Well, I finally got my 8525. Actually, I've had it for a little over a week and a half now. And I'll tell you, it feels great to have a PPC phone again.
Back in June I had taken out a policy on my 8125 with Safeware. Fast forward a bit to the end of October, I actually had to make a claim. Damn 8125 was in its stock "holster", and as I was taking off my jacket, it went flying off the belt. Landed on a corner, and pretty much went haywire. Buttons didn't work, clearing the storage didn't do anything, all sorts of weird problems.
Soooo.. Not more than 30 minutes after it happened, I was on the phone with Safeware making my claim, since the closest Cingular store wasn't open yet and I couldn't go get a temp replacement phone (the Moto C139 is a great temporary replacement phone, although it has virtually no features). I made my claim, and the agent I had spoken with advised they'd get a box out to me to ship the phone to their repair facility.
Phone arrived at the repair facility, and they pretty quickly determined it was not repairable. I watched the online tracking system that was available like a freaking hawk. After seeing though that it had spent a few days as having been diagnosed, but that was about it, I contacted the repair company about it, and then in turn contacted Safeware. They in turn contacted the repair company and had explained that it was not repairable, and that it was going to the claimes examiner for review.
Well, I'm normally a patient individual. But, after time, I do lose it. I figured two weeks tops for the turnaround time, maybe three. I mean, this is my phone, it's pretty much my life. I depend on it as part of my job. So I begin getting impatient and called to check on the status. Was basically told again that it was not repairable, and that they'd be issuing a check for the current going rate of the 8125 up to the amount covered by my policy, which in this case is $500. So, not thinking, I was like cool, and figured I'd have the check within the next week. Didn't happen.
So I called back again to check on the status, found out it was in their "sourcing" department or something like that, and that it generally takes two weeks before the funds get disbursed and mailed out. At this point, it's already been over a month, and I'm not real happy, but I figure okay.
Long story short, it took over a month and a half to get the check, which was for the full I amount I insured it for ($500). All communications on status updates were initiated by me. I don't believe I ever got a promised call back either.
My overall opinion about the whole situation is less than pleasant. The phone is critical to me for my job. I can live without it for a week or so if I need to, but over a month and a half is simply unacceptable. The lack of communication left a very bitter taste in my mouth. Now, it could be an anomaly, and others have had better experiences. Hell, I can't say mine was completely bad, as they did cut me a check for a new phone. But the service was not the greatest.
Anyway, once I received the check, I promptly went hunting for a replacement phone. I had figured that I'd upgrade to the 8525 since it was out, even though it meant spending a little in addition to the $500 since I didn't qualify for any upgrades or execption type upgrades. Found one, picked it up the next day, and I've been generally very satisfied with it. I feel whole again..
I have noticed a few minor and intermittent things, and there's also a few annoyances about it:
- Periodically won't resume from standby. Lights blink, has power, just doesn't want to resume.
- One annoying incident where it didn't want to turn off. Had to pull the battery on it to finally get it to turn off, much less stop decreasing the battery drain.
- Too many buttons now. The PTT button, the OK button underneath the wheel, the Windows and OK buttons on the front. I could live with it if they were all remappable, but by default they're not. I do have the PTT button remapped thanks to a user over on XDA Developers and their wonderful little app for it. I have heard rumors of another app that can do the same for the Windows and OK buttons on the front, although I do actually use those.
- The biggest annoyance for me: No hardware volume control, unlike the 8125 which did have it.
The no hardware volume control is truly the biggest gripe about the phone for me. I can live with the oddity of the headset jack being the same as the charging jack; the extra buttons and such. But talk about a killer..
Despite that one major flaw (well, what I consider to be a flaw), I definitely love the phone. The 3G speeds are quite impressive. The phone definitely seems much faster than the 8125 (although it has been over a a month and a half since I used one, so I could be wrong), and I like the overall feel of it better. The camera is actually pretty decent too.
Anyway, that's my rambling.. I truly am more excited about the phone, but I couldn't help but rant a little about Safeware. I'm keeping my coverage with them for my phone, but the policy I have on my laptop as well won't be renewed. Time to start saving some extra nickels and dimes in the event something like this happens again, then I won't be so dependent on the speed of the insurance company.
