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Went to Sprint store to have Photon battery checked; now pissed.

Godfather13

Android Enthusiast
I'll try to keep this to the point & as short as possible. Ive posted numerous times on here about my battery just being absolutely drained by 3pm. I did all the recommendations (battery pull, complete reset, etc). Nothing changed. I called Sprint tech support. Told them what was going on & asked them to check their side of things, my local tower, etc. They made me pull the battery, make a call, get on web, etc. They said their side looked fine & the tower was fine. I told them that also my bars go from grey to blue a lot and stay grey for minutes at a time. They said thats normal after a call. I said, mine does it when not on a call. They had no answer. Lastly they said to take it to a Sprint repair store so they could further check it and if needed replace it. They gave me a ticket number and everything.

Before I go to the store I try one more thing. I fully charged the phone and deleted every app I put on it (except System tuner and Open signal). Only thing sync'd is gmail because it has to be to use the phone. No FB, twitter, no motorola social apps, nothing. I took phone off charger at about 7:30 am (100%). By 1pm I was at 58% and only sent 2 texts in that period of time. No web browsing, no phone calls, nothing.

I go into Sprint store and tell them EVERYTHING thats happened. Gave ticket number etc. 2 guys working front counter, both listening. They took my phone and started scrolling thru it etc. Asking how I liked it. I said if the battery lasted I would love it. They said they hadnt even gotten them in yet...wth? Then the guy goes to say, well its at 58% battery, these phones have big screens, lots of processing power, they use up battery. That is normal, you basically have gone 6 hours and have more then 50% left, I dont see a problem. I say, 6 hours with it sleeping and sending only 2 texts, you dont think thats an issue? He then played a little more with it checking things out...but gave no resolution. I said, Ive been on sprint forums and android forums and the consensus is the battery should be lasting much longer on a dual core phone especially when not using it. The avg user of the Photon is getting way better battery life then this one. His response, "people on those forums can say anything, doesnt make it true." (He has a point here, so I didnt argue with him, but still wanted to punch him).

I said, well the Sprint tech on the phone said to bring it here and you could run other tests and determine if it needs to be replaced. He says, we dont have anything to do that with yet, its not over 30 days and were not allowed to exchange it cause you bought it off sprint.com. You need to go back to them or a corporate store. At this point I knew they werent there to help, only combat everything I said with excuses.

Lastly I told them my signal has been a constant 8asu's which isnt a very strong signal so maybe my phone is constantly searching for a tower causing the battery drain. I opened up Open Signal and proceeded to show him my signal line. He said, is that a function on the phone, ive never seen it. I said, no its an app so you can check for your closest tower and signal. I open it and selected graph and what do you know, ....16asu with a little movement to 18asu then 14, but consistent all the way thru. I was like, WTF...my phone has never had this high of a reading. The stores location obvisously has a better view to a tower or it was a complete fluke. So nothing I could prove here. Except when I got back to work and checked it again it was back to 8asu. And today as well, 8asu and below. (just like a car, take it to the dealer and it doesnt act up).

So thats where Im at. I guess Ill just go to the corporate store and demand an exchange since im in the 30 days. I cant handle explaining all of this to another employee that is just clueless to these phones, androids in general and forums where people discuss this daily. I mean, If I worked for a cell phone company, I would be reading forums constantly to see whats happening with the phones, read about issues and fixes so I can better help my customers. This seems like an obvious thing to do. But I guess not.

Thanks for listening :end rant:
 
Man I feel bad for what you're going through. DEFINITELY take it back and demand an exchange...it's within your right as a consumer! Don't take ANY shite from the Sprint Rep...tell them it's NOT working AS INTENDED and you demand a new device (since you will be stuck with it for the next 2 years!).

Good luck...keep us posted.
 
personally, unless there is a problem with my bill, or I am buying accessories or just want a quick look and feel of a phone, I would not be stepping into any regular Sprint store. if a phone has a problem and can't be diagnosed over the phone then a regular Sprint store is a waste of time. Sure some times you may get a knowledgeable rep, but if they need to really do tech work on the phone only a Corporate store can do it. There they have the tech and necessary equipment to do what needs to be done.

as for repeating all that you said previously , I'm sorry to say but you will have to repeat it again at the Corp tech store so they can troubleshoot it properly.

Good luck.

TS
 
In my experience if you've got an issue with your phone, go to a corporate store. Non corporate stores are OK for buying and returning phones but don't seem equipped to handle any type of phone issue.

The better non-corporate stores are at least up-front about this. The bad ones muddle their way thru it like they did with you.
 
Ok - they explained themselves all right.

That was a franchised store and they have a whole 'nother set of metrics for success than a Sprint corporate store.

Geez - I've been a Director of R&D in the semiconductor industry (and still work at the highest level in R&D there), I've written (not modified - written) unix kernels, I was one of the first guys in the US to email Linus when he was a student inventing Linux (read: core of Android), I've been a contributor to GNU... I'll just stop there.

Yeah - anyone can say anything on the internet, and it's completely true - I could not qualify for that kid's job.

Keep the faith, stand up for your consumer rights, and don't make a real Sprint rep suffer for what some unwashed and uneducated child at a franchise store put you through.

But don't back down, no way. There is no reason whatsoever you should be paying for bad service on a questionable phone.
 
I'll try to keep this to the point & as short as possible. Ive posted numerous times on here about my battery just being absolutely drained by 3pm. I did all the recommendations (battery pull, complete reset, etc). Nothing changed. I called Sprint tech support. Told them what was going on & asked them to check their side of things, my local tower, etc. They made me pull the battery, make a call, get on web, etc. They said their side looked fine & the tower was fine. I told them that also my bars go from grey to blue a lot and stay grey for minutes at a time. They said thats normal after a call. I said, mine does it when not on a call. They had no answer. Lastly they said to take it to a Sprint repair store so they could further check it and if needed replace it. They gave me a ticket number and everything.

Before I go to the store I try one more thing. I fully charged the phone and deleted every app I put on it (except System tuner and Open signal). Only thing sync'd is gmail because it has to be to use the phone. No FB, twitter, no motorola social apps, nothing. I took phone off charger at about 7:30 am (100%). By 1pm I was at 58% and only sent 2 texts in that period of time. No web browsing, no phone calls, nothing.

I go into Sprint store and tell them EVERYTHING thats happened. Gave ticket number etc. 2 guys working front counter, both listening. They took my phone and started scrolling thru it etc. Asking how I liked it. I said if the battery lasted I would love it. They said they hadnt even gotten them in yet...wth? Then the guy goes to say, well its at 58% battery, these phones have big screens, lots of processing power, they use up battery. That is normal, you basically have gone 6 hours and have more then 50% left, I dont see a problem. I say, 6 hours with it sleeping and sending only 2 texts, you dont think thats an issue? He then played a little more with it checking things out...but gave no resolution. I said, Ive been on sprint forums and android forums and the consensus is the battery should be lasting much longer on a dual core phone especially when not using it. The avg user of the Photon is getting way better battery life then this one. His response, "people on those forums can say anything, doesnt make it true." (He has a point here, so I didnt argue with him, but still wanted to punch him).

I said, well the Sprint tech on the phone said to bring it here and you could run other tests and determine if it needs to be replaced. He says, we dont have anything to do that with yet, its not over 30 days and were not allowed to exchange it cause you bought it off sprint.com. You need to go back to them or a corporate store. At this point I knew they werent there to help, only combat everything I said with excuses.

Lastly I told them my signal has been a constant 8asu's which isnt a very strong signal so maybe my phone is constantly searching for a tower causing the battery drain. I opened up Open Signal and proceeded to show him my signal line. He said, is that a function on the phone, ive never seen it. I said, no its an app so you can check for your closest tower and signal. I open it and selected graph and what do you know, ....16asu with a little movement to 18asu then 14, but consistent all the way thru. I was like, WTF...my phone has never had this high of a reading. The stores location obvisously has a better view to a tower or it was a complete fluke. So nothing I could prove here. Except when I got back to work and checked it again it was back to 8asu. And today as well, 8asu and below. (just like a car, take it to the dealer and it doesnt act up).

So thats where Im at. I guess Ill just go to the corporate store and demand an exchange since im in the 30 days. I cant handle explaining all of this to another employee that is just clueless to these phones, androids in general and forums where people discuss this daily. I mean, If I worked for a cell phone company, I would be reading forums constantly to see whats happening with the phones, read about issues and fixes so I can better help my customers. This seems like an obvious thing to do. But I guess not.

Thanks for listening :end rant:

Quick question - What app are you using to show that the battery is at 58%? Is that just a guesstimate because I don't see anywhere on the stock system that shows a percentage readout to the 1 percentile, especially after I found out that Motorola Phones are defaulted to show 10% decrease estimates rather than exact percentage.
 
Quick question - What app are you using to show that the battery is at 58%? Is that just a guesstimate because I don't see anywhere on the stock system that shows a percentage readout to the 1 percentile, especially after I found out that Motorola Phones are defaulted to show 10% decrease estimates rather than exact percentage.

This APP allows for single percentile increments Battery Circle
 
I use a similar app called Circle Battery Widget

I am so sorry about your experience though, Godfather. That absolutely sucks. I run into idiots like that at a few stores as well. The only stores I go to are the corporate stores. They really are run so much better.

I definitely wouldn't stand for that. Resting my phone drops off about 1% give or take every hour. I have only the battery widget going on and system tools. I just haven't taken the time to get all my apps on there that I like for fun. I do have two gmail accounts set up as well. Only thing I am not auto syncing are the books. I will only do that when I actually read on the phone. I admit I do more of that on my tablet.
 
First, battery - unplugged at 6 AM, a few phone calls, a few texts, a little browsing via WiFi and I have 86% at 2:30 PM. Something is wrong with yours, whether it is the battery or the constant searching for a signal, I don't know.

Second, I bought mine Tuesday from a corporate store. Totally different experience. The guy I worked with was excited because he had not sold one yet. He called another guy over a couple times to look at different things. I knew more about the phone than he did (thanks, Android Forums!) and he was fine acknowledging that and asking ME questions about it. Then we got into a long discussion of Photon vs. 3VO because he was due to get one or the other. Again, I told him all I had read about it over the past month or so. Again, he was very accepting and appreciative of my advice and opinions, never tried to pretend he knew more than me. Overall, it was a great experience (for both of us, I think).
 
This APP allows for single percentile increments Battery Circle

Thanks, Bandage. Already have that. I was asking Godfather because he mentioned showing the battery percentage at 58% and only way I know to be able to see that is if he had an app. Was just trying to clarify because he mentioned not having any apps except 2 downloaded.
 
Thanks, Bandage. Already have that. I was asking Godfather because he mentioned showing the battery percentage at 58% and only way I know to be able to see that is if he had an app. Was just trying to clarify because he mentioned not having any apps except 2 downloaded.

Yes drex, sorry I did dL the battery circle app after you had posted about it so I could check how fast the battery was fading. That was one other app I didnt erase so I could show the techs.
 
Yes drex, sorry I did dL the battery circle app after you had posted about it so I could check how fast the battery was fading. That was one other app I didnt erase so I could show the techs.

Oh, okay. Man, I wish I had an easy answer for you. I know for sure that one wouldn't drain it that fast either because I'm running that AND another battery app and my battery drain is nowhere near that bad (like I've reported, it's been excellent).

Only solution I could say right now is going to a corporate store. You could always use the example that you have "a friend" that has the same phone, 100's of apps, runs a different launcher, runs the phone on high performance, uses the phone way more, and gets the same amount of battery drain. That's the only other thing I can think of.

Keep us posted on how it goes at the corporate store.
 
You didn't hear this from me, but most retail stores have a "mini-tower" in store that boosts signal so that you don't see how shitty the service really is. This isn't just Sprint, Verizon did it as well and so do all other companies I'm sure. Constant search for signal has to be the battery-eating culprit in this situation.
 
You didn't hear this from me, but most retail stores have a "mini-tower" in store that boosts signal so that you don't see how shitty the service really is. This isn't just Sprint, Verizon did it as well and so do all other companies I'm sure. Constant search for signal has to be the battery-eating culprit in this situation.

That's for sure. Sprint stores also have the 4G antennas in the store, for helping sales of their 4G connectivity. What's funny is, there's a store that I go to from time to time (in my local area) where I know there's no 4G signal. But within a 1 block radius, it still picks up the 4G from the store...as soon as you go past that 1 block radius, nothing.
 
Hey - one of our buds in the 3D forum just reminded me, we have this on the 3D:

Dial *#*#diag#*#*

And it brings up a menu of hardware tests.

Now - on the theory that Sprint makes these the same for all of their advanced phones - give it a shot.

It includes a "Test Log Battery Run Down Test" - might prove informational if the Photon has such an option.
 
I told them that also my bars go from grey to blue a lot and stay grey for minutes at a time. They said thats normal after a call. I said, mine does it when not on a call. They had no answer.

I've been seeing this on my phone a lot to. My battery seems to be ok though. But the blue/gray/blue/gray bar thing is getting annoying... and I have full bars... so *shrug* no clue man.
 
Have you performed any Updates? PRL / Data Profile? I read your rant thoroughly and did not see anything of that nature unless it was categorized under: "(battery pull, complete reset, etc). "
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. FYI, Sprint reps DO read these forums. We actually have a team of Product Ambassadors that do this on all new device launches. This device is still new and the forum flood gates have been opened we're going to help to the best we can.
-Sprint Motorola Product Ambassdor
 
Have you performed any Updates? PRL / Data Profile? I read your rant thoroughly and did not see anything of that nature unless it was categorized under: "(battery pull, complete reset, etc). "
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. FYI, Sprint reps DO read these forums. We actually have a team of Product Ambassadors that do this on all new device launches. This device is still new and the forum flood gates have been opened we're going to help to the best we can.
-Sprint Motorola Product Ambassdor

Ya, Ive done the update prl/profile. But thanks for suggesting it. I appreciate the fact that Sprint reps do get on here and read up about what customers are going thru.
 
As a sprint corp employee in retail I feel its a necessity to read through theses forums because there is TONS of useful information that I can use to help figure out issues or to give knowledge to customers getting these devices. Im sorry about your initial experience though godfather.
 
As a sprint corp employee in retail I feel its a necessity to read through theses forums because there is TONS of useful information that I can use to help figure out issues or to give knowledge to customers getting these devices. Im sorry about your initial experience though godfather.

I appreciate it. And I know not all employees are oblivious to these forums and whats going on, so Im definitely not grouping everyone into the same category. Hopefully the next person I deal with is a bit more knowledgeble.
 
I appreciate it. And I know not all employees are oblivious to these forums and whats going on, so Im definitely not grouping everyone into the same category. Hopefully the next person I deal with is a bit more knowledgeble.

I know I'm probably a little late but it might not hurt to take a q-tip and some rubbing alcohol and try cleaning the charging port and the battery charging connector. I deal with Lithium Ion batteries every day (much smaller size) and often when a customer simply cleans it they notice much better battery life. It could be there is something on the port you can't see and it's causing a bad connection...while the phone is seeing it fully charged it actually isn't. Also make sure to let it dry all the way. This might not help but it's worth a shot.

Just for the record and I am totally not lying I get stellar battery life out of my unit.
 
I know this is an old post so I don't know if anyone will see this, but...
I am a complete simpleton when it comes to phones and most of what I read here is waaaay above my head. I have a photon and right from purchase the battery life is only 7 hrs on standby. I can put it in airplane mode and not touch it AT ALL and the battery will be dead in 7 hrs. I have replaced the battery, taken it to Sprint where they tell me nothing is wrong. I have sent it back to Motorola three times and still 7hrs and then dead. I haven't even bothered asking Sprint to transfer my service from my old phone back to the photon after I got it back from Motorola this last time. I do not download any apps and delete what I can from the phone as soon as it comes back from being 'fixed'. I am presuming I must be doing something wrong because just about everyone else gets great battery life. My small business is suffering and I do search and rescue work, but not having decent battery life when I am 'in the field' is just not acceptable. I love the photon, but the battery is killing me!!!! Please, please can someone help me figure out how i need to set up my phone in order to get a battery that lasts maybe 24 hrs between charges?
so sad :( :confused:
 
I know this is an old post so I don't know if anyone will see this, but...
I am a complete simpleton when it comes to phones and most of what I read here is waaaay above my head. I have a photon and right from purchase the battery life is only 7 hrs on standby. I can put it in airplane mode and not touch it AT ALL and the battery will be dead in 7 hrs. I have replaced the battery, taken it to Sprint where they tell me nothing is wrong. I have sent it back to Motorola three times and still 7hrs and then dead. I haven't even bothered asking Sprint to transfer my service from my old phone back to the photon after I got it back from Motorola this last time. I do not download any apps and delete what I can from the phone as soon as it comes back from being 'fixed'. I am presuming I must be doing something wrong because just about everyone else gets great battery life. My small business is suffering and I do search and rescue work, but not having decent battery life when I am 'in the field' is just not acceptable. I love the photon, but the battery is killing me!!!! Please, please can someone help me figure out how i need to set up my phone in order to get a battery that lasts maybe 24 hrs between charges?
so sad :( :confused:

You're definitely going to need a oversized battery if you want 24 hours between charges. As for what's causing your issue, I have no idea. I'm actually going to be replacing my battery soon as it is now a bit inaccurate at the low end of the charge. There is an extreme drop in charge around what's supposedly 30%.
 
You're definitely going to need a oversized battery if you want 24 hours between charges. As for what's causing your issue, I have no idea. I'm actually going to be replacing my battery soon as it is now a bit inaccurate at the low end of the charge. There is an extreme drop in charge around what's supposedly 30%.

For my MoPho, that's normal. It's always done that. I'd be at 30% and it would go slowly down to about 27% and suddenly I'll be at 19%. The decline to 15% is much slower from 19%. I'm not sure what the issue is but my battery still seems to last just as long as it did when I first got my MoPho.
 
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