Bowing to pressure from countless friends and family, nearly all of whom are customers, I finally made the switch to Verizon wireless this afternoon (see some earlier commentary on the topic here). Going against my better judgement, given the numerous complaints of build quality issues and its crippled bluetooth, I went with the Motorola V710. Verizon’s got a bunch of new EV-DO phones coming out in February, but they don’t work for me because they lack analog which I’ll need. So I walked out of the store to head home and begin the arduous task of inputting numbers, etc, only to discover that the display was reading “Invalid Battery.” Thinking it just needed a simple reboot, I powered it on and off. No deal. Opened the case and removed the battery – “Invalid Battery.”
After Google turned up a number of people with a similar problem but no solution, I called Verizon. I got passed from one department to another, and the second care rep, on hearing my story, gave me a small sigh and said “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to turn the phone in for a new one.”
It’s not that big a deal, because the store is right down the road, but the question is do I get another V710 or an LG or Samsung? Nearly all of Verizon’s phones are uninspiring, but at least the V710 has some Bluetooth. Either way, it’s not a great way to start out my year with Verizon.
