Hey all,

I purchased a T39m on eBay a month ago. The phone was new in the box,
had original wrap on it, etc. I wanted the T39 because I loved the
design. It is my first cellular phone. I got service through T-Mobile.

I have found the phone to be EXTREMELY unstable:
1. Will freeze every time I exit the WAP browser. This is EVERY TIME,
without fail.
2. Frequently when it sits in my pocket, the LED will begin to blink
red and the phone is completely unresponsive to keypad inputs
3. Very frequently it will not turn off when commanded. The screen
will go blank, but the green led will be solid green. If I hold the
power button it will finally turn off.
4. Option to change display background is simply not in my menus.
5. There was a misspelling in one of the menus too... "dialler" or
"dialling" or something along those lines.
6. Sometimes in a spotty coverage area, it will show full signal
strength. I know that the phone needs a restart as I know from
experience that this is a weak coverage area. Sure enough, after a
restart is shows the correct signal strength.

The firmware version is:

R2A018
CXC125137
R2A018

I called Ericsson to see if I could arrange an upgrade at the Minnesota
service center. They told me that the upgrade would cost $100. Is this
really the case?? I have heard about people getting their phone back
and then having to return it again. Is there a guarantee of some sort
on the repair work? Ericsson will not repair the phone under warranty
(although I think they should as it was new) because I did not purchase
the phone from a dealer and thus have no original purchase receipt.

Here is where the real fun begins. Just two days ago (after a month of
use and about 180 minutes of talk time), the phone starts up and shows
"NO NETWORK" on the display. I tried my SIM card in another phone and
it worked fine. Another SIM in my phone had no effect. From the web
I've discovered that this is very common with this phone!! Is this
thing a complete piece of garbage?

So now I have to get this thing fixed. I have too much money wrapped up
in it and I can't just throw it away. My frustration level is very high:

1. Sony Ericsson has not responded to my e-mail to their executive
escalation service questioning their upgrade policy. In my opinion, if
the phone was delivered with firmware that does not represent the
design-intent behavior, the end-user should not be financially
responsible to fix it. Imagine if MS charged users whenver the latest
Windows patches came out!!
2. I was a complete idiot to not take advantage of the reduced prices
when I got my plan. I was so excited about getting the T39, I didn't do
enough looking around. I just saw on Amazon that you can purchase a new
T-Mobile plan and get a T68i for free. If you don't take advantage of
the rebate, it is a mere $99. I paid $185 on eBay for this glitchy T39m.
3. T-Mobile tells me that if I want to get a new phone, I have to pay
an "upgrade" fee now. As I didn't purchase new hardware from them to
begin with, what exactly am I "upgrading" ?? The local T-Mobile store
did not help me at all. $200 to cancel service, $200 upgrade fee to get
a new phone (on top of the phone price itself). I have a phone that is
inoperative, so as we speak I am paying for service for which I have no
phone.

If anyone has a suggestion regarding an upgrade to this phone, I am all
ears. Now with the NO NETWORK problem (which I understand may also be
software-related?), I will almost positively have to pay the $100 to get
this fixed through Sony Ericsson.

If anyone is interested in buying this phone from me, it is like new
(only used one month) and I have the original box and all manuals, etc.
The original eBay auction was: 3018296496

Quality-wise, I'm far from impressed. Style wise, I thought it was the
best-looking phone out there with features I wanted including WAP,
bluetooth, infrared, and voice dialing. If I get a new phone, I'd like
the same features, but bluetooth is very hard to find from any other
manufacturer. Nokia has exactly two models and one is horrid with a
camera (expensive), the other is huge.

Pissed,

--Bill

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e-mail: change "11" to "ll"