Yesterday, I started to buy a Motorola V557 at Best
Buy in San Francisco, for a new Cingular account.
I got as far as the cash register when I noticed that
the phone was frozen, as follows:

- The external display illumination was stuck on,
  and the time was stuck at 20 minutes ago (which
  was when I had first turned it on).

- The keypad illumination was stuck on.

- The main screen was dark.

- The phone wouldn't respond to any keys and
  could only be turned off by removing the battery.

So I went back to the cellular aisle and had them
switch me to another V557.  I cycled the power on
the new phone a few times, and on the third or fourth
cycle, the problem duplicated itself.  We tried a third
V557, and the same thing happened.  All three V557's
were manufactured in China on November 12 or 13,
2005. Those were the only three V557's that the SF
store had. At this point, it was after Best Buy's closing
time and they couldn't process a Cingular cancellation,
so I offered to take V557 #3 home and swap it today
at the Emeryville, California, Best Buy, hoping that
that store would have a different batch of V557's that
wouldn't have the same problem.

Today at the Emeryville store, they switched me
to a V557 manufactured in China in early January of
2006, two months after the date of manufacture for
the troublesome phones that I had tried in SF. And
we had the same problem on that phone. We thought
that maybe I had been given a defective SIM, so
they gave me a new SIM and we put that into yet
another V557. Unfortunately, same problem. A Best
Buy guy then called Cingular for help and was told
that the problem we were having was unknown to
Cingular.

I was only interested in the V557, so at that point I
decided to just cancel my account and get an
equipment refund from Best Buy. Cingular
agreed to refund my $35 activation fee.

I already have a Motorola V551 (very similar to
the V557) which works beautifully.

Does any of you have a quess about why I found
this glitch on various V557's?

Is there any mention of this issue on Usenet or
on any web site? (I haven't found any so far.)

The email address under which I posted can't
receive mail.  You can email me at:

  phoneproblem@telefog.com

...but I'd prefer that any replies be posted to this
thread on alt.cellular.cingular.

**********
1366294709