the importance of truly clean contacts

Er, does all this not actually point to the phone being the problem rather than the charger?

Gareth.

Excellent question. The fact that properly cleaning plug resolved most -- though not all -- of the problem suggests that both and plug and jack have problems.

The possibility that the jack is not in the best of shape is why I bought a charger that works through the 18-pin interface.

There's a reason Motorola used gold on the charger and battery contacts of their public service radios - no corrosion, no oxidation, extremely low resistance contacts.

It may also suggest that cleaning the plug also indirectly cleaned the jack, which was the culprit all along.

Which may have been what the "smiling b****es" were trying to tell you, but you wouldn't listen.

Gareth.

Gareth.

I'm supposed to pay attention to people who are trained /not/ to help the customer? All /they/ told me was "We can't help you -- unless you want to throw away this phone and buy a new one." I'm supposed to respect that?

Don't blame the victim.

I was fully aware /before/ I went in that the problem could have been with the charger, the jack, or both. They were unable to provide a substitute charger, which would have clarified where the problem lay. Whose fault was that?

But you might have paid attention to the fact that they know the product, and quite probably know more about the problem than you do. This is probably not the first time they have experienced this.

I kind of suspect you went in there with an attitude they did not appreciate, suggesting you know more about this fault than they do, hence them giving you "the runaround".

Can't say I blame them, if that is indeed the case.

Gareth.

These people /know nothing/.

How many years of experience does it take to know that /any/ jack/plug interface is subject to wear, tear, and breakdown? You have to study advanced engineering at MIT to learn that, don't you?

The problem is that they did not have replacement parts -- which is required by law -- and they had nothing on hand to confirm or deny my diagnosis of "bad charger". (I did tell them that it wasn't clear whether the charger, the phone, or both, were at fault.) And if I'd bought a new phone, they couldn't transfer the data on the old phone.

ALL THEY COULD OFFER was "Throw it away and buy a new one. We don't give a damn about your having to trash a working phone, or that you'll lose everything on the phone, and have to re-enter it by hand."

Dig?

No, your problem is you do not know how to interact with people effectively.

You storm in, having "diagnosed" the problem already, but the people you are trying to convince know you are wrong and clueless. You then demand a replacement part, which they don't have, and are quite sure you do not need, because they know far more about this problem than you do.

I suspect you then belittle them with your apparent and incorrect "superior knowledge", at which point they pretty much say (internally) "f**k you as****e, come back when you have learnt to be a bit more civil, I'm not helping you now, even though I can".

Your loss, I'm afraid.

Gareth.

It seems to me that you are the one who doesn't know how to interact with other people effectively. Your attitude is totally unjustified, and you're just being deliberately rude and antagonistic.

You clearly have nothing further to add, so.....

Martin

effectively.

"superior

You weren't there. You don't know. You are arguing for the sake of arguing.

The next time you are treated as I was, by people who have no desire to assist you, but to sell you something, I expect an apology from you.

PS: I had an odd problem with my HP 4530s notebook. When I called over the weekend for help, I was treated courteously by someone who listened to what I had to say, and told me that other people had had the same problem. So don't tell me I don't know how to treat people.

When I have a problem, I expect the people assisting me to pretty much bend over backwards. I do not expect lame excuses, and if I get them, I tell the people how I feel.

I know everything.

A fair number of phones use an 18 pin connector: The moral of this? I guess it's that because the bottle's label reads

Rub and scrape please. Your clothes don't wash themselves by simple immersion. I would not expect connectors to clean themselves by simply applying some magic cleaner. You need to rub, scrape, and agitate the cleaner over the connector. Your clothes also don't stay clean if you forget to rinse afterwards. Try to blow out as much cleaner as possible, and then add more to rinse out what's left. Most cleaners just soften the goo, which must then be removed.

On the other foot, any phone that uses an 18 pin connect has to be at least 10 years old. I can see why the Sprint people didn't want to deal with it. The average lifetime of a cell phone is about 18 months (30 months for a smartphone). You might want to consider an upgrade.

On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:37:36 -0700, Jeff Liebermann put finger to keyboard and composed:

...

Some might see an inconsistency here. ;-)

- Franc Zabkar

On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:41:38 -0700, "William Sommerwerck" put finger to keyboard and composed:

I use Philips 390CCS contact cleaner. It fixes most of these kinds of problems.

Otherwise, if the contacts are large enough and flat enough, I use a cotton bud and Brasso metal polish.

- Franc Zabkar

In my case, the opposite is true. The charger plug got shmutzik, the connector remained clean.

That wasn't what I was talking about, but I appreciate your filling in the details. Good to know

DeOxit comes pretty close to being a "magic" cleaner. It does most of the work.

Well, this phone is slightly less than six years old. Sprint (or Samsung) is legally obliged to deal with it. I have no desire for an upgrade.

My Palm T3 PDA was purchased at Christmas, 2003. Except for a new battery (replaced in January, 2012), it's working perfectly. Why should I get a new one (or a smartphone) if this one meets my needs?

Part of the issue is that huge pile of electronic trash generated when products become "obsolete" so soon after their introduction.

smiling b****es?

Nope, don't get that one.............my crossword dictionary didn't help either. bullies? baldies? blondes? not going to get mad at smiling blondes eh? JC

ger.

so

two

one.

biddies, or perhaps budgies in a variation of a Monty Python sketch.

A budgie (budgerigar) is a kind of parrot. (Americans call them parakeets.) They might as well have been dead parrots for all the help they provided.

I used to see drum type TV tuners that had been cleaned with Brasso. They were nice shiny brass, after the silver plating was removed by the Brasso. They worked great for about two weeks. Then they had to buy a new tuner.