This is a nightmare.

[b4nj0]

Some time ago my dad got phones and a family plan from our local Verizon store without doing any prior research. The salesman assured him that he was getting a good model, and we've had Verizon for a while, so he trusted that he was getting a sweet deal.

When the Kin 2's arrived I hopped online to read more about them and found that not only were they discontinued, but there would be no further updates or support, and any "apps" lead to dead links or endless loading. They would randomly go off without a call being made; alternately, sometimes you weren't alerted about a call until several days later. Flash didn't load on the browser, the screen would blank out and not turn back on until the battery was taken out and the phone reset, and I've had three phones that would endlessly cycle on and off without allowing me to do anything on them. It was inconvenient and irritating the first time it happened and one of the fail replacements I got was a prison phone. I wasn't allowed to receive calls, send or receive texts, and when I called someone else, they would get a pre-recorded collect call message about accepting charges from a correctional institution.

The phones are useless. Everyone uses other phones because these are so terrible and we're stuck paying for them. We can't afford to drop out of the contract early but would hope out of customer loyalty and common decency, Verizon will let us choose another model.

[sanford727]

Are you sure it was a Coporate Verizon store and not a Retail verizon store. Retail verizon stores sell phones at a cheap price because they smash you with hidden fees and their phones are usually junk. Also it was kinda not a goood idea to go out and purchase a bunch of phones without doing any prior research. That is like going to a meeting for work and not having anything prepared ahead of time. I have never heard of prison's using cell phones for prisoner phone calls. That is strange. Basically you cna call customer service and as longa s you have not misused the device to break it they will repalce it or give you a comparable device to trade it for.

[b4nj0]

Yeah, the whole deal is a mess. My dad is getting up there in years and has had a stroke in the past, things like this just happen sometime and in this case, it's destroying our monthly budget.

I've never heard of prison phones either, I always thought they had the telephones on either side of glass or webcam-like devices in special booths. Then again, I've never visited anyone in prison and have thankfully never spent time as a guest of the state, so I can't say for sure. It might have been an issue with the number rather than the phone itself.

I "traded in" my first phone. That replacement as well as those subsequent have been "certified used" or whatever they call pre-owned phones, which makes sense seeing as they don't make them anymore. It just keeps happening over and over again, and they accept that I haven't done damage to them, but no amount of store visits or calling customer service will get us different phones. We've all been trying for about a year now.

[B33]

Were you having any issues with this phone before your 14 Day trial or did it start after.

[gina7239]

I had a thunderbolt that was a pain repeatly replacing it 8 times rebooting everything. I would ask tech if they can replace it with something else. Tell em ur story like u told us and they might work it out for u if u are in a good status payment wise. They would probably give u 2-3 options. Tell em u need good working phones. It might work.

[commonsense101]

And i'm guessing in 2 months your replace model is going to have problems.

[bigtitan]

Sorry, sounds like a bad situation....not to beat you over the head but I guess part of the lesson here should be to NEVER buy anything without doing your research.  As far as the follow up replacements and poor service, what was VZW's actual response?  In any case, it might end up being easier/cheaper to buy a few used phones from one of the retailers out there to at least get you through to the end of your contract...

[gina7239]

I did research and sometimes it is an update that messes it up. It is a policy of Verizon if something is wrong and they don't have any of that model they will switch it for u. Since I assume the kin brand did not sell as much they might not have as much. U should ask if ur one of those that can switch.

[#9]

b4nj0,

I'm sure this is very frustrating for you. I would love to offer assistance to troubleshoot the concerns you have with the KIN 2. I understand from the beginning you were disappointed by the performance of the phone by the research you did then. Every phone is not for every body, that is exactly why we have our 14 day return period. I'm curious at that time the phones were not returned? Have these several issues been on each device or do you find each phone has its own issues? Flash is not available on the browser, that is why this feature would not work for you. The issue with correctional facilities sounds like you may have had call forwarding activated on the device, which is an easy fix of dialing *73 to remove. If these concerns continue to exist, please feel free to send me a direct message for further support.

Thank you,

AdamE_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[b4nj0]

Sorry for the time it took to reply, I was away.

I think it was a matter of pride on my dad's part that kept us from wanting to return the phones. He's used this company (Alltel before it was bought out) for as long as he's used cell phones, and he's an older gentleman, so he was reluctant to make waves. No one seemed to want to listen to me when I first looked on the internet about the phones, it took them completely breaking down and having to be replaced repeatedly by other broken, used Kins to even go to the Verizon store and call the company to complain. 

Everyone but my mother and I are now using other phones and services to get around using the Kins, but we can't afford to do that. We've had issues with Verizon but understand that every large company has its pains in the butt sometimes, so we don't plan on dropping our plans. We're just feeling kind of cheated by these phones and our inability to get rid of them.