4. Documentation And Support: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

People who have used recent cell phones may find the LG VX5200 easier than some for jumping in and finding their way around without a score card. The attractive little package comes with a mini-CD that shows off what's available, an under 4" x 4" Quick Reference Guide that's easy to take mobile, and a more fleshed out (under 6" x 4.75") User Guide. All three pieces are bilingual, in English and Español. I found during my searches for information beyond what was in the User Guide that the "24-hour tech support" promised in the manual became pre-recorded replies about a few canned topics, none of which answered my questions, after the hours of 6 am - 11 pm Eastern Time Monday through Friday. During regular hours of operation help was astronomically better, with live support reps, short waiting times and consistent courtesy.

I had some real problems with an under-documented button on the phone. Sometimes the button made the phone behave as a recorder of up to 100 one-minute memo type messages. At other times, it would begin speaking commands, such as, "Call Someone" or "Time & Date," and wait for my spoken responses, then try again. I liked the memo recorder, but could not figure out how to disable the voice command function entirely, or interrupt the routine once it got into a loop of asking and behaving as if I had told it to do something other than knock it off. I wanted the recorder alone from that button, but I kept waking up Ms. Pushy.

So I called tech support. After a half hour, the tech support person hadn't figured out how to drag the Ms. Pushy out into the hall and lock the door behind her, or make the recorder boss, as it once had been. The support tech reloaded the phone's factory settings, which took my wallpaper picture off the front page (no big deal), but did get Looping Voice Woman out of my way.

The next day I called support again and spoke to another person who couldn't find documentation for getting rid of the pushy voice either. However, based on his experience with LG phones, he told me to hold down the offending button long enough to give the memo recorder reign. Ms. Pushy hasn't butted in since, but I can still get to her if I want.

This underscores an essential issue with phones today - consumers need to be able to get to and operate the functionality that is already in their phones. In many cases they can't, because the documentation is so limited that neither they nor most tech support representatives can figure things out. Product documentation writers should talk more to people like the second tech who helped me.

One thing that disturbed me about using Verizon's tech support service was the need to provide the last four digits of my social security number each time I called. These can be the key to bank account access and even medical records when combined with a person's name and other information. Interestingly, you have to enter the big four when registering for a Verizon on-line account, but the company says it disposes of this information after using it for credit checks. That's the kind of sensitivity I want to see - I don't want to give the numbers out to everyone who helps me on-line at Verizon.

Conclusions

The Verizon LG VX5200 is a very good camera phone. It's light and relatively small for a phone-camera combo, and features easy entry of contacts. It's great for taking, saving and mailing out a (single) photo, and for recording memos. Finally, the VX5200 is small and light and overall easy to use. Documentation is fine for most routine uses, Verizon's support is friendly and courteous and, if you get the right tech, extremely helpful.