What went wrong, what is being recalled, and why we haven’t reported on this until now.
I know that a lot of people read this site daily, and that I can potentially cost Sprint a lot of money when I report something. So, when it comes to reporting on a recall of a flagship product, I become very hesitant unless I not only know all the information, but the extent to which the problem is occuring. The Hitachi G1000 has a recall out currently as well, I haven’t reported on it because, well, the problem is so small, and most users aren’t effected. I know that if I start running headlines over every recall, there will be a certain number of users that will go to the nearest Sprint Store the same day and demand a replacement unit, even if their current handset isn’t suffering from the recall issue.
That said, and I stress that you don’t skip over what I said, here are the details. The VM4500, hardware revisions 100 and 101 have a recall out on them, for two issues. The first is that the handset may not receive all incoming calls. The other is that the handset may begin a constant redialing loop, making it impossible to place calls for a long period, until it breaks the loop.
While both of these issues sound like something that would be detected by the HP test, phones suffering these issues will completely pass the diagnostic.
The other reason this hasn’t been headlined is that, until recently, bad batches have continued to be produced, increasing the chances of getting yet another bad unit. The good news is that a new hardware revision, 201, has been released that solves this issue.
If you have a Sanyo VM4500 with hardware revisions 100 or 101 (you can check this under phone info or by dialing ##786 > OK Key > Save Phone Number), and you are suffering from either of the above issues, take the phone to your nearest Sprint Store and have the rep check the recall notices on their intranet if they are not aware of the recall issue already.
Once again, if you are not suffering from these issues, do not have your handset replaced just because there is a recall out there. You will stress the supply of new units and there is a chance you may get an older (and potentially defective) unit as well.
