Yesterday somehow when I was getting ready for work my 2 month old Sony Ericsson W580I phone hurt itself. I have no idea how this happened, but the inner LCD screen developed a crack. The phone had worked fine that morning as I took a phone call, but just before I left for work I looked at the phone and noticed that screen was off. I restarted the phone (hoping this might help), but that didn’t fix it.

I was glad I had a 2 year warranty on the phone as I would just get it repaired (so I thought).

I took it the Rogers kiosk at Pacific Centre and was pretty much surprised at the level of lack of service I received. The gentleman behind the counter pretty much said “good luck in getting this repaired”. He let me know that the warranty doesn’t cover “damaged screens due to use”. When I let him know that I didn’t drop the phone or do anything to it, he couldn’t care less. He told me I had to take it to 2nd and Burrard to get it repaired. I had asked him give me the address and I felt as if I was asking him some task that was beyond his level of employement. He “manage” to write it down for me, but when I asked him for a number he told me he didn’t know the number (which was shocking) and just wrote the name of the store.

I was not impressed.

I ended up back in the office and did my lovely Google search and found out that this is not a rare occurance out there. Others have reported the same issue. Looks like it might be an issue with the phone and having it on vibrate.

I called the store where I purchased the phone and let them know of my internet search and he suggested I contact Sony Ericcson directly, as he said the warranty wouldn’t cover the screen either. Sony Ericcson was actually great to deal with and they sent me a return bill to send my phone in, yet it would take about 3-4 weeks to get my phone back. Being in the business that I am in, this wouldn’t do.

During all this I did send an email to my niece, who works for Rogers in Toronto, and she was spoke with her Rogers’ Sony Ericsson rep. and told him the whole story. They are going to send me a refurbished phone and I will send my phone for repair back to them. My niece Amanda ROCKS!!! She made my day!!!

I have nothing bad to say about Rogers as a company, but my dealing with that “idiot” at Pacific Centre definitely put a damper on my Rogers experience.

The following video is not my phone, but it’s pretty much how mine looks.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JqMeFhgeSE&hl=en]

The other day I posted 10 things I like about my Sony Ericsson W580i cell phone, today I will write about 10 things I don’t necessarily like about it (in no particular order)

1. No flash with the camera – ok you have a “night time” mood, but you still need a burst of light I feel on those dark nights and the images in night mood are very pix-elated
2. 2 mega-pixel camera – ok I said I liked this (better than my 1.3 from my previous phone), but with phones now-a-days I would have expected at least a 3 mega-pixel camera
3. Rogers media player – now why would I use this when I have the Sony walk-man already on the phone?
4. You can’t zoom when taking photos even though it’s suppose to have 3x optical zoom, you can zoom when you are taking a video
5. Calendar doesn’t display all day events, ie Birthdays.
6. I can’t change what is on my quick main menu buttons.  I have “Calls” and “Music”.  I would rather have “Contacts” instead of the Rogers Music
7. Keys are alittle small and with my big fingers I have to really look at them to make sure I’m pressing the right buttons
8. You can’t send a text message to someones email in you contact without setting up an email account first (Telus you were able to send a text message without any problems)
9. Work address appear first before Home address in the Contacts
10. It runs on the EDGE network and is not 3G compatible

I’m sure there are more but there is some for now

So I’ve had a couple of weeks to play with the new toy and here is what I’m finding I like most about it (in no particular order).

1. Bluetooth – works great for sending files to my computer or any other bluetooth enabled product (like my digital photo frame at work)
2. Calendar syncing – I can sync this up via bluetooth or USB
3. Contact syncing – I can sync this up via bluetooth or USB
4. Sony walk-man player – just works fantastic and you can actually shake your phone to shuffle music
5. Built in step counter – good for seeing how much I actually walk per day
6. 2 mega-pixel Camera – great pictures and some cool fun options too including frames
7. Over a minute for video (love this)
8. Icons are easily understandable
9. Speaker phone – for those days where you just don’t want to hold the phone up to your ear
10. Photo editing software built in

All in all I’m having a good time with the phone.