Within 21 days of getting an HTC Droid Eris, it started behaving erratically. At first, the track ball wouldn't scroll left. Then the track ball would flash erratically at random. And while it was at it, I wouldn't be able to make or receive calls.
The phone was practically useless.
The problem would aggravate with the USB charger plugged in. I inferred that bad design of placing the track ball geographically above the USB port caused structural integrity issues with the contacts or a flimsy PCB inside. I approached Verizon Cust. Supp. They asked me to wipe the ball etc etc... and got me do a factory reset, which as expected would not solve the issue.
Finally I took it to a Verizon Store. They took pity on my poor self on seeing the more than strange behavior and replaced the phone. But, within a couple of weeks, the replacement device also developed identical symptoms. This time around I searched on the internet and found more than 200K results for "Droid Eris track ball issues". Again, Verizon asked me to clean the ball, upgrade to Android 2.1, and did a factory reset. None of which helped of course. All along I kept politely reminding that the original phone had similar issues and about the number of Google hits and said, I was frustrated with "Track Ball" phones from HTC and wanted a phone with no track ball. After 2 months and continual fight, Verizon denies such existing issue and steadfastly refuses to honor my loyalty of many years with Family share plan. Meanwhile the number of Google hits is UP to 300+k. And I on my part am doing my best to point educate users both about Verizon and also Droid Eris. HTC offered to repair the phone, during which period I would be left with no phone. But verizon would have replaced again - with a factory refurbished HTC Eris. I wonder what is happening with HTC built Google Nexus - With a Track Ball. I like Incredible, it has no track ball. Did HTC release a flimsy ERIS into the market - Beta Testing in Production if you will - to get a feel, when their long term plan was for HTC Incredible? Sounds like a conspiracy theory? Who cares. My HTC Droid ERIS with a track ball is not working. Today google hits numbered 618K
"...About 618,000 results (0.33 seconds) ".... Hope Verizon wakes up from slumber.
Edit: Eventually I changed to a used Blackberry until iPhone 4 became available on Verizon Wireless and ... so on and so forth...
