Alcatel open market 4s

[nate0]

is the ffu that is on wdrt have the same variant or is different?

What do you mean?

If you mean the VAR-GSM I pulled?..., that is from the FFU directly.

 

[nate0]

Yeah, the speaker is a software issue. Mine didn't fail until the moment when I flashed the T-Mo firmware. It made that awful sound at the splash screen too, and I forgot about it after that because I never made another call on the device since that day. Then when you said something about it a few weeks ago, I remembered and checked, and sure enough the speaker is distorted. It's something that would be fixed in a firmware update, but we obviously know Alcatel's stance on those.

Until Alcatel figures out a way to fix it, I will keep mailing it back in. Other than the firmware not flashing issue that is the only problem Hardware-wise that has broke on the phones I had. This time I marked it on the RMA page as unlocked and sent it in with the invoice, plus I left it ont he unlocked fw though on the insder build. Will see what happens this week/this time around...

 

[Danial Hilow]

Wasn't that the February change log?

They stated that it bring the OS to 14393.693, among these fixes. There are 3 known issues though. Other than that, I'm not sure if they fixed the same things again or this is an old changelog.

 

[Iain_S]

got a reply from Alcatel yesterday via twitter saying sorry we don't have a timeline for when the ffu and wdrt will be fixed.

 

[Danial Hilow]

got a reply from Alcatel yesterday via twitter saying sorry we don't have a timeline for when the ffu and wdrt will be fixed.

If i believe correctly, you contacted them a few weeks ago? If so, it took them long to reply.
I don't think that it is hard for them to fox the issue, should require much work and time. That is, if they actually know what the problem really is.

 

[aj173]

got a reply from Alcatel yesterday via twitter saying sorry we don't have a timeline for when the ffu and wdrt will be fixed.

The timeline is never. The fix is extremely simple, and if they haven't bothered to do it by now, then they aren't going to do it ever.

 

[nate0]

The timeline is never. The fix is extremely simple, and if they haven't bothered to do it by now, then they aren't going to do it ever.

I wonder why they are not in an even bit of a rush to fix it. I can understand being concerned about it and if I were them there is good reason to be. The second new hottest W10M phone out right now is the IDOL4s..but they have like zero urgency for what could be a simple fix...they have access to their OEM portal to re-publish if they need, all they need is to re-provision a new FFU for that market model. It is as if maybe there is only one guy who has access to all keys over there and he is never around or something. I like to think that maybe someone over there is over thinking it or some other high up approval is needed. How long has it been? Since release February/January? 6 months of Alcatel banking on as few people as possible needing to use the WDRT for the unlocked model. An unnecessary risk if you ask me.

 

[Iain_S]

the only two things I can think of right now that explains all this.

1. They are waiting to provision the new European models and issue the fixed NA variant at the same time.

2. They are clueless and don't give a crap about supporting their devices.

 

[nate0]

the only two things I can think of right now that explains all this.

1. They are waiting to provision the new European models and issue the fixed NA variant at the same time.

2. They are clueless and don't give a crap about supporting their devices.

 

[aj173]

I wonder why they are not in an even bit of a rush to fix it. I can understand being concerned about it and if I were them there is good reason to be. The second new hottest W10M phone out right now is the IDOL4s..but they have like zero urgency for what could be a simple fix...they have access to their OEM portal to re-publish if they need, all they need is to re-provision a new FFU for that market model. It is as if maybe there is only one guy who has access to all keys over there and he is never around or something. I like to think that maybe someone over there is over thinking it or some other high up approval is needed. How long has it been? Since release February/January? 6 months of Alcatel banking on as few people as possible needing to use the WDRT for the unlocked model. An unnecessary risk if you ask me.

Alcatel sold very few of these phones, and a far smaller number of those phones will ever need to be reflashed. Then keep in mind that nobody is switching to Windows Mobile. In fact, a quarter of the remaining 1% of smartphone users left WP in the last year, so there's no incentive to fight hard for market share. There just isn't an economy of scale here that makes it worthwhile for them to care. I'm convinced that this very late introduction of a phone with last year's SoC into Europe is just a way to help draw down excess inventory before the phone is discontinued altogether.

The answer is to just release a blanket unbranded update for all phones, and not care if a few T-Mo phones end up unbranded in the process. I doubt T-Mo would notice or care anyway, seeing how they only sold about 100 of these phones in the whole 2 months they carried it.

 

[RumoredNow]

...T-Mo... only sold about 100 of these phones in the whole 2 months they carried it.

Got Link?

 

[nate0]

How can we get an official statement on this from Alcatel? Nothing vague like we've seen. From my persepective nobody knows except the handful of us here on this thread. They should own up to the mistake and lay the cards out to let us know.

I do not care if the FW update ever happens. That would be icing on the cake if it even happens. What about fixing the FFU. Folks cannot even rollback from insider builds. That is just jacked up. It is even more jacked up that they do not know that first hand before jumping on. They would either have to find out later when it does not work or be cruising around the forums here to notice.

 

[nate0]

Not sure who has posted one of these yet in the feed back hub. If you have share it here and I'll find it and upvote it. Here is mine...

 

[anon(10197358)]

@Nate W

I wondered if there's not a law in the USA that requires a device can be restored to its original state ? Or something like that ?

 

[nate0]

@Nate W

I wondered if there's not a law in the USA that requires a device can be restored to its original state ? Or something like that ?

Haha. I would not doubt that...but TCL is out of China, Alcatel only sells the device. So not sure there is any jurisdiction or the like there to work with...

 

[aj173]

Got Link?

No. But I can do math. If you take the IDC report and extrapolate from that based on their WP sales figures for Q1 2017, we're talking about an order of magnitude of maybe a few hundred of these sold through T-Mo tops. The fact that they only sold this phone for a few weeks before pulling it from their shelves and dumping their inventory at firesale prices lends some credence to my estimate. I've never seen a phone sold like this in my entire life, and especially not a flagship-ish phone with high-end specs.

 

[aj173]

How can we get an official statement on this from Alcatel? Nothing vague like we've seen. From my persepective nobody knows except the handful of us here on this thread. They should own up to the mistake and lay the cards out to let us know.

I do not care if the FW update ever happens. That would be icing on the cake if it even happens. What about fixing the FFU. Folks cannot even rollback from insider builds. That is just jacked up. It is even more jacked up that they do not know that first hand before jumping on. They would either have to find out later when it does not work or be cruising around the forums here to notice.

Yeah, that's my gripe. I understand that a manufacturer might not offer an FFU. And I understand that Insider builds carry some risk. But it's just messed up to publish a broken FFU, leave it up after the community points out that it's broken, and give false assurance that your device can be reverted after a catastrophe. I know that this is Alcatel's fault, but the fact that Microsoft is still hosting the broken FFU at this moment makes them just as responsible. I only put this phone on the Insider program because MICROSOFT'S recovery tool told me that I had a recovery safety net.

 

[aj173]

Haha. I would not doubt that...but TCL is out of China, Alcatel only sells the device. So not sure there is any jurisdiction or the like there to work with...

I'm not a consumer affairs attorney. Or any kind of attorney for that matter. But if the US does have such a law, then the manufacturer would be obligated to obey it if they sold their product or service in the US.

Now you'd just have to find out if such a law exists, and find somebody willing to finance the legal proceedings if it does. I'll pitch in $20. Although given Alcatel's customer service history, they might just call our bluff and stop selling the phone here altogether instead of fixing the FFU.

 

[Danial Hilow]

Not sure who has posted one of these yet in the feed back hub. If you have share it here and I'll find it and upvote it. Here is mine...
http://i.imgur.com/bjWbiJ8.jpg

I upvoted yours and a few others, and also commented on them.
Hopefully others do the same.

 

[9ja]

Not sure who has posted one of these yet in the feed back hub. If you have share it here and I'll find it and upvote it. Here is mine...

http://i.imgur.com/bjWbiJ8.jpg

I did upvote your post n made a comment as well.