Paul De Sousa

This is an email I wrote to Motorola South Africa some months ago when a V3 razr that I had obtained had had so many faults and errors that I contacted Motorola.
needless to say they didnt help me at all and eventually the phone was stolen from me (poor sod who took it)
I will NEVER in my life get another motorola.

I recently obtained a v3 as an upgrade.

I used to use a Motorola way back in the day.

But then moved onto Nokia.

I decided to go for the V3 because I heard it was a funky phone. at 1st glance I was very impressed. The phone LOOKS cool.

BUT

I cannot express the amount of contempt I have grown for this phone for a myriad of reasons.
I am so disgusted you have absolutely NO idea.

a ) the battery life is not what I expected. in fact not even close. I know how to charge a lithium iron battery so the excuse of “oh perhaps you didn’t charge it correctly and destroyed the battery” is negated by the fact that I did indeed follow the instructions and charge it correctly. I am lucky if this battery lasts me 2 days before dying on me

b) The software crashes. Often.

c ) The camera is extremely grainy. now I understand that a 1.3 mega pixel camera is not meant for professional photo shoots but damn this thing is horrible. I took a photo of my friend and he came out looking like Pinocchio. That’s how grainy the pictures are!!
and yes I did set it correctly, correct exposure correct lighting correct resolution.

d ) using the camera crashes the software
This has happened about 6 or 7 times
I have to remove the battery because the phone doesn’t respond and even refuses to switch off

e ) The golf game has several bugs.
i. you go look at player info or help and the scores are reset
ii. the game automatically swings for you without being asked on certain holes
iii. the last challenge comprises of 3 holes, the last 2 holes are completely out of sync. the image displayed on the minimap is not the actual course. and the distance indicator points in the wrong direction.
iv. Spelling errors
example, competition 6.
Win more holes Thank nick over the front 9.
Thank nick? its THAN Nick thank you very much.

I haven’t even attempted the other 2 games as I fear of what I might find.

f ) Bluetooth does not work. at all.
I have tried various Bluetooth applications. ie my laptop.
Now Bluetooth is one of the biggest reasons why I thought the v3 would be a perfect phone for me seeing as it doesn’t have infra red.

but alas. it doesn’t want to be seen AND YES I HAVE IT SET CORRECTLY.

g ) The charger indicator is broken. you plug the phone in to be charged it says its flat, remove it and put it in again it says its full
remove it and put it in again it says its on 2 bars. wonderful.

h) sms notification vibrates the phone off my desk.
you receive an sms, the phone buzzes and sings a melody. great. 5 minutes later if you haven’t read it it buzzes again. you read the sms and close the phone it buzzes again and again and again till you have to remove the battery.

i) people cant hear me when I call them. I have to scream into the phone. I have resorted to having to send more sms’s than before because my throat is now getting sore.

J) This is a good one, I call it The Houdini Numbers. or COPPERFIELD CONTACTS.
I save a number for a contact. I know I saved it because it gave me the little orange confirmation screen.
Then I go look for it and abcra cadabra ! poof! its gone! like it never even existed! Now you see it, now you don’t!
neat little trick that. I swear Motorola need to teach that trick to my ex girlfriend the stalker.

K) This is another magic trick which I have dubbed the miracle twins, like all those people whose gynaes swore they were only carrying one child and poof! they gave birth to twins? yep like that.

I save a contact ( when it doesn’t pull the Houdini on me ) and I go look up and the number and OMW its duplicated and its there not once but twice, now I have another mouth to feed and cant afford it on my budget.

now the most important flaw of the phone.

L ) IT DOESN’T ACTUALLY EVEN WORK AS A PHONE!
I try dial someone, it doesn’t want to dial I have to remove the battery and try again
it consistently fails when I try redial a number. in fact it takes so long to attempt a redial that its quicker for me to drive across town and visit the friend that I was trying to call.
and sometimes the call gets answered on the other side but they cant me and I cant hear them.
I don’t even get notification that a call was made. The people on the other side know because they received the call. I don’t know because I am not actively making a call because it doesn’t say that I am making a call.
BUT VODACOM KNOW COZ THEY ARE CHARGING ME FOR THE CALL.
The amount of struggle I go through to make a call on this phone can be best compared to holding a seyonce. “helllooooo can you hear me?????????” “Yes! its rather faint but I can hear the voices!”
I may as well be carrying a rock in my pocket only to pull it out every once in a while and attempt to speak to it.

I cant believe that I upgraded my phone for an expensive paper weight.

What I carry around in my pocket is not a communication tool. it is a source of irritation.
It would make a lot more sense to leave my phone at home and instead carry around my TV remote control.

I am mortified that Motorola would release a phone that has so many flaws.

I know that for one, I regret getting this phone and I will return to being a nokia fan but for the next 2 years this phone is going to drive me insane
I am seriously contemplating driving over it and then reversing a few times for good measure then tossing whatever is left into a furnace and getting myself one of those old style pagers which is a tad better than the V3.

what do I want ?

short of asking you to employ me to test the damn games and software on your phones before releasing them onto the unsuspecting public I would like nothing more than to forget that I made such a bad mistake.
I don’t even want a swap out. I don’t want another V3. I would settle for another phone even if it doesn’t have all the damn fancy features this phone promises and cant deliver.

If you as a company can make me happy then I will sing your praises but don’t come and offer me another v3
I don’t want it.

give me another phone, give me a competitors phone, give me an older phone, give me a newer phone, give me the phone in your pocket. just don’t offer me another V3.

Yours kindly

Paul
+27 82 *** ****

I would suggest you rather use my landline for obvious reasons. I wish you the best of luck if trying to get hold of me on this Motorola v3 garage door opener.

+27 11 *** ****