Help Call quality very sub-par (not signal strength)

[Ryobi]

Out of curiosity, how did the replacement thing work? I do not want to be without a cell phone. Ive heard that Verizon does not ship you a replacement first, Like ATT does, but you have to ship your phone first and then wait for a replacement. Is that true?

I bought mine at Best Buy, and unfortunately, they are all out of stock so I have no way of just going and swapping it for a new one.

If you bought from vzw directly, they ship you the new phone and you have 10 days to return the old phone. Buying from indirects, you have to deal with them. I have read a few stories of people who have had problems with the phones they have bought from BB and talked with vzw about it and they (vzw) took care of it.

If your phone was considered DOA by vzw, they most likely would ship you a new one. Buying from indirect channels you will most likely have to deal with them...

If your phone is giving you real problems with making and receiving calls, I would call vzw and see what they say.

 

[curtisdr]

Ok, so where in my email am I referring to the signal bars?

Generic response from HTC assuming you're talking about the flaky signal strength meter (bars). I hate when support doesn't even read the question you ask. I always send it back and ask them to actually read the question again before they respond.

 

[frog8]

they are not charging me a restocking fee. They expected me to buy another phone and then refund me the money when they received the old one back. I told them this was ridiculous. .they also stopped my data charge since i am back to my old LG...they did say that I would have another 30 days once I received the new phone..if this continues to be a problem i will be forced to go to the Eris...I know the Incredible is a much better phone, but I can't have all of these problems. let's hope it works!! I will let you know in I think three weeks...

 

[spinster]

they are not charging me a restocking fee. They expected me to buy another phone and then refund me the money when they received the old one back. I told them this was ridiculous. .they also stopped my data charge since i am back to my old LG...they did say that I would have another 30 days once I received the new phone..if this continues to be a problem i will be forced to go to the Eris...I know the Incredible is a much better phone, but I can't have all of these problems. let's hope it works!! I will let you know in I think three weeks...

I got news for you...the Eris is NO better, I tried 3 of them, bad sound quality in the earpiece, along with a LOT of backround hiss, went back to my Moto VU30, I AM THROUGH WITH HTC!!

 

[quest4JC]

Out of curiosity, how did the replacement thing work? I do not want to be without a cell phone. Ive heard that Verizon does not ship you a replacement first, Like ATT does, but you have to ship your phone first and then wait for a replacement. Is that true?

I bought mine at Best Buy, and unfortunately, they are all out of stock so I have no way of just going and swapping it for a new one.

I called customer service and after all the trouble shooting with no result to my speaker issues they decided I could replace it. I had to buy the second phone also and they said when they receive the defective phone I will receive the credit.

 

[Deleted User]

I called customer service and after all the trouble shooting with no result to my speaker issues they decided I could replace it. I had to buy the second phone also and they said when they receive the defective phone I will receive the credit.

I bought the incredible at a corporate store and returned it within 2 days (with a refund and back to previous phone and no contract) because of the voice quality issues. I'm amazed at Verizon's and HTC's responses to many of the customer complaints seen here on this board. Straight out....this phone should WORK! If it doesn't, then VZ and HTC should resolve the problems, no questions asked. It took awhile for quite a few people to realize that they weren't the only ones having the sound quality issues, and at first VZ tried to blow it off like it was a minor issue, and telling the customer to do *228 tower updates, stuff like that, with no help at all. Now, they are forced to admit that the problem with the not so "Incredible" indeed, does exist. From now on, it will be no more HTC phones for me purchased period, and at least a 30 day wait after any phone is released to see what develops before I buy another phone. Too much time and money is involved with these purchases to needlessly have to deal with a defective product.

 

[brichi]

same quality issue here on my end, the person on the other end hears me fine but like another poster said, it sounds like a hard gate issue, when no one is talking the gate is closed so there is no background or static noise, once they talk the gate opens to allow the voice through but it is set to high so if its a quick work like "yeah", you dont hear it. I have a replacement coming the middle of June for other issues so I will see if it fixes this issue too, if not, then unfortunately I am going back to my iPhone, as abad as att was at times, I never had to say "what" multiple times during a call. Sucks because I love this phone too

 

[bubbatex]

HTC never really seems to make a good "phone" consistently. Seems all of their models can have problems. I bet the EVO will not be much different. I have a Droid now but would like a Inc. - but might just wait until the new Moto's come out now.

BTW - I had a Storm 1 and had the same problem - Verizon/RIM never did anything about that, so I would not hold out hope the Inc. is going to be different. If you have a good one, great. If not, keep swapping or get something else.

 

[rushmore]

Not having this problem with the Inc and I am a rather picky SOB. I wonder why some have the problem?

 

[kramerica]

Not having this problem with the Inc and I am a rather picky SOB. I wonder why some have the problem?

It does seem wild that it's such a sporadic thing, but I am a "victim" as well. Live in Western Michigan and travel the state as road warrior and unless I'm under towers, I just as well get use to the fact that I can't make a call or will drop one. Came from the Droid and this phone form factor and speed is what the original should have been IMHO (I know everyone has their own taste).

I was holding out hope HTC would make the updates sooner than later, but being inside my 30 day window, I actually need to have a PHONE (to actually make and receive calls) that works and that sucks.

Not sure if it's more area specific or phone specific, but with the wild all over user problems it's really hard to pin it down. My ex has the Eris and has a horrible time keeping a signal over here, but that doesn't bother me.

 

[rickhz]

The call quality on my Incredible is the best I have had from any cell phone, on both ends. Friends can no longer tell I'm calling from a cell phone. I was driving through the middle of the desert well away from any big cities and I was SUPER impressed with how well it held the calls.

Maybe they changed something in their latest batch? My phone had been back ordered since mid-May and just received it Friday the 28th.

 

[memillh]

I've had my Incredible since the 29th and the call quality stinks. Did everyone get the new update? I have not, maybe after the update it will help with the voice quality. Honestly I was on a call today and said excuse me 5 times because I could not hear the other person, it sounded all garbled. Anyway, I'll stop by a Verizon store tomorrow to see if they can fix it. Can anyone offer any ideas to correct the problem? Thanks

I called the HTC hotline tonight to see if they could confirm the rumors of another update in the works - possibly for June or July. I read it on another forum - where someone posted an email from HTC saying as much. The rep was able to confirm it. He said they're working on a hotfix that should solve this random call quality issue - as well as a few other bugs (of which he didn't provide more detail). He didn't have any timing information, but indicated that I should standby for an OTA update or look for a hotfix on the HTC website over the next month or so. Not really helpful, but at least its on their radar. When I called Verizon, they said it's not on their list of issues and pretty much brushed me off. :-(

 

[Richard371]

All 3 of our phones have garbled call quality. Sometimes the calls sound ok but mostly words are garbled. Has anyone had an exchange fix this 100% or should we wait for a fw update? Have no problems with volume btw.

 

[Richard371]

Btw when we put in a trouble ticket with Verizon they came back 2 weeks later and said the phone registers fine that I need a microcell for my home. This is lame because we have this problem everywhere in the bay area even with 3 bars.

 

[jessica19087]

I called the HTC hotline tonight to see if they could confirm the rumors of another update in the works - possibly for June or July. I read it on another forum - where someone posted an email from HTC saying as much. The rep was able to confirm it. He said they're working on a hotfix that should solve this random call quality issue - as well as a few other bugs (of which he didn't provide more detail). He didn't have any timing information, but indicated that I should standby for an OTA update or look for a hotfix on the HTC website over the next month or so. Not really helpful, but at least its on their radar. When I called Verizon, they said it's not on their list of issues and pretty much brushed me off. :-(

So I went and got my EVO today. Sound quality is great all-around. The EVO is more than I need (larger) and $100 more (not to mention the additional voice and data plan on Sprint vs my Family plan on Verizon). Would really like to go back to my Incredible, so as soon as someone knows more about the hotfix, please post here. I'll troll in the next 30 days and hope for the best.

 

[Ryobi]

Strange because even though my signal strength shows not that great (dBm and bars), my voice quality is really good. Loud and clear. Both incoming and outgoing.

I seem to be able to make calls in every area I travel and the voice quality really never changes, even though the signal strength sure does waver quite a bit.

 

[tranceFusion]

So I went and got my EVO today. Sound quality is great all-around. The EVO is more than I need (larger) and $100 more (not to mention the additional voice and data plan on Sprint vs my Family plan on Verizon). Would really like to go back to my Incredible, so as soon as someone knows more about the hotfix, please post here. I'll troll in the next 30 days and hope for the best.

I went and played with the Evo today, thinking of getting one.. boy that thing is chunky! The main turn off was that the screen looked very washed out to me.. I realize it will look better in bright light than the Inc but I don't know if I could deal with it indoors (where I will use it the most)..

 

[tranceFusion]

I returned mine.. they didn't have any new replacements to give me within my 30 day return period.

I would have left here, but I haven't found a phone that is better otherwise yet..

 

[memillh]

I went and played with the Evo today, thinking of getting one.. boy that thing is chunky! The main turn off was that the screen looked very washed out to me.. I realize it will look better in bright light than the Inc but I don't know if I could deal with it indoors (where I will use it the most)..

I went and purchased an EVO today as well - and the call quality has been much better for me than the DInc. But, the size is an issue. Damn, I wish HTC could just push that update to fix my call quality. I'm reluctantly probably taking the EVO back this weekend. But, this garbled robot-sounding choppy phone call quality has to get better. I'll just hold on in hopes of an update - or at least a warranty replacement if they can ever get these phones stocked.

 

[tranceFusion]

looks like people are complaining about this with the Evo too..

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/91791-poor-call-quality.html

 

[memillh]

looks like people are complaining about this with the Evo too..

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/91791-poor-call-quality.html

Currently owning both, I can attest that these are two different issues. My DInc sounds garbled and clipped (kinda robotic) - while my EVO sounds a bit tinny depending on how shrill someone's voice is. Honestly, I can live with the latter - on my EVO. I noticed it, but it's otherwise very clear - like a landline.

But I so want to find a way to make this DINC work. I can't do the garbled, but I may just have to live with it because I'm definitely not going back to my iPhone.

 

[INTREPID-NY]

How smart "phones" are designed today:

Internet - Check. SMS - Check. Gmail - Check. Widgets - Check. Ok, we're ready to ship this baby off to manufacturing! WAIT - WAIT. What about the phone? Oh, yeah...the phone... Hmmm...No problem, just give us a few minutes - I'm sure we can throw something together...

looks like people are complaining about this with the Evo too..

 

[memillh]

Internet - Check. SMS - Check. Gmail - Check. Widgets - Check. Ok, we're ready to ship this baby off to manufacturing! WAIT - WAIT. What about the phone? Oh, yeah...the phone... Hmmm...No problem, just give us a few minutes - I'm sure we can throw something together...

I was just about to type something similar. They really rushed these bad boys out to market, to beat Mr. Job's announcement next week.

 

[Soupiusmaximus]

I've had my Incredible since the 29th (yes, I had to wait) and it is been fantastic except for one important thing - call quality.

I know everyone in here has been discussing signal strength and bars, but I've been experiencing very poor quality in calls. It only seems to be the audio I'm hearing (people on the other end say I sound fine) that is bad - with everything from little 1 second "scuffs" (sounds like someone blowing on the phone mic), to 1 second moments of silence while someone is talking, to what sounds like auto-tune on the person's voice. When there isn't distortion the person sounds kind of muffled. Many times even the audio of the ringing cuts out a couple times or sounds distorted when calling someone.

Anyone on here experiencing a similar issue? I stopped by my local VZW store to which the technician didn't feel there was a problem and refused to replace my phone (although they had no new phones anyways). I've done a hard reset to remove any apps that may be interfering with the calls and it's still the same. Also have tested at least 50 calls in several areas of Rochester, NY (30ish mile radius) over the past 4 days.

I really dont know what you're talking about. My call quality is as clear as any phone I've owned in 14 years. The signal strength is what sucks. I havent had more than two bars EVER and I cannot use my phone in my own house.

 

[memillh]

I really dont know what you're talking about. My call quality is as clear as any phone I've owned in 14 years. The signal strength is what sucks. I havent had more than two bars EVER and I cannot use my phone in my own house.

I think it's been established that there's a bad batch out there for sound quality (although I've received 2 bad ones now - from two different stores).

And while some say the signal issue is just a "bars display" issue, there's definitely a signal issue too - if you look over at the HTC forum.

There seems to be some bad batches of everything out there. Some folks got pretty lucky though. I'm going to keep trying handset replacements, myself - if I can find another Best Buy with them in stock.