[G2 and Desire Z General] Jon C:
The following post is pure Nerd Rage, documenting what happened to me while trying to swap my faulty G2. You've been warned. ;)

So, my G2 had the old 'floppy hinge syndrome'...

After an hour of having the phone open and close when I didn't want it to, I decided that it was, indeed, defective. Just tilting the phone made the screen open or shut. Just my luck; this kinda **** happens to me all the time. Oh well, try, try again...

Dumbass 'Don' whathisname at T-Mo customer service told me to do the following:

Immediately send the defective phone back via UPS

Only pay for the cheapest possible options (no insurance and so forth), and T-Mo would reimburse me for the costs (which he quoted at $10)

Go to a retail T-Mo store to collect my replacement phone this very day

All I need to do is report back with my tracking number, and my account will be eligible for an upgrade again

Have T-Mo retail rep call CS to verify the online pre-order price and ring me out

Go home with a working G2 after a few hours of inconvenience (doable)

Sounds fine, right? Totally reasonable. These things happen, and CS will make things right; especially for a customer you've had for almost a decade. I didn't demand any freebies or give anybody ****; I just wanted what I paid for. I don't mind having to burn some gas and stand in line to get this fixed. It's annoying, but what can you do?

So, here's what really happened:

UPS charge was $15.48 (just burnt $5.48) -- T-Mo won't cover the cost of the package or tax (thanks, guys)

T-Mo retail store thought my story was insane, and I had to explain it to three different people

T-Mo CS failed to convince retail rep (didn't see that coming!)

CS wasted a half-hour of everyone's time, looking up things and transferring to supervisors, etc.

T-Mo retail manager walks in on the convo and mentions that she's "...heard there are problems with the hinges", as she sits around, texting on her BlackBerry

Said manager then tries to convince me to get a Vibrant, because the G2 is supposed to 'work' like that -- showing me how defective their display unit is as well, as she jerks it back and forth in a masturbatory fashion

I explain that they aren't supposed to be so floppy, and that I've already dealt with the Vibrant fiasco -- thanks, but no thanks

Manager says that the big selling point of the phone is that it "opens all by itself" -- HAH! :eek:

Retail dude says I should try the Vibrant again, and go to XDA to get the GPS fix

I explain that I already did all of that when I had the phone, but that it's still a broken POS

Said manager continues to belittle me over wanting a replacement phone and tries as hard as she can to make me just walk across the street to a Verizon store

CS isn't able to provide me with my replacement unit through the retail channel, because the retail manager refuses to honor the pre-order price (of course, because then you wouldn't make commission!)

Another G2 is being mailed to me, and probably won't get here until Friday

I could've just done all of this bull**** from the comfort of my own home

Verizon / Sprint are one step closer to winning me over

Phew! :mad:

Seeing as how these things often pan out, I'm likely to receive a second unit with the same problem. It's starting to look like having a solid hinge is more of a fluke than the floppy hinge (god, that sounds gross). I'm envious of those who have proper G2s. Consider yourselves lucky. :(

Next time I mail the G2 back, I'm not even going to buy a box to hide it in. I'll just cover the retail box with tape and mail it that way. ;)

After that, I guess it's time to reconsider the N1 developer phone, in all of it's faulty-digitizer-outdated-specs-glory. That, or the Incredible on VZW. :rolleyes:

Telcos are all equally miserable (well, maybe AT&T is a bit worse than everyone else), but god damn, T-Mo: get your **** together. They just can't seem to launch a phone without a bunch of issues, can they? Makes me long for an actual 'Nexus Two'...

Hopefully, phone #2 is fine.