Windows Mobile Fun

The extremely short version:

• Phone and Service ordered
• Phone received
• Activation challenges
• Data service activation challenges
• Phone failure
• New phone received
• Activation success!
• Data activation success!
• Successful data sync
• TERRIBLE performance
• What's next?

The long story:
I've finally joined the Windows Mobile group.  Having been a Palm user for quite a few years, but wanting to not be carrying multiple devices, I've been watching the Blackberry vs. Windows Mobile market for a while.  Since we're a mostly Microsoft shop, and since the Windows Mobile devices sync relatively painlessly with Exchange Server, I had a bit of a bias.  I just had trouble committing.

For a lot of reasons, I'm a Cingular customer, and not interested in making a change.  That left me with very few options for Windows Mobile 5.  For all practical purposes, I had exactly one choice, the Cingular 8125 (otherwise known as the HTC Wizard).  So, on August 28th I made the decision.  I wanted to be sure I could support our other users, so I wanted to do everything myself.  Sometimes that works very well.  And sometimes not.  I ordered the unit and data services from the Cingular website.  That was pretty painless.  And, being a bit of a cheapskate, I went with a refurb and knocked another $100 off the bill.

The new phone arrived on August 31.  Being the very compliant person I am, I read all the instructions and actually followed them.  That meant charging it up before doing anything.  I was pretty busy, so it was the next day before I tried anything.

The package included a URL for activating the new phone.  Easy enough.  Login, confirm some foot-long numbers (they were all right, of course), give more verification info (part of social), commit to a contract, and finally get the "click to activate your phone" page.  OK, click.  Churn, churn, churn, then the dreaded "sorry, our server is not able to process your request at this time, please try again later."  Oh well, holiday weekend, no big deal.  I tried again Saturday with the same results.  And Sunday too.  Hmmm...this doesn't seem good.  Monday holiday -- one more try, one more failure.  OK, I guess I have to actually use a phone to activate my phone.

Made the call on Tuesday morning.  Now let me make a side comment here.  The people at the Cingular call center understand a lot about customer service.  Yes, you have to walk through an auto-attendant, but once you get to a real person (after a very short hold time), you are talking to somebody who is friendly, courteous, articulate, and above all apologetic.  "We're sorry you're having a problem Mr. Dye, we'll take care of that."  It's amazing how a little apology like that goes a long way at the beginning of a call.  I had to give my cell number again, and read off those strings of digits again, which the agent dutifully read back and confirmed, I had to re-confirm that I understand the contract and such, and finally got the "give me just a moment to activate that phone."

Again, I want to mention how courteous the Cingular agents are.  After just a few seconds there was a statement something like "hmmm...that's interesting...let me try again."  And a few more "I'm so sorry Mr. Dye..."  And then a "would you mind turning your phone off" (which doesn't really turn this phone off) and then a "would you mind taking the battery out?" and then a bit more waiting.  Finally a request to put the battery back in, turn it back on, and try one more time.  Success!  I could make and receive phone calls.  All is good.  "Thank you for using Cingular, please let us know if there's anything else we can do for you."

Now to the real configuration.  Installed ActiveSync on my notebook, plugged in the cable, synced, and it was pretty straight forward.  Made a few adjustments, synced again.  All is looking good.  But wait, the real test -- can I sync wirelessly?  Easy enough to initiate the sync.  Watched the phone "dial" the data connection...waiting...waiting...failure.  Now what?

Obviously *I* must not have something configured right.  After all, service was just turned on.  What could I have missed?  Research.  Web surfing.  Reading.  Trying again.  Failure after failure after failure.  OK, enough...I've invested way too many hours now.  Quick stop into the nearby Cingular store.  The agent there was very nice too.  He tired syncing, he tinkered and adjusted, he did all the same things I'd just done.  (why did that make me feel so much better)?  Finally he gave up too and called his tech support people.  Lengthy conversations, an occasional "we're so sorry for the delay Mr. Dye" (still goes a long way with me) and finally, the discovery.  Data service was never turned on for my account.  Rechecked my order -- there it was.  Rechecked the confirmation-- there it was again.  But...despite all that confirmation, the computer knows best -- no data service associated with my number.  OK.

My turn again.  Back in my office, called to get the service turned on.  "We're so sorry Mr. Dye."  (not quite meaning as much, but still a nice try)  Well, some good news...in the intervening days since my original order, there was a new, cheaper, data plan.  OK, I'll take it.  Final step - turn off the phone, pull out the battery, wait 5 minutes, then you should be good to go.  I did.  I timed the 5 minutes -- 298 seconds, 299 seconds, 300 -- battery back in, phone on, and watched the boot process.  Well...watched the start of the boot process.  And waited.  And waited some more.  5 minutes.  10. 20.  OK, this is not right.  Rebooted.  Same thing.  This is just not good...

But wait, I am an IT professional, I can beat a Windows hang.  There must be an alternate reset that really does a reset.  After all, I can re-load the data.  Well, I may not have tried every possible combination of the reset, power, and all other buttons, but I sure tried a lot of them.  None worked.  So I get the data service, and now the phone dies. 

Back on the phone with Cingular.  "We're so sorry Mr. Dye."  "It won't boot?  That shouldn't ever happen.  Please take the battery out, wait a minute, and try again."  OK, what's one more time.  It didn't work this time either.

Alright...this is becoming way too long a story.  New phone Fed-Exed to me.  Web activation worked on this one.  Data service worked!  Wireless sync worked!  Now things are looking better.  But wait, not a done deal.  Everything works, well, sort of, but sometimes it's really slow to respond.   This can't be normal, can it?

That was the end of the day Tuesday. I had a phone that technically worked, but wasn't usable.  I could sometimes tell a call was coming in, but couldn't answer it.  Or worse, I'd get an indication of a call coming in that actually happened 20 minutes ago.  Reset.  Reboot.  Power off.  Consistently bad.  This is not a good story.  To be continued...

Comments

[Matt Singley]

Interesting timing for your story Tony. After I did my morning blog reads I was going to head to Cingular on my way into church to pick up the very model you are referring to. Hmmmm...for some reason I think I might wait until the end of your story.

[Antoine of MMM]

Nice, one too many hurdles but it sounds good that you are able to get up and going.

Now I wonder what your look at ChMS will look like when you factor in mobile accessiblity and device admin ;)

[Darrell Jordan]

Dang, That's not good. I agree, Cingular does have some pretty good customer support, I just wish their actual service was a little better at my house.

dj

[matthew gibson]

I have an 8125 myself and have a suggestion or 2.

First, this site is the best place for latest/greatest tips/tricks.
http://www.htcwizardweb.net

specifically about speed of the device, check out this URL...
I use omapclock and it significantly improves performance.
http://www.htcwizardweb.net/node/867

I actually use a combination of smartkey and omapclock together. I can't find an exact reference on that, but I got it and documentation on it from this place http://forum.xda-developers.com/.

If you want I can email you the files and attachments directly, so you don't have to track the downloads and directions down yourself.

I'm tired of futzing with my 8125. I have TomTomNavigator and the audio book player from www.audible.com and have tried using subscription music services like napster for the phone. All of these things have taken a tremendous amount of jiggling of the handle and still aren't reliable. I'm pretty close to getting rid of my device and thinking about the new 3125 from Cingular. I'm interested in just having a smaller phone and not trying to do as many things with it... so that all those things will work reliably - I hope.

One thing you may be interested in that has worked really well is this Bible application and its free: http://www.e-sword.net/pocketpc/index.html Its great.

Thanks,
Matthew

PS. this is Matthew that does some IT stuff at clairmont pres.

[Tony Dye]

Thanks for the comments and links, Matthew. I'll be digging in deeper. I'd love to hear more about your thoughts toward the 3125. If you go that route, please share what you learn.

Thanks!