Verizon LG VX8360

I've gotta love the Verizon sales strategies. Since the summer I've had the Verizon LG VX8360 around the house. It is a traditional flip phone, which is quite boring by today's smartphone standards. However, not everyone wants mobile data on the move.

There is a major problem with this phone however. Even after reading reviews of it, I got stuck with one. When the phone is powered off, the battery drains. If left off overnight, the battery will go from fully charged to one or two bars.... totally unacceptable. In some other industries, they might recall the product, and make it right. Not so in the world of cellphones!

On my first trip to the Verizon store to complain, they claimed major ignorance on the issue. I told them that it was well documented on both the LG and Verizon forums. I was told they had never heard of this; it must be me. I did mange them to swap out the battery, but it did not change anything, and the problem persisted.

On another trip to the store, for the same problem, they did offer to swap out the phone... for a refurb. As mine is in pristine condition, I hesitated, and declined. Probably a mistake in retrospect, but my workaround was to keep the phone on all the time. Does this sound like the way things should work from "Big Red?"

Today, I was back at the store once again. This time they didn't disagree with me, and offered another refurb of the same lousy phone. This time I took it as even with being on, the phone went from 4 bars of battery to dead overnight. I also got a new battery out of them.

We will see if the problem persists, but all signs point to that it will. I think they just hope you get bored with the process, and get beyond the one year guarantee on a 2 year contract. I can just hear it coming next summer "You're not due for a new phone yet, but this one is not working...."

Stay tuned! I have already decided that if this how LG stands behind their products, I'm not buying their junk again.

Jonas