Sprint Responds, Admits LG Rumor Issue, Denies Reason for Pulling

SPRINT NEEDS TO OWN UP TO IT’S SCREW UP. I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET ONE OF THESE PHONES. I AM BEING TOLD BY SPRINT STORES AND SERICE CENTERS THAT THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE KEYBOARD. THIS IS THE FIRST IN DEPTH REASON THAT I HEARD. I HAVE BEEN A SPRINT CUSTOMER SINCE 1999. IF THEY DON’T GET BETTER WITH THEIR SERVICE AND THE PHONES I AM SERIOUSLY THINKING ABOUT GOING ELSEWHERE. I HAVE TWO “DUD” PHONES NOW. THE MOTO Q CAN’T SEND PICS,DOWNLOAD RINGTONES OR TOO MUCH ELSE.

Added two children to my plan on 12-1-2007. Was told the phones were on backorder and would deliver mid December. Took two basic flip phones with assurance I could turn in when LG Rumor became available. Come mid December I was told mid January for availability, still with assurance that I could turn current phones in for exchange. E-mail today informing me that there are still issues, and offering a choice of two flip phones as options. I plan to advise that I will wait for the LG. Let’s see if they honor the price and trade.

There back in stores today so obviously you were wrong about them pulling them or else they wouldn’t be back so soon.

Tim, you’re wrong to jump to such a conclusion. In so many ways…

First, we never said Sprint halted sales of the device in-store. We said that Sprint decided to not take on further supply until the software issue was fixed. The “pulling” we were referring to was orders in queue to the manufacturer, not units on their way to the store. This is clear if you read our initial reporting on the matter.

The software issue was approved last week, and customers will now be presented with an over-the-air update released 48 hours ago.

There were actually two reasons these phones weren;t avaiable, there was a parts shortage on the LG end and more couldnt be manufactured, and the debugging program was left in the fiormware by mistake which if a certain combo of keys were hit the phone was erased and bricked. Sprint stoped shipment of the device until the updated version of the firmware could be loaded.

I own rumor and as in any new releases there may be a supply and demand issue. To no avail I would have to say that I am please with the profromace of the phone. I wish that it would have orginally can in more colors. I have check with my source and Sprint is to release a green rumor set to hit the market sometime in mid-january. When there is a quality phone release and it has the qualities that we as consumer look for there may be an issue with the supply. Reading the concerns all the blame was place on Sprint do you think that the manufacture of the phone should endure some of the concern also. reading other coments on the site If LG doesn’t have the equipment then Sprint can not sale the equipment. As stated above there are Black phones and there will soon be green ones. Waiting on LG to supply more white ones. You can always contact customer service if the store does not have the phone in stock….

The moto q. in order to be able to send pictures you will need to set it up through your microsoft out look. To down load ringer tones you will need to set the music thru you media option. It is not regular ringtones it has to be from the music store on the phone. If you have problems contact a tech to get the issue resolve or read the manual

My daughter’s Rumor has been plagued with this issue. It stopped working early December just days out of warranty. The first repair person we saw said to go to a different Sprint store. That store had a copy of an email siting the issue with the software and asked us to call customer service. Customer Service was unaware of the issue and spent an hour on the phone with me trying to fix the phone. The service person said to go to the Sprint store and trade in the phone and that we should have no issues or charges. Another trip to the Sprint store confirmed they have no Rumors anywhere in the Twin Cities. My daughter had to go back to her old, barely chargeable Sanyo. They said to call LG.

Today I finally got up the energy to call LG. They told me a new firmware update “V6″ was just made available 2 days ago. They tried the steps to update the firmware but we got the message “Sprint PCS Vision service not available”. LG told me to call Sprint Customer Service.

Sprint Customer Service has not heard about an update and can’t find anything in their files. Try reactivating the phone, can’t due to LG software issue causing no service.

So now I’m in a Catch 22 situation. Phone can’t get service because of software issue; can’t fix software issue because phone can’t get service.

I had time to write this because I have been on the phone with Sprint Customer Service for 50 minutes and counting.

T, the fix is the same for what I said to a previous poster, call your Local Sprint Store. Customer service will probably not be aware of the update, only the local stores.

Your local Sprint Store can tell you if they have the update in-store, to do an “over-the-wire” update. The update will be installed using their software terminal, rather than downloaded over the network.

Specifically ask the store if they have the V06 update for the Rumor, before trekking down to the store to get the update.

We have had 2 of these phones replaced. My daughter and I got one on the first day of internet release. Hers just quit 2 weeks into ownership and was replaced by Sprint. My phone was 45 days following receiving and had to be mailed to LG. ( they did replace free after waiting 2 weeks and aknowledged that the phone became locked due to keypad problem ) This has only been several weeks ago but I am now wondering if my 2 replaced phones are equiped with the firmware? needed to absolve the problem. I am also having a problem and am unable to receive calltones or music through the bluetooth. I am not really sure how it works but my teenage daughter who is savy states hers also doesnt recieve data from other bluetooth devices. Any ideas?

Thanks

So I have had mine since before they were available in the stores. I hadn’t had much trouble with it until… vacation. I turned it off when I boarded my plane and when I got to my destination and turned it back on I got a “Service Required” message on the screen and it was cleared of all data. It wouldn’t pick up service or anything. I used my Sprint Aircard in my computer to contact customer service and they said they thought it was becuase I put it through the x-ray machine. I call BS on that since 100’s of them go through those machines everyday and I am sure this would have not happened becasue of that. Besides… it still worked at the gate area after the x-ray machine. It was only after I turned it off during flight that it messed up. Sprint is wanting me to call the ‘insurance’ provider and have them replace it for $50 deductable. I think I am going to have to go into my local store when I get back and raise some you know what because I am not paying for a replacement phone due to a ‘known issue’, if indeed that is what is going on with my device.

All very strange. I used to swear by Sanyo phones and never purchased anything other than that brand. Now with this LG I am wondering why I ever strayed

Sabi, the best thing I can suggest is to print this article out and speak to an associate manager.

The eTicket Known Issues clearly say that ESRP (replacement) fees are supposed to be waived, make sure they check that when you go back to the store.

I did not know about this issue at all until I read this article. Thank God my phone is still working but I did notice some things it likes to do when it gets stupid. It will recognize all Bluetooth devices but as far as being able to send or receive files, it only does it with other LG phones. And I had had some times when i b chilling and the phone turns off and then back on by itself.

I just updated my firmware to V06. No one was broguth up the inability to get new games or ringers thru the my content folder. everytime i try , I get a message asking me for a handler. If i hit #1 I get an error url screen.. if I hit #2 my phone reboots - or freezes (then i have to remove the battery) .. anyone else have this issue? *** and I too swore by Sanyo — why oh why did i stray—

I work for sprint technical support, currently the latest firmware has come out, and you can get it manually going through the settings on the phone and requesting the update, it will take 5 minutes. or taking it to a store to have it uploaded. there is a push scheduled to be done on the phones but no date has been scheduled. this was probably the only major glitch the phone had, other than that, its a great phone

i am still having issues after update. phone restarts and screen problems. cant access content manager. very dissapointed

How do I set up my ringtones from my media player? Also how do I set up my pictures from my chip as screensavers? Can anyone help?

i just want to thank the people who have posted because i had no clue what was going wrong with my phone and about to give up untill i read all of the problems and the update thanks again

I’ve seen this addressed on various boards but never answered. While you can easily add MP3s to the Rumor’s “Music” folder, you can’t slice and dice by album (e.g., folders). So even if you copy in albums in separate folders, you get one flat structure to the whole thing. E.g., 10 albums x 10 songs each = 100 songs, alphabetized. A real problem if you copy in 30 albums.

I have the LG Rumor - White. I contacted LG Customer Support regarding my phone rebooting when in the Content Manager. They told me I would have to send my phone in and be without it for 2-3 weeks while their technician looks at it. They also told me that this is not a known issue. We also have the black Rumor and do not have this problem.

I purchased two LG Rumor one white/one black for my kids…All I have had is problems. It started just 3 months after the purchase. The black turned itself off regularly then the white one did the same. This was within a week of each other. Then the white one went completely skizo! The screen spazzed and off it went. The phone worked you just could see anything. Called LG and they sent me a new/I’m guessing refurbished one but within the first week back it is turning off at will. The black one has now become a regular turn off on its own. It is on its way back to LG for fixing. Although LG has been great I would not recommend the purchase of this phone. White Black or even the Green. If you do be sure to keep your old phone close so that you can switch them out between each visit to LG. Also, you pay shipping back and LG recommends it be sent registered. Cost from TX was $11.00.

I am having the same problem as Sabi … I have had the Rumor for almost 5 months and have never had problems. I was walking home from class tonight and my battery died. When I got home I plugged it in and turned it on and it gave me the “service required” message … all my info was gone! I did just recently get back from vacation where my phone went through the xray machine .. but millions do every day! Does anyone know what I should do? Thanks

I just returned from Sprint with my Rumor phone with this problem. After being on the phone with Tech Support they told me they couldn’t help me. The sprint store said I need to send it for service, they never saw a phone do that, but OOPS I didn’t carry a replacement contract. So you now can pay $ 280 for a new rumor phone. I have 20 months left on this contract! And the phone is locked with the Service required Message.

I got my black rumor two days ago and when i got to content manager it shut off and i called sprint and they had no clue what i was tlking about

I CANT EVEN HEAR MY RINGER AND MY VOLUME IS ALL THE WAY UP?!?!?!

About a month ago, i got the Rumor in green. i love it except the screen keeps going funky. blah. someone help me?!?!?!

Just to shine a little light on things.
The demand for the phone was very high which put a strain on inventory manufacturer issue with software was found (if you hit a certain sequence of keys on power up the entire memory was erased including the serial number) which could render the phone unrecoverable. Sales did not necessarily halt (It depended on where you were geographically) some markets that still had them in inventory sold them however LG was not shipping any more to depots. The issue was corrected and all “remaining” inventory was to be corrected by doing the Over the air update or using icss future dial to correct the software. And at this point in time (June 08) there is batch of rumors out with defective ribbon cables that is causing the screens to blank out, turn white, or just go nutty, as well as another software error that causes the phone to randomly power off when accessing the internet or some memory sharing functions (if you have a memory card you will be less likely to experience this issue).

Hope that was helpfull

Also if you have a Rumor with the “Service Required” issue regardless of whether or not you have a replacement plan they are required to swap the phone, if they don’t then you need to try a store obviously they aren’t in the know of things, find a repair center.
If you have issues with ribbon cable also go to a repair center if you have insurance and it should be fixed or replaced free. If you don’t call LG and schedule an RMA and find you a loaner phone or an old phone.

Manufacturer repairs take an ungodly amount of time, it may be more to your liking to pay for a repair at a repair center.

I purchased a Rumor for my daughter in December and since that time we have had to have it replaced 5 times and I am on my way there again today and have demanded a brand new phone…not a rumor. The 1st replacement, the screen would just go blank at odd moments. The 2nd it would not charge, the 3rd was for rapid cycling of turning on and off. The 4th was that the display went blank again, and when they got us a new phone, we turned it on in the store, the tech tried to do a software downgrade as hje said the new upgrade had a bug in it and locked the phoneup. The 5th time, was again for the display screen freaking out. Right now if it is slid open it works fine and you can see the screen, if you slide it shut the screen is dostorted. I am so sick and tired of this!I have been with sprint for more than 5 years, I have a total of 4 phones, if this continues it is more than worth it to me to cancel and pay the money to have them release me from my contract.

I got my Rumor mid december and have just replaced it for the third time..the screen would go blank and turn blank or white randomly and the only way to fix it was to take off the battery and put it back on. Then on the second one it would turn off whenever it felt like it…especially if I was inthe middle of writing a text and got a phone call…ugh third tries a charm hopefully!

well iv had the rumor for about a week and everything that u guyssaid u had problems with im having then my screen keeps going white then when i go to get a new aplication it says a handler is needed i dont even know what that is im like totaly confused please help

I’ve had my phone now for about 3 days and everything was perfectly fine until today. I always had service in my house regardless of where I was inside. But now anywhere I am i have no service whatsoever and when i do have service its only for a few seconds to a minute. I don’t know if this is the onset of these problems but I do know that I am going to trade my phone in before the end of the month.

This phone is awful but sometimes products don’t work. Sprint, however, has caused such misery with their inability to stand by the fact that they sold junk.

Worst phone I have ever owned. From day one I have had problems. After 6 months I have a broken charger, no speaker phone/ringer, phone randomly shuts itself off and back on, a broken battery clip, and now a white screen. I use this phone for business purposes and cannot be without. Since I don’t have the insurance Sprint’s only solution for me is to buy a new phone. All this after being a Sprint customer for 10 years.

Recently got the LG RUMOR (black) as a replacement phone. Noticed phone turns off for no reason…