vB Easy Archive - LG CU500 Ordering Nightmare and Some Questions?

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LG CU500 Ordering Nightmare and Some Questions?
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Posted by: David803sc

Well I have been shopping Cingular for the last week wanting to bring my number over from Verizon. I finaly saw the LG CU500 on the Cingular Premiere website so I placed an order last night. This moring I recieved an email from the web ordering department and was told, I needed to pay a deposit and I had 7 days to call them to arrange this, or my order would be cancelled. So I called and said no problem I will pay the deposit, but I was told to do this I needed to go to a store pay the deposit, so I though ok no big deal I will go pay the deposit, so I go to my local store here in Charlotte, NC There was a nice girl there that I explained everything to and showed her the email which I had printed out. She looked in the computer and said there is no account for them to take a deposit payment on, so she called the number on the email and that is when she was told my order was cancelled. When she asked why the rep told her that a new policy has been put in place that any orders requiring a deposit will be cancelled and the customer directed to the nearest local store. So the girl from the store explained that they did not have the phone I wanted and that it was only available online, so she asked if she could setup the account take the payment and let the web department ship the phone, sounded logical to me, but they said no. She called back 3 seperate times and got the same answer each time, she even asked for a supervisor and was told there were no supervisors in the premiere web department.

There were two other sales reps in the store that were giving her and me a hard time, they were saying that UMTS will not launch in Charlotte until August and that they will not have the phones until than, they went on to say the phome would not work in this market without the UMTS. I told them the phone is compatible on GSM, they said it was but that I would have problems with it on GSM since it is only made to work on UMTS.

Anyway the girl that was helping me was undettered she talked to her store manager who was very nice and also tried to help, she called the regional manager and asked him to get her one and ship it to her store for me. The Regional Manager said he couldn't and that there is no way for him to do that.

They called every other store in Charlotte and were told no one here had them. They found some stores in Washington DC that had them and were going to call them and ask them to transfer one to them, but they were told by the regional manager and reps from other stores they were talking to on the phone not to do this, that they would get in trouble and that the phone will not work in Charlotte. blah blah blah.

I told them none of this made sense especially since if I dd not require a deposit I would have already had the phone, so finaly I said I would go find the number for the corporate office and call them and raise hell, the rep kindly gave me the corporate office number, so I left the store sat in my car and called. I explained the whole situaiton to the rep who than transfered me to an "Executive" who asked me to hold on a second while she called the warehouse to see if they had these phones in, a minute later she came back on the phone and said yes there are plenty in the warehouse, and that she was directing the warehouse to immediatly ship one to the local store FedEx so it should be there tomorow, she than asked me to go back into the store and put the rep on the phone, she explained to the rep, that she was sending me the phone no charge, since the web department already billed my credit card for it, and that the store should setup the account for me as soon as the phone comes in and make sure I get all the discounts offered on the premiere website.

So tommorow I should have my phone, I am very excited, and to be honest it felt good to see it rubbed in the face of all those guys at the store that said it was impossible to get one in Charlotte.

Now to my questions:

1) is there an indicator on the screen that will show if I am on a GSM or UTMS network?

2) Same question for GPRS, EDGE, HSPDA?

3) How do I know that the SIM I get will be 3G? How can you tell them apart?

Thanks,

David

Posted by: KlamshellKing

i also have a question, i went to the cingular store and they didnt have the cu500 so i tested the cu320... is the cu500 noticeably faster than the cu320????

Posted by: cjmedina

some what faster
1) is there an indicator on the screen that will show if I am on a GSM or UTMS network?
yes there is g (gprs) e (edge) 3g (utms/hsdpa)

2) Same question for GPRS, EDGE, HSPDA?
answered in first
3) How do I know that the SIM I get will be 3G? How can you tell them apart
it will have a blue back and small 3g on it

Posted by: walkguru

wow, they sure made it hard on you. be sure and tell us you got, ok.

Posted by: quillhill

Dayum. And I got mine from the first store I called. Was in and out the door in 10 minutes, even with activating the 3G SIM card. How is it I get so lucky? I must have gotten your good phone karma, man...

Posted by: jbzcar

Quote:

Originally Posted by quillhill

Dayum. And I got mine from the first store I called. Was in and out the door in 10 minutes, even with activating the 3G SIM card. How is it I get so lucky? I must have gotten your good phone karma, man...

It would have only taken me that long, but I got there so early on Friday that I had to wait while the manager entered the phones into inventory before I could buy one, lol.

Posted by: Quatre

Quote:

Originally Posted by cjmedina

some what faster
1) is there an indicator on the screen that will show if I am on a GSM or UTMS network?
yes there is g (gprs) e (edge) 3g (utms/hsdpa)

2) Same question for GPRS, EDGE, HSPDA?
answered in first
3) How do I know that the SIM I get will be 3G? How can you tell them apart
it will have a blue back and small 3g on it

mmm, i am tempted to get the LGCU500 and the delicious new blue 3g sim and see 3g on the phone to know i'm getting the speeds cus i have it in my area.

its just the screen of the CU500 is only 64k which is inferior to what i use currently for voice on gsm whcih is an unlocked v3i which has 262k colors. the LG is superior in every other wya though

for data and highspeed though i prefer pda phones.

What is the next hsdpa phone to come out for cingular? i dont really like LG.

I will prob wait until cing has a good hsdpa pda phone and hsdpa is rolled out in more areas. Then I will no longer need cdma for data as i use now and will be able to use gsm for voice as i do now and data.

So if i were to buy the LGCU500 now do they give you the 3g sim card with it? trade in one of my other 2 sim cards?

if you buy full retail?
or what about if i am due for an upgrade

i should be able to trade in the sim card for the line i am going to use the lg on for the new 3g sim card.

Posted by: quillhill

I paid full retail for my LG and they gave me a new 3G SIM. Swapped out my old SIM. Worked for me.

Posted by: jhardin1

the lack of 262K colors is more than made up by the blazing fast UI. I have never had any phone pair as fast as this phone did with my PDA, other BT phone, Nokia Tablet, and laptop. Also, small things like the lack of the 'buzzing' when the phone is near other electronic devices, re-enforced hinges, signal type indicators, make it a good phone for the price.

Posted by: KlamshellKing

so you use the phone to tether with your pda and access the net from your pda?? is it reallly fast? what pda do you have?

Posted by: jhardin1

Quote:

Originally Posted by kisher12991

so you use the phone to tether with your pda and access the net from your pda?? is it reallly fast? what pda do you have?

I have an HP 2200, BT connected fine. Connection is limited to the top BT speeds of about 1 meg, but compaired to EDGE or GPRS its much faster. I also connectd the CU500 to my Nokia 770 internet tablet, and it worked great! I even streamed accu-radio without a problem

Keep in mind, that data use takes a lot of battery power, I did notice that after a two hour session, I was down about a fourth on my batter meter.

Posted by: calh22a

Will I see improvements with signal strength and audio quality from a 3g phone? Or does the 3g only improve data transfer speeds? Basically, can someone tell me what the advantages of 3g are? Thanks for any info and help.

Posted by: jhardin1

Quote:

Originally Posted by calh22a

Will I see improvements with signal strength and audio quality from a 3g phone? Or does the 3g only improve data transfer speeds? Basically, can someone tell me what the advantages of 3g are? Thanks for any info and help.

My understanding is that "3G" is not just better data, but it is the next phase of the migration from GSM technology to WCDMA technology. An example is that with a 3G phone, you can be connected to a data session and make and recieve voice calls. I noticed that I get full bars of 3G service, whereas on GSM I only get 2-3, as I read on here, Cingular is using 1900Mhz for 3G, which for me would mean I'm probably getting a signal from a former ATTWS tower litterally accross the street

Since the 3G (WCDMA) chipset is from Qualcom, you get other bennifits - no more buzzing or beeping when you phone is near consumer electronic devices, better RF. I'm sure the techie's can tell you all the technological advances. I know that actually Cingular's implamentation of HSDPA is being called "3.5G" not "3G" as the current top data speed is 1.8M, (speeds btwn 1M - 2M are classified as 3.5G).

Posted by: David803sc

So far no phone, I called the "executive" today and asked for a tracking number explaining to her the phone did not arrive, so she said she would look into it, she called me back and said it was delayed and not shipped until this morning, which means I will get it Monday morning, I didn't say anything, but she told me as sson as the account is setup she will give me a full month credit immediatly, so that is real good. I should have it Monday for the premiere price of $125, free activation and first month free, so in the end it was worth a few days wait.

David

Posted by: jhardin1

David, good to hear everything is going to work out. Now you just have to make it though the weekend.

Posted by: David803sc

I got my phone this morning, the girl had some toruble getting the SIM card activated, but eventually did get it turned on. All is great, although I was suprised the phone did not come with a headset, so back to the store I am to find one.

I was told by Cingular employees that 3G UMTS was up and running in Charlotte, not officially launched yet, they did warn me that the service may not be good as the are still tweaking and testing it, although my phone is not picking up any 3G only EDGE.

David

Posted by: jhardin1

Quote:

Originally Posted by David803sc

I got my phone this morning, the girl had some toruble getting the SIM card activated, but eventually did get it turned on. All is great, although I was suprised the phone did not come with a headset, so back to the store I am to find one.

I was told by Cingular employees that 3G UMTS was up and running in Charlotte, not officially launched yet, they did warn me that the service may not be good as the are still tweaking and testing it, although my phone is not picking up any 3G only EDGE.

David

Thats what happened with San Antonio, it was unofficially up about 4-6 weeks before it was officially announced. In reference to headsets, you can purchase an adapter so you can use your 3.5 mm headset from $5 up, or you can buy a 2.5 mm headset. Be sure to purchase a headset that has 3 bands on the pin.

Posted by: David803sc

The Cingular store did not have any stereo headsets, so I went next door to Verizon and purchased one with a 2.5 and it works great and sounds great.

The phone is awesome. Just wish I could pick up 3G I am wondering if there is a code I need on my account that is missing, the girl at the store said she didnt know because they have not had the training yet, she did however give me a 3G SIM they did have them at the store.

does anyone know if there is a special feature on your account to allow you to pick up the 3G network?

When I look online in my account summary, I see two featurtes that look network related one called "GSM/GAIT" and one "3G Attach" anyone that has this phone and used it successfully on a 3G netowork can you check your account summary online and see if you have these two features or something else?

Posted by: jhardin1

Quote:

Originally Posted by David803sc

The Cingular store did not have any stereo headsets, so I went next door to Verizon and purchased one with a 2.5 and it works great and sounds great.

The phone is awesome. Just wish I could pick up 3G I am wondering if there is a code I need on my account that is missing, the girl at the store said she didnt know because they have not had the training yet, she did however give me a 3G SIM they did have them at the store.

does anyone know if there is a special feature on your account to allow you to pick up the 3G network?

When I look online in my account summary, I see two featurtes that look network related one called "GSM/GAIT" and one "3G Attach" anyone that has this phone and used it successfully on a 3G netowork can you check your account summary online and see if you have these two features or something else?

David, I used to have "GSM/GAIT" on my features list when I had previous phones, the only 'feature' I could see added to my account related to the CU 500 is one called "UMTS Compatible" I don't have a feature called "3G Attach". Keep in mind that Cingular is intially doing 3G on 1900Mhz and service can cover a very narrow area. I have a friend in Dallas who is literally 2 blocks outside of Cingulars 3G service!

Posted by: kevink1

Still no go for me. Called 611 last night, and unfortunately they asked for my zip code. Which is probably the reason they couldn't find the phone in their system, since I'm not in a 3G area.

Posted by: davistld01

I'm in Springfield, MO. which is not a 3G area (won't be for at least another year), but I had no problem ordering and recieving the phone. Maybe I just got lucky, or the right NBO rep...I don't know. The rep had to go to a Dallas/Ft.Worth screen to find the phone and place the order, but I got it in 3-days Fedex. Sorry you guys are having a hassle with it.