My cell phone

[shaper]

I am having some problems with my cell phone. Lately it has not sent or received my calls. I punch in the number, it will ring one time then shut off. incoming calls will ring once and shut off. very frustrated . I'm not looking forward to going to Verizon with it, they only want to sell me the latest and greatest of what ever they have in the store.
My phone is a Galaxy S5 4c. The lens has a few cracks in it. I know it is dated but I like it. I use my phone as a phone and I do texting. I don't buy anything with it. So what are my options, what would you do?

[skeettx]

Well? Have you tried with the charger plugged in?
Could be a weak battery and you can get a new
one on the web.

[2wheelDuke]

I know this sounds obvious, but have you power cycled it? I had a similar issue a few weeks ago with my S7. Turning it off for a minute then back on again worked for me.

Also, you don't necessarily have to get the latest and greatest. When I got my phone a year ago, they were pushing the latest whiz-bang phones. I had an S5 that I clumsily destroyed, and because of work, I needed a new phone that day.

I was open to the "latest and greatest" so long as I could sell myself on it. I played with them all in store, and even gave the iPhones a look, since my girlfriend and several other people I know swear by the Apples.

The Galaxy S8 was nice, but the layout was different compared to the S5 I had. The S7 was cheaper and still had the home button and everything where I was used to having them.

[GhostHawk]

2 words. Consumer Cellular.

[bosterr]

My wife and I switched from Verizon to Cricket. I went from a flip phone to a FREE smart phone. The reason mine was free and my wife's wasn't is mine dosn't have wi-fi assisted calls. Our area is very cell signal weak and helps her calling in and out. Cricket is owned by AT&T and uses their towers. The best part is we saved $60. per month immediately and we have unlimited texting, data, and long distance.

[mold maker]

+ 1 on consumer cellular

Everything from the simplest flip fone to the latest greatest for cheap.

[Adam20]

Phone or battery might be bad, I buy refurbished phones 3-4 models old they work fine and cheap.
Verizon service or whoever uses there towers is the only one that works decent in my area.

[shaper]

I had the battery replaced about six months ago and I shut it down every night for charging. This morning I had a call about 15 minutes after turning it back on, it would not accept it after the first ring.

[Pipefitter]

I use ATT, 4 lines on my account (mine, my wife, my daughter, and my mother-in law). $20 a month for insurance for the 4 phones with a $50 deductible. When my old slider phone died I went to ATT wireless store and they had in stock were $600+ smart phones. I drove across the street to Meijer (kinda like Wal-Mart) and bought an older model ATT compatible pre-paid smart phone for $50. Took it back to ATT and had them change out the sim card with my old one, transfer all the data from old phone to the new one (no charge for this) and then dropped the insurance because I could buy a new phone at Meijer for the cost of the deductible.

[bedbugbilly]

+1 to ghost hawk . . . . never had an issue and since I'm "old" . . . I still use my "old" flip phone. There's days I wished mine would only ring once and then not connect . . . .

[Conditor22]

BBB, I hate unsolicited calls. I do have an older smartphone, I downloaded ZEDGE (kind of a battery hog) and spent hours choosing and assigning ringtones to everyone on my caller list then I can choose whatever ringtone I want for ALL then numbers I don't know or no ringtone at all. Then If I hear (or don't hear but feel only a vibration) I'm in no hurry to answer the phone.

[bob208]

we have consumer cellular now have had them for years. but found out they back aarp and aarp gave a lot of money to get p pelosi elected. and we will not support that B in any way.

the wife and I are both retired and are inundated with aarp junk mail. it makes a good fire starter.

we are in amac.

[largom]

Try taking battery out, clean contacts with alcohol and reinstall. If this doesn't work might need new battery. Sounds like battery only has enough juice for one ring.

[jcren]

Try taking the sim card out and cleaning the gold part with a pencil eraser. Lots of phones (and other electronics) get replaced due to a film of corrosion in various contacts causing flakey issues. Pencil erasers have just enough abrasive to remove corrosion and leaves clean surface for contact.

[William Yanda]

Being a reluctant user of cell phones, when I lost my flip phone about 18 months ago I bought a reconditioned Samsung Convoy four for under $40. I later found the original but am happy with the Convoy 4. I text, talk, and take pictures and battery life is reasonable.

[William Yanda]

PLUS 1K on AMAC. It is the alternative to left leaning aarp.

[jimlj]

Right now the local wallyworld has a Samsung J3V for under $20. If you are already on Verison you have to put it on your phone plan and make at least 1 payment of $ .75 and can pay the rest off the next month if you are flush in the $18 it takes to do it. I assume all wallyworlds have them. Basic "smart" phone that is way smarter than this dumb user.
I had an Apple iPhone that went swimming and refused to pay $600 plus for a replacement.

[shaper]

found the answer. My sister and her husband came in for a visit. next day she is complaining her phone will not receive or send a phone call. From that I can say Verizon signal is not coming to my house. i will go talk to them Monday.

[Pipefitter]

Check the wi-fi connection on your phone, you can set it to automatically connect to your home wi-fi.
Another option would be to get a "Micro cell", a mini cell tower that ties in to your internet connection and provides cell phone coverage for only the numbers that you allow (so that you are not eating up bandwidth providing cell coverage to all your neighbors).

[myg30]

Pipefitter, I’m on ATT and they gave me a micro cell years ago because the cell sig. in the area was poor.
Now with the ability to do WiFi calling on most phones they are wanting to get away from micro cells. Att told me to stop using mine. Very little support or updates for them in my area anyway.

To the OP shaper, I hope you have resolved your cell issues. Most folks did away with home phones and rely fully on cells.

Mike