Samsung A500 questions

[riddelrp]

Ok, I just got a new A500 on a warentee return for my old 8500 (told you it was old, just under 3 years to be exact) and I have a few questions.

My main question is about the phone book feature:
I want to store my father's home, work, and mobile numbers in the phone so I follow the below steps.
1) Enter home number
2) Enter 'Dad' as name
3) Enter Cell number
4) Enter Work Number
5) Save the entire thing (it saves in spot 1)

Now I want to call my dad. If I push and hold 1 it just dials his home phone number. What if I want to call him at work? Do I need to go into the book and find 'Dad' then go to the work number, then press talk? Or is there some short-cut I don't know about? Or if I want speed dial for each number do I need to enter them under seperate names (ie. 'Dad's Work', 'Dad's Cell', etc...)?

My second question would be if a 2 year warentee is worth $50 and a three year is worth $60?

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[Mill]

Immediately take the phone back. The A500 is a piece of Garbage. All the Sprint Samsung phones are. Take it back and get a Sanyo. I promise you that you will thank me later.

 

[fs5]

The a500 isn't that bad. Looks better than any Sanyo.

Did you get the vision plan? Are you planning on text messaging people a lot? Then RETURN the phone and SWITCH providers NOW. It takes 5 minutes to text message anybody, and that's on a good day when the server responds. 50% of the time you won't be able to because the server doesn't respond.

If you're planning on keeping the a500 go here: www.3guploads.com - free ringers, etc... and I mean FREE.

 

[Hammer]

you can set what you want the default number to dial is on the speed dial. if you want to dial something other than the default, you have to select it from the menu. if you want to speed dial all the numbers, you'll have to create different entries for the person.

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: fivespeed5
The a500 isn't that bad. Looks better than any Sanyo.

Did you get the vision plan? Are you planning on text messaging people a lot? Then RETURN the phone and SWITCH providers NOW. It takes 5 minutes to text message anybody, and that's on a good day when the server responds. 50% of the time you won't be able to because the server doesn't respond.

If you're planning on keeping the a500 go here: www.3guploads.com - free ringers, etc... and I mean FREE.

It looks better than the 5300? Can I have what crack you are smoking? I have owned both. The A500 twice.

 

[fs5]

yup.. looks better than the 5300. I'm not saying it looks good, just the best looking sprint phone. I can't wait until my contract is up to switch services though.

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: fivespeed5
yup.. looks better than the 5300. I'm not saying it looks good, just the best looking sprint phone. I can't wait until my contract is up to switch services though.

I still say the 5300 looks better, has a good camera, and also gets WAY better reception than the A500. Read howardforums, the A500 sucks at getting a signal. I had one bar of signal in my house with both A500's with the latest software. With the 5300 I get a full signal.

 

[fs5]

is the bar indicator standardized? Because I've had full services on phones that couldn't make a call at all. My signal is fine, the only peeve I have is that you have to connect to the server to send / check a text message. "Server did not respond." :|

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: fivespeed5
is the bar indicator standardized? Because I've had full services on phones that couldn't make a call at all. My signal is fine, the only peeve I have is that you have to connect to the server to send / check a text message. "Server did not respond." :|

Sprint is experiencing 3G problems right now. No, the bar is not standardized, but I can actually use my phone at home and in my neighborhood now, whereas before with the A500 I could not. I am not the only one that things the A500 gets terrible reception problems. Check howardforums.

 

[fs5]

thanks Millennium for the link to howardforums, I'm going to call sprint now and complain about vision. Looks like everybody is having problems with it and the explaination they gave on the forums makes sense. I hope that special "team" works fast.

 

[riddelrp]

Thanks for the input.

Does anyone have an answer to my questions?

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: riddelrp
Ok, I just got a new A500 on a warentee return for my old 8500 (told you it was old, just under 3 years to be exact) and I have a few questions.

My main question is about the phone book feature:
I want to store my father's home, work, and mobile numbers in the phone so I follow the below steps.
1) Enter home number
2) Enter 'Dad' as name
3) Enter Cell number
4) Enter Work Number
5) Save the entire thing (it saves in spot 1)

Now I want to call my dad. If I push and hold 1 it just dials his home phone number. What if I want to call him at work? Do I need to go into the book and find 'Dad' then go to the work number, then press talk? Or is there some short-cut I don't know about? Or if I want speed dial for each number do I need to enter them under seperate names (ie. 'Dad's Work', 'Dad's Cell', etc...)?

My second question would be if a 2 year warentee is worth $50 and a three year is worth $60?

Thanks,
Ryan

No a warranty is not worth 50 or 60. Simply get the equipment replacement plan for 4.99 a month. Secondly, I am not sure if you can setup speed dial that way. I always just scrolled through the phone book. If you post this on Howardforums they may be able to help more. I believe you have to manually select M H W, etc but I am NOT sure and Howard's can help you more.

 

[riddelrp]

5 a month comes to 60 a year... I can get 3 years coverage for that price. Is there anything special the sprint replacement plan does?

[edit added]Also, I will repost my other question on the forum you mentioned, thanks[/edit]

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: riddelrp
5 a month comes to 60 a year... I can get 3 years coverage for that price. Is there anything special the sprint replacement plan does?

[edit added]Also, I will repost my other question on the forum you mentioned, thanks[/edit]

Thanks,
Ryan

What kind of warranty is it? Best Buy? Equipment replacement means that if you BREAK or have your phone stolen it is replaced after you pay a 35 dollar deductible. They send you a refurb or new phone of your model or a newer model if yours is no longer available. Is your warranty just a manufacturer's defect warranty? Also, it might be 3.99 a month. I don't remember.

 

[riddelrp]

hey, thanks for the help. I have one more question for you Millenium.

I have been getting terrible service on my A500 :| and am most likely returning it for a Sanyo. Now I want a flip phone that doesn't have a camera. I don't have vision as part of my service and I have a nice digi-cam that is always with me. PLEASE tell me sanyo makes a flip phone without a camera (that isn't 10 years old).

Perhaps I'm living in the dark ages, but all my cell is to me is a phone!

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[DarkManXY2G]

To everyone having problems with the A500, you need to take it back to a Sprint Service Center and get it updated to the newest firmware. It fixes a lot of the phone's problems. Make sure when you go in there to ask for the WD29 update for the A500. I have both an A50 and Sanyo 8100. They both get the same in terms of signal and coverage. In fact in fringe areas I seem to get a better connection with my A500 now. For some good info on sprint phones, check out SprintUsers.com and Howard Forums

After getting your update from the Sprint store, check your version in the phone info menu option to make sure you got the correct update.

 

[chin311]

Originally posted by: Millennium
Immediately take the phone back. The A500 is a piece of Garbage. All the Sprint Samsung phones are. Take it back and get a Sanyo. I promise you that you will thank me later.

my thoughts exactly, it was by far the worst phone ive ever had w/ sprint. all sorts of problems that all the firmware updates on the planet didnt fix... good luck w/ yours tho ... it was a pretty phone, just didnt work for me.

 

[DarkManXY2G]

All I know is that my next phone isn't going to be a Samsung or a Sanyo. I'm going with the new SE t608. It comes with built in Bluetooth. With my vision plan, my PPC now has a mobile internet connection.

 

[riddelrp]

Originally posted by: DarkManXY2G
To everyone having problems with the A500, you need to take it back to a Sprint Service Center and get it updated to the newest firmware. It fixes a lot of the phone's problems. Make sure when you go in there to ask for the WD29 update for the A500. I have both an A50 and Sanyo 8100. They both get the same in terms of signal and coverage. In fact in fringe areas I seem to get a better connection with my A500 now. For some good info on sprint phones, check out SprintUsers.com and Howard Forums

After getting your update from the Sprint store, check your version in the phone info menu option to make sure you got the correct update.

I just got the upgrade to WD29. I'm going to give it a few days and see how everything goes. If it doesn't fix it, I guess I'll try a Sanyo...

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[Whisper]

I have to say that I hate the build quality on the Sanyo's. I'm sure they're made fine, but the Samsungs just feel much better/more solid. That, and the person I know with the 5300 hates it. She gets dropped calls very frequently, and half the time at night she can't connect to the network at all.

Then again, her A500 sucked pretty bad as well. I'm sticking with my A460 for now. Had it for a year, worked great. Someone spilled water on it and killed it, so I had them pay for the replacement (yes, Millenium is right...the equipment replacement plan is definitely worthwhile; just don't do more than 2 replacements a year or they'll boot you off for something like six months), and it's been working great as well.

Edit: Strike some of the comments above. Friend has the 8100, not the 5300, so I can't really comment on the latter. It does look nicer than the 8100, though. And I will still say that the A500 just seems to drop a lot of calls. Hopefully the firmware upgrade will help with that.

 

[Whisper]

Edit: I hate double posts

 

[DarkManXY2G]

I have the 5300, 8100, a500 (currently), a460, a400. All drop calls ocassionally, but after the a500 got the new firmware, it has worked better than of the rest of the phones. Also the size is much better too. The 5300 and the 8100 feel like bricks in your pocket. All I can tell you is that try out the new firmware and if it doesn't work, take the phone back and try a different one. For the price you pay for new phones, you shouldn't have to deal with crappy service due to the phone.

Also if you are dropping a lot of calls, call up "Claire" and say dropped call. They will credit you $0.50 per call up to 10 or 20 calls per month. Just be sure not to abuse this because I do think they can track dropped calls.