SAMSUNG INSTINCT VERSION 1

I am going to get right to it since I have been away for a while. The Samsung Instinct mobile phone is AWFUL. I purchased this phone in January because we just moved back to the states and we needed a phone. I had a Sprint phone in the past and never had a problem, also both of my younger sisters recommend this phone to me so I looked a the features and my husband and I agreed that we would get this phone.

For the first few weeks the phone was fine, I loved it and then it happened. I was on the phone with my sister and I could hear her but she could not hear me. So there I am in the car with the family yelling into my phone "Felicia, can you hear me, I can hear you can you hear me, can you hear me now? I will call you when I get home since you cannot hear me." This was when I knew that this phone was going to give me trouble. The next week the screen began freezing up on me and I was not able to access the Internet. I would have to remove the battery in order to get back to the main menu, it was a mess.

I know what you are thinking, why didn't you take the phone back if you were within your 30 day return window? I am glad that you asked. The Instinct has some features that we needed at the time. As I stated earlier we just moved to Washington State from England and we were not familiar with the area and the phone has GPS. It also has a "live search" feature that allows you to speak into the phone, tell it what you are looking for and it will locate it for you and give you driving directions to it. This is a great feature as we were looking for a church home.

So, we kept the phone and with every passing day things got worse. The battery lasts for 4 hours if you do not use the phone. Should you be inclined to use the phone for whatever reason you will only have 2 hours of battery life. The Samsung people knew that the battery was garbage so they give you an extra one with the phone. As the weeks went by calls were dropped all the time, no one could hear me when they called and some calls were not getting through. Oh, did i mention that the phone only charges when it feels like it?

I decided that I was going to contact Sprint and see if they would help me with this issue. I went to the store where I purchased the phone and told them of my troubles. The sales rep was very nice and told me to go to one of the retail stores and let them know what the problem was because her store was a satellite and they were unable to assist me. I did as she told me and got nothing. The sales rep at this Sprint store could care less, he said "if you want to upgrade it will cost you $200." I said "I don't want to upgrade I want a phone that works. I will even down grade, I don't need a smart phone." His response was to call Sprint customer service and have me sit on hold for 6 minutes and wait for a representative to tell me that she could send me a refurbished Instinct. I declined to accept this offer and asked what the consequences would be to terminate my contract since they would not give me different phone and was told that I would have to pay $200.00.

This experience has been frustrating to say the least. I have since sent a letter to the CEO of Sprint detailing my awful experience. I figured it couldn't hurt to vent to someone that might be able to help me. I will be sure to keep you posted as the saga unfolds. I will say this, I do not recommend this phone because my sisters have since told me that they are experiencing the same problems that I am having so it is not a single incident.