Courtney and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Phone

November 29, 2014 4:56 PM

I need a new phone, because I am about to go Office Space all up on my Galaxy S3 right now.

Seriously, this phone was forged in the fieriest pit of Hell. It suffers from extreme genophobia - every time I touch it, it dies immediately. I can't make calls, can't use apps, etc. It's currently on life support, being plugged in at all times (even though it doesn't hold a charge or sometimes even register a charge is occurring).

I just want a phone that'll actually work. I've been looking into the iPhone, but my family is super anti-Apple products. I, however, have always had a deep interest in them, despite my knowing basically nothing about them. I always hear mixed reviews, and I could see an iPhone working gloriously for me, since I've had a Macbook Pro for the past year and a few months.

My contract with Verizon is technically not allowing a phone renewal until March, but I'm curious if there's any possible way to try and expedite this process to as soon as life will allow it. I am so sick of this demon phone.

Suggestions, anecdotes, and pretty much any support would be greatly appreciated. Not sure if a new phone is even a possibility.

posted by ourt to Technology (4 answers total)

So did your phone work previously and doesn't now? You could try doing a factory reset on the phone (after backing up any data on the phone you need) and buying a new battery. The battery may just be going. That would probably be your cheapest path.

If you need to buy a phone soon you could buy one used on a site like Swappa and activate it, assuming it's a Verizon phone.

In terms of what phone you should buy, go with whatever makes you happy. In my experience most of the people who are sick of Apple phones aren't the right audience for them, and the same with Android. I personally use Android only because Apple interfaces do not work correctly with my brain. To this day I can barely function on an OSX machine.

Personally I got off Verizon earlier this year and onto a prepaid carrier and it's done wonders for my piece of mind. Goodbye 100$+ monthly bills, goodbye contracts.
posted by selfnoise at 5:05 PM on November 29, 2014

If you're looking for low-cost without an upgrade being available on your line, you can either buy a used Verizon model on swappa as selfnoise suggests, or even buy the Verizon version of the Moto G outright for less than you'd pay on contract for a new flagship phone. The plus side there is that it's actually new, not just new to you so you should have fewer problems. And even though it's a low-cost phone, it will probably end up being just as responsive as your S3 has been lately.

There's nothing inherently wrong with the iPhone - if you're already a Mac user and are using the newest version of OSX comfortably, you'd probably be able to adjust to iOS easily enough. You should either go to a Verizon store or call and ask about an early upgrade to the iPhone 6. I've heard that carriers have been a bit more generous with early upgrades to get people onto the new iPhones and new flagship Android phones.
posted by trivia genius at 5:27 PM on November 29, 2014

I have the same phone and had the same issue. A new battery solved the problem.
posted by smashface at 5:42 PM on November 29, 2014

If changing the battery doesn't fix it, the problem is most likely with the jack, which may be a fixable problem if you can find a good repair shop. If it's not just a power/charging issue, have you upgraded the OS recently? They just did a big update a month or two ago, so if you're still running the old one you may be hitting problems from that. I have an S3 myself and started running into issues as well, but updating fixed everything.

Also, a note on carriers, T-Mobile supports those phones, has no contracts, and has excellent coverage in most areas. They also have good deals on getting new phones whenever you want them. Just sayin' :)
posted by ananci at 6:20 PM on November 29, 2014