[8125, K-JAM, P4300, MDA Vario Software Upgrading] bdbx18:
I'm not in the habit of complaining about ne1's products but this one takes the cake. This short note is just to warn my fellow forum members:

- In Feb 06, I got a new HP Hw6515 phone. I bought a bunch of stuff from pocketpctechs, screen shields, stylus and these headphone adapters that allows me to hook up my 3.5mm headphones and jacks to the phone's 2.5 mm jack.

- I have an 3.5mm aux input on my car stereo also and pocketpctech's angled 2.5mm/3.5mm adapter allows me to use the phones mic when I'm on the phone.

- One day, I find my phone's audio totally silent. Sure, it's probably the switch in the phone's jack which may get stuck occassionally and as commonly reported in these forums as well.

- Alas, that is not to be. This time the tip of the pocketpctech's phone plug has dislocated and lodged itself in my HP's phone jack. All attempts to remove it were furtile.

- The end result was a whole bunch of hassle, the phone can only be used with a bluetooth headset since that's the only thing that will bypass the phone's speaker output.

- I requested for a Cingular warranty replacement and they sent me a refurbished one. I was ticked off about the replacement but subsequent phone calls to Cingular did not yield any progress in getting a new replacement unit.

- I decided to sell the replacement refurb to a friend at a $200 loss.

- I called pocketpctechs and told them about the adapter, they apologized and sent me a replacement promptly.

- I then went out and bought a Cingular 8125.

- I was informed the mic won't work using these pocketpctech adapters with the 8125 but (a) I already have them and (b) the angled design places less stress on the phone jacks.

- Well, guess what? On week two, I took a call one evening and could not hear anything. That's right, I had earlier on, used another pocketpctech adapter, this time was the one in the car on my commute home. To my horror, I discovered the end tip of the pocketpctech adapter in my car was missing!!

- I attempted to remove the tip with an assortment of tools, screwdriver, wire e.g. to no avail as the whole plug itself was starting to loosen up.

- I later found out that one can access the plug from the battery compartment but at this point the plug was messed up.

Post-mortem

- I used the warranty service again and yes, I received a refurb one as well.

- I searched the boards for similar issues but have only seen one mention where the 'tips' may come off. I can only guess that with bluetooth, using the headphone jacks may not be too popular so folks may not have encountered this phone yet.

- I called pocketpctechs just to inform them about this 2nd incident. They asked me what I would need and I told them I don't want ne thing but just wanted to let them know so others don't suffer my fate.

- BTW, the $3 stick adapters I bought from a local electronic store are working dandy.

- The next day, I decided I will keep and use the refurb replacement one since it looks fairly new.

- I emailed pocketpctechs and requested for (a) replacement phone adapter (this time I will yank and pull to make sure it don't come off) and (b) a replacement write shield (except I would like the clear model).

- The following is her reply to my pain and suffering. Like I keep busted adapters lying around! If and when Cingular sends me a bill for repairing the phones after they discovered the tips lodged in the phone jacks, I'll be forwarding them on to pocketpctechs. I would be nuts to send them ne more money!

"We will send you one more PPCPADPT11. However, we will need you to send back all the faulty adapters you have received from us so we can submit them to our manufacturer. We need to have the faulty adapters back in our office before we can send you a third replacement. We have been making these adapters for years and never had this complaint. We need proof to show both my supervisor and our vendor so we can justify sending you three replacement adapters. Before we send you a third replacement, we will have our head technician inspect and test the adapter. It will not be faulty.

We will not be able to send you a C2 WriteSHIELD to replace the AG you orignially ordered. We can only send you what you ordered. If you would like a C2 WriteSHIELD for your Cingular 8125, you will need to pay for one. Please advise. "