vB Easy Archive - CDM8600 Voice dialing (VR) problems

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CDM8600 Voice dialing (VR) problems
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Posted by: thomprod

I am a Verizon Wireless customer who purchased the CDM8600 about 9 months ago. I selected this model because it had all the features I wanted and was offered to me free of charge. I have had problems with the phone since day two, and have read with interest many of the posts here. Here are the main drawbacks as I see them:

Maximum volume level when the Speakerphone is on is too low compared to other phones I have used.

The outside screen is very hard to read and, because of the Verizon banner, you can't always read the caller ID display on an incoming call.

There is no onboard "normal"-sounding ringer. There are a lot of musical and amusing sounds that the phone will make, but you can't set it to ring loudly with a regular ringing tone.

The voice dialing (VR) software is very buggy. About 50% of the time I use it, I get the error message "VR exiting". It's not a matter of the phone not recognizing my voice; it just doesn't ask for a name.

I am now on my fourth phone of the same model. I returned my original because the VR wouldn't work about 80% of the time and was given a replacement. I returned phone #2 and was told it needed new software. They didn't have the proper cable to install it, so I was given phone #3. Same problems, so when I returned phone #3, I really let them have it. They tried for an hour to fix it and wound up giving me another replacement (#4) with the new software already loaded.

I have seen some improvement in the VR application, but it is still not very reliable. Does anyone know if they are working on another software update? The last complaint I made to Customer Service resulting in them "allowing" me a special exemption to get a new phone only one year after my original purchase instead of waiting for two years, which is their normal policy. This one year wait isn't over until next March. Any ideas?

Posted by: thomprod

Bumping up...has anyone else had these problems? Any solutions?

Posted by: davieboynj

I've always told everyone that this phone is an average performer in all categories, but doesn't do anything well.

In terms of solutions, i can offer the following: if you get the data cable you can rid yourself of the ERI banner... I would rather not restate what has been stated already, but if you search you will find.

as far as the speakerphone, i found that if i hook the belt clip to my visor and use the speakerphone from there it works quite well. It may not be a great speakerphone, but at least its there. If you look at all the steps that people will go through to get their phones (most notably the 6000) to work as a speakerphone, people would appreciate that its there. I've also found it useful in really loud places to use the speakerphone as the normal phone.

as far as normal ringers, "Ring 1" isn't normal enough?

and the VR sucks. period. but i've never really cared. holding down a button is much easier.

Posted by: thomprod

Davieboynj, thanks for the reply.

I have no "ringer 1" on my phone. There is a "bell 1" but it is a series of musical notes, not a single ring tone like on all of my earlier cellphones. Also, since the speaker is inside the flip, the volume of the "ringer" is too low to hear in noisey environments, even with the volume set up full.

On my previous Samsung phone, the speaker was on the outside back of the phone. When you turned on the speaker, it was easy to hear and had plenty of volume range.

Since they did issue one software upgrade to try and address the VR problmes, I was still wondering if another, more effective, upgrade is in the works?