) and that the phone will shut down soon even though the battery icon in the corner of the phone screen is green. The phone then shuts off shortly after that notification. If I try to turn on the phone again, sometimes i get a “?” inside an empty battery telling me that there is no more life in the battery. It is as if the OS is incorrectly reading the battery life and is performing what it normally should do or this brand new battery somehow mysterious is acting like it is many years old and can no longer hold a charge. I’m sure which issue is the correct one but when I have the phone on the charger, I do not have these issues.
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I was very excited for the Pre, and even after I got it I had high hopes, but the hardware is a piece of crap. I’ve went through 2 phones already, and my newest one just cracked right across the screen. The phone is literally falling apart in my hands, and I’ve been babying it since I got it. Definitely regretting my decision to stick with the phone (past my 30 days)…never going with a Palm again, this build quality is unacceptable. I hope others follow suit. I know Palm is in trouble financially, but if this phone is supposed to be your savior (and Sprint’s flagship phone), it shouldn’t feel like a $40 piece of sh*t. No other high end phone is like this. It feels like a cheap child’s toy. I should have waited for an HTC Hero. Definitely recommend the same for anyone else considering the Pre.
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Whatever the cause, my 32-day-old Pre would not boot the morning after I shut it down the night before with a 70% charge. Thinking a charge was the solution anyway, I popped it in the charger. About 5 seconds later a big fat ‘question-mark’ within an outline, on a black background displayed. No matter what I did, I could not get anything but the fat question mark on the display. And that could only occur if the Pre was connected to its charger. With the charger disconnected—-zilch—no display at all.
Although they did try, Sprint tech support was no help, They said this needed a Level 2 Tech Specialist. Would I like to be transferred to one? “Of course!”. Before I knew it, I was talking to a woman in Asia who told me she had seen my problem before and would fix it in no time. She had me remove and replace the battery. She had me hold down the power button while moving the switch to the left of the power button right, left, then right, again. She had me remove and replace the battery and then connect the Pre to my computer—-all while holding in the “up-volume” button. Nada.
During the two and a half hours that I was on the phone with her (”Amy”, as she called herself) I download the very latest Java Script (v 1.5, update 14) and a Palm tool called “Palm Web OS Doctor v1.01″ which she said would download and replace the ‘corrupted’ drivers on my Pre. Great, I thought! Only problem was that although the Palm OS Doctor downloaded, the drivers did not.
Finally, she declared: “Your device is defective! You have three options. 1) Report this to Sprint insurance and they’ll replace your Pre with a refurbished one (you have to pay a $50 deductable). 2) Send You Pre to us and for a $30 fee we’ll exchange yours for a refurbished Pre within 2-5 days. 3) Return the phone to us insured, using a trackable carrier, and we’ll repair and return it within five business days from the date we receive it.
It gets hairy, more phone calls, ignored demands to speak to a supervisor. Long story short, I finally received the SRO # required for option#3 and 5 days following its failure my Pre was entrusted to UPS for delivery to the Palm repair service in McAllen TX..
It’s irony that Sprint is depending on Palm to paint its new image when Palm hasn’t got enough sense to have an outsourced call center that can handle the job. I don’t know why, but I sense the final chapter of this saga is yet to be written. Wish me luck, thank you.
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I was highly anticipating the Pre mainly because of the webOS and how it just works so well in what I do everyday. I jumped off the iPhone wagon and it’s terrible 3G network to Sprint for the Pre. I didn’t even make it out of Best Buy without noticing 3 green dead pixels and 4 purple ones up top. Immediately returned, I got my second Pre and took it home. Then the splotches at the bottom began happening, and there were 2 dead pixels. I did some research and decided to stay with the iPhone until the bad batch had passed.
3 months later I attempted at the Pre again. Third phone was taken home and went a day before it started becoming very “loose”. The sliding top was budging in directions it wasn’t supposed to, thus getting it caught as I try to thumb the screen up to reveal the keyboard. And.. what do you know, dead pixels. Out of nowhere. Returned the phone, got another one. Number 4 looked great until I began charging it, and the area of the screen closest to the mini USB connector began discoloring (probably due to heat) and splotching (like the second phone). I decide to give it one more shot, and the fifth phone didn’t even make it to my hands because it was spider-cracked right out of the box. I ported my number back to AT&T, still have my iPhone 3G, and will wait until Palm creates a quality product for their webOS. If there’s anything to be learned from Apple, to those who seek to bring it down in the realm of smartphones, don’t rely on crappy manufacturing lines to save a buck. It’s the same with laptops as well. A cheap-ass Dell, though a huge name, is nowhere in range of the sleek and perfectly honed Macbook. It’s not aesthetically pleasing because it wants to be, it just makes sense that it is and it works, from the components to the screen to the enclosure.
Maybe the Palm Pixi will be the one even though it looks just as brittle. But rest assured I am 100% done with the Pre.
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I held on to my Pre for exactly 2 weeks. While the WebOS looks interesting the defects in the hardware caused me to give up and go to ATT for the iPhone. Happy I did.
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The palm pre turn out to be a great phone……….for the first 30 days. My keyboard stopped working, the ringer notification won’t stop popping up at the bottom of my screen, and my ear piece works when it feels like it. Don’t waste your money.
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I have a palm pre and my girlfriend has an iphone. Her dad was the vp of att and always talked crap to me now he works for sprint and gave his iphone to my girl. But we all now no the better phone the pre . ….. He knows it and so do i
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Just sliding the pre closed would cause it to turn off. I went through 2 of them, same exact issue. Placing a little piece of plastic inside the battery cover is not my idea of fixing a hardware defect. Sprint denied that any other users had this problem (bullshit). I asked them to give me a different model (anything but the pre), they said no. I dumped Sprint after being a faithful customer for many years and got a T-mobile Nexus One. OMG, this phone is AMAZING!!!. After comparing the palm pre to the Nexus One, the palm pre should be sold at a garage sale and not in any reputable store. Even the IPhone does not compare to the speed of the new Nexus One. Sure the Iphone has over 100,000 apps and the Nexus One only has around 16,000 or so but seriously, who the hell has that much time to even use more than 100 apps. Google is the future!!! Iphone can be a close second. Palm Pre, FORGET ABOUT IT!!!!!!!
PS, stop making excuses for the palm pre and just accept that the hardware is a piece of crap!!!!!
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Kat Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 7:47 PM
I am on my 3rd Pre. The first one was replaced within 5 days. The second was just replaced four days ago. The same problem as you. The first one would shut off even if I very gingerly slid it shut. The second one would just die wherever it was shut, and at first I thought it was my battery. However, removing the battery and restarting it showed the batter at 75% or more everytime. I took it in and the tech had some lackey give it to me and tell me she reset it. Well, I already did that and refused to accept it back. He told me that the tech said I was doing something wrong. She suggested that I turn the phone off when I remove the battery. That’s not when the problem was occurring however. It was turning off on its own. I wasn’t removing the battery whenever this problem was happening. [Another problem my second phone had was when I was trying to put in my password for voicemail. The screen would flash between completely black and the dial pad. It was such a pain. Also, when I synced my music, only 3 out of every 5 songs would actually play. So far I have not put music in my 3rd one, but my screen no longer flashes.]
Anyway the lackey then told me I didn’t have insurance and I told him I am aware it is a defect and to fix it. He then went and got the tech for me. She then tried to blame it on my battery. But my husband and I have the same phone and have used the same batteries depending on which one was fully charged at the moment and he never had this problem. (we always purchase extra batteries for whatever phone we currently use) When that tactic didn’t work for her she gave me a new phone. Here is the funny part…with this replacement I was not given any type of receipt. I know they have to put me into a new model next time, but I question if not getting proof will become a problem. I too have been a premiere customer for years. Is it any wonder that Sprint is in trouble?
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I love my pre but recently the ear piece stopped workin. when i make a phone call i have to use the speaker phone or head phone jack. is this a defect? and if so what can i do to get it fixed?
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