Questions for those with Verizon cell phones

[kakn7294]

I very recently switched to Verizon as my cellular carrier. I'm really confused about some of the services and features and can't seem to get a straight answer from Verizon employees - in fact, I really don't know what I'm paying for monthly yet, that's how confused the guy at the store had me. Anyway, DH and I each got the LG VX8350 and my girls each got the Motorola Razr V3m. I have a number of questions and hope someone here can help me out.

First, I can send ringtones from Myxer to the LG phones but not the Razrs - well let me clarify, I can send them to the Razrs but they have to be saved as a "sound" and cannot be made into a ringtone - apparently the function that used to be able to do this has been locked out by Verizon. Is there any way to change that? I really don't want to pay for Verizon's ringtones when I can customize and download them for free elsewhere.

Second, I'd like to download music to the phones - do I need the Music Essentials kit from Verizon or can I just use Windows Media Player or Rhapsody with a USB cable? I'm betting that I'll need it with the Razrs! If I do buy the Music Essentials kit, can I use it with either phone as long as I have the appropriate USB cables? Is there an internet usage charge involved with sending music to the phones? My phone has internet included but the other 3 do not.

Third, can I get games from places other than Verizon? I really hate to spend a lot on games they will tire of quickly, but they do want a few each and the Verizon ones are pretty expensive at $7 to $12 each.

Last, with the removeable memory cards, can I download content such as music or games on my LG phone (the one with the Vcast pack) on a card then use it in the Motorola phones? I assume the games would be a "no", but I'm not sure about the music since I believe that you save it to your card in the phone.

Help please!!! Thanks!

[disneydeb]

I wish I could help. I've had Verizon for years and I get NO help with most of their employees.

I recently went on to get a buy one get 3 free promotion. My husband was the only one with an old phone, and they would not let me in on the promotion Isn't that something like FALSE ADVERTISING?

Such a racket!:mad:

Sorry about the rant.

[DizneyRox]

Can't help with the problems, but I can confirm that many of the providers lock out certain features of the phones. There ARE ways to unlock the phones, depending on the model, etc, but doing so will void your warrenty on the phone most likely.

I will say, I've been pleasantly surprised with the capabilities of the AT&T phones. I was expecting to have to unlock mine as well, but out of the box I can do just about everything. I still am looking at debranding the phone, but I don't get much by doing that, so I'll leave it until the warranty is over.

[IC10]

I think Verizon wireless emplayees are trained to confuse. They once "lost" a $300.00 payment of mine. Even with my cancelled check it took almost a year to get fixed....ugh. Nope you are stuck with their games. As for the music I will ask my son when he gets up since somehow all of our phones are full and we did not but anything.

I do love the coverage I get from them and most of the time I love Verizon as long as I do need them to answer anything for me.

[1DisneyNut]

First Motorola phones are known to be a real pain in the rear to deal with. You can put your SD card in the computer (if your computer has a SD card slot and you will most likely have to put it in the micro SD to SD adapter that should have came with the card. If your computer doesn't have a SD card slot you can buy a card reader/writer for about $15 at most retailers such as walmart and bestbuy). Once you connect it to the computer it will show up as a storage device like a hard drive under my computer. Open it and you can then drag and drop music from your music folder. When you put your card back in the phone navigate to your music and they should be there.
Now for ringtones you can download a freeware program called "Bitpim" on your computer that basically works around the ringtone issues with most verizon phones but the motorolas may still be a little problematic. You will need the usb cables for your phones to connect them to the computer. Bitpim is easy to use after you play around with it for a few minutes and become familiar with it. You can also make your own ringtones using regular music editors and load them to your phone manually by opening your phone as a storage device on your computer and navigating to the "brew 16452" folder but this method is a little more advanced for the average user. Now as far as texting them from one phone to another for use as a ringtone, verizon is constantly trying to prevent this using software updates to try to force people to buy ringtones. The last time I checked you could text them but you have to send them as a picture message instead of a text message. I'm not sure that still works though.

[dolphinmickey9170]

Hey Kathy, we have Verizon and Ben's is the Razr and mine is the krazr. I have myxer tones on mine with no problem. There is another website that you can get free ringtones from, you just have to pay the text message fee. But the only way I could do them was to email them (they show you step by step how to do that) to my yahoo account and then send them to my phone. It worked on both mine and Ben's phone. We used phonezoo

As for your other questions, I would have no clue about any of it. I have had this service for almost three years and didn't even know until recently that I had internet access on our phones. DUH!! I'm not too technically savvy.

[kakn7294]

Hey Kristen! We can now call each other on our cell phones for free - how cool is that? We have unlimited text messaging so there won't be any texting charges to send ringtones by e-mail. I'll have to try that site. I'm told though that the newest version of the Razr cannot accept ringtones by e-mail either. It will take the Myxer ringtones but as a "sound" rather than a "ringtone" and I can't change it over to a ringtone - I guess that is something else they recently changed as well. People with older Razrs reported being able to change "sounds" to ringtones but ours don't have the option.

[1DisneyNut]

I guess my post must be a little too technical since you didn't respond. Anyway, verizon has been trying to force people to buy their ringtones instead of making their own or using the free ones found on some sites. Bitpim as I mentioned works for making and loading your own ringtones for most of verizons phones. LG's and Samsungs are the best phones as far as playing around with and making your own ringtones and wallpapers. Its a snap on those. Motorola's however can be problematic and that is why I haven't had a motorola in years. They keep trying to shut down the loophole that most nontechies use to get free ringtones and that is the emailing or pix messaging them to your phone. Depending on your phones current software version you may or may not be able to email/pix message them, save in my sounds and then select options and set as a ringtone. They must be in MP3 format to work. Old formats such as MIDI don't work on the new phones using this method. If that doesn't work and you want to have a little fun you can download a freeware app called P2K that is for Motorola phones. You will have to use a sound editing app such as audacity to chop your ringtone first and save it(make sure it is MP3). You then use P2K to load it to your phones sound folder via a usb cable for your phone.

[Ed]

Y'all lost me waaaaayyyyyy back there.:confused:

Am I the only person left in the world that uses my cell phone to make calls and answer calls....period....amen.....alleluia ?? :(

I guess I'm just getting :old:

;)

[disneydrmr]

Y'all lost me waaaaayyyyyy back there.:confused:

Am I the only person left in the world that uses my cell phone to make calls and answer calls....period....amen.....alleluia ?? :(

I guess I'm just getting :old:

;)

:D Nope.. you are not the only person... guess there are two of us! :D

Just wanted to add that when dealing with Verizon make sure you are dealing with an actual "CORPORATE" store and not an "authorized dealer"... we ran into this issue and well.. it was quite ugly... I'm not saying you get better or faster service that way.. but the 'authorized dealers' are stand alone places who can basically set some of their own policies...

[kakn7294]

I guess my post must be a little too technical since you didn't respond. Anyway, verizon has been trying to force people to buy their ringtones instead of making their own or using the free ones found on some sites. Bitpim as I mentioned works for making and loading your own ringtones for most of verizons phones. LG's and Samsungs are the best phones as far as playing around with and making your own ringtones and wallpapers. Its a snap on those. Motorola's however can be problematic and that is why I haven't had a motorola in years. They keep trying to shut down the loophole that most nontechies use to get free ringtones and that is the emailing or pix messaging them to your phone. Depending on your phones current software version you may or may not be able to email/pix message them, save in my sounds and then select options and set as a ringtone. They must be in MP3 format to work. Old formats such as MIDI don't work on the new phones using this method. If that doesn't work and you want to have a little fun you can download a freeware app called P2K that is for Motorola phones. You will have to use a sound editing app such as audacity to chop your ringtone first and save it(make sure it is MP3). You then use P2K to load it to your phones sound folder via a usb cable for your phone.Your post wasn't too technical, I didn't respond to your post because I've been working and haven't had a chance to check out the website you mentioned. My previous attempts to get free ringtones through Myxer were only half successful. I did save the files as MP3's - the problem is that the Motorola phones have had the "save as ringtone" feature disabled. I can save what I've sent to the phone as a "sound" and hear it just fine but not convert that "sound" to a ringtone. It's my understanding from other Razr owners that this is a new occurance on Verizon's part. The LG's work just fine.


Y'all lost me waaaaayyyyyy back there.:confused:

Am I the only person left in the world that uses my cell phone to make calls and answer calls....period....amen.....alleluia ?? :(

I guess I'm just getting :old:

;)Nah, not really. I'm just having a great deal of fun with mine because my old phone (over 4 yrs old now) didn't do ANYTHING but make and receive calls and text messages (which I didn't do anyway). It only held a few ringtones and had a few really stinky games. I'm the only one in my family who doesn't have an MP3 player or video game system and since my new phone does it all, it's kinda fun having my own personal electronic gizmo. Unfortunately, the :old: person in me doesn't fully understand all this technical stuff - I just know I want it!!!

Now what I need to know is how to save music files to the phones so we can use them as MP3 players. Do I need Verizon's Music Essentials kit or not? I don't want to spend any more money than necessary.

[1DisneyNut]

You don't need the music essentials kit. If your computer has a SD card slot you can insert the micro SD card using the Full size SD adapter that should have came with it. If your computer doesn't have a SD card slot go buy a card reader/writer which only cost about $15. Then just copy the mp3's you want over to the micro SD card. Reinsert in your phone and you should have your music.