My Droid X Horror Story (don't pull the "pull" tab)

[danzilla911]

I ordered my Droid X at a local Verizon store on 7/23, and was super excited when it arrived on 7/27 (i hate waiting for packages). As i am taking it out of the box and removing all the wrapping, I see the pull tab, and I was a little confused because there was no reference of this tab in the "Getting Started" guide. i removed the "pull" tab from the battery compartment. As i'm sure you have heard by now, this is not a very smart thing to do. I would find this out later, the hard way.

So i continue assembling the phone, put the battery in place, plug in the power cord, and power up the phone. The first thing i see is a battery symbol that has a "?" through it. When i turn the phone on, i get an error that says "Invalid Motorola Battery". Hmmm, thats weird. So i go through the activation of the phone, and get it working. I notice that the battery symbol still has the "?" through it. I remove the power cord, and the phone goes dead. I put the charger back in, and the all i get is the "?" battery symbol.

So i take the phone to the Verizon Store where i bought it, and they told me i wasnt supposed to pull out the "pull" tab. They fiddle with the phone for a while, trying different batteries, chargers, reapplying the "pull" tab, and have no success.

So, they end up having to order me a replacement phone, which they said would be delivered today, and yet never was. I have yet to receive an email confirmation of shipping.

Moral of the Story: Don't pull the pull tab.

Sorry for the rant, but i figured i would be the guinea pig for everyone else. From the research i've done, seems like i'm not the one who's pulled the tab out, but i haven't heard of anyone else who's phone would not charge bc of it. Any one else had this problem?

Thanks,
- Dan

 

[bje1982]

I ordered my Droid X at a local Verizon store on 7/23, and was super excited when it arrived on 7/27 (i hate waiting for packages). As i am taking it out of the box and removing all the wrapping, I see the pull tab, and I was a little confused because there was no reference of this tab in the "Getting Started" guide. i removed the "pull" tab from the battery compartment. As i'm sure you have heard by now, this is not a very smart thing to do. I would find this out later, the hard way.

So i continue assembling the phone, put the battery in place, plug in the power cord, and power up the phone. The first thing i see is a battery symbol that has a "?" through it. When i turn the phone on, i get an error that says "Invalid Motorola Battery". Hmmm, thats weird. So i go through the activation of the phone, and get it working. I notice that the battery symbol still has the "?" through it. I remove the power cord, and the phone goes dead. I put the charger back in, and the all i get is the "?" battery symbol.

So i take the phone to the Verizon Store where i bought it, and they told me i wasnt supposed to pull out the "pull" tab. They fiddle with the phone for a while, trying different batteries, chargers, reapplying the "pull" tab, and have no success.

So, they end up having to order me a replacement phone, which they said would be delivered today, and yet never was. I have yet to receive an email confirmation of shipping.

Moral of the Story: Don't pull the pull tab.

Sorry for the rant, but i figured i would be the guinea pig for everyone else. From the research i've done, seems like i'm not the one who's pulled the tab out, but i haven't heard of anyone else who's phone would not charge bc of it. Any one else had this problem?

Thanks,
- Dan

That tab is for when your batteries in the phone so you can pull out the battery ha sorry to hear about your luck I hope those replacements arnt backordered..

 

[Jon Vito]

yea i knew about this from reading on the forums...

got my phone today at work (im a manager at a sports bar)... im taking my phone out of the packaging with about 5 ppl gathered around and while im unwrapping the battery one of the cooks takes the phone and says "whats this?" and starts to pull the pull tab!

i flipped and about kicked him in his nuts...thankfully he didnt pull too hard

 

[danzilla911]

yeah i've seen alot of forums about pulling the tab since I broke mine. I haven't heard of another phone not accepting the battery like mine, tho. Has anyone had this experience?

 

[shishibeach]

I did it too, but put it back

I worked pretty hard to pull that tab out...put the battery in and went on my merry way. A couple of days later I read your sad story here....and panicked. Luckily I had saved that sticky little pull tab thing, so I found it and put it back into the phone, put the battery in, and all seems to be fine....no wonder I had such a hard time getting that battery out the first time I tried!

 

[jmims]

Woooowww... I just ordered one yesterday, but it's not due to get here until next Friday. Glad I came across this post, as I surely would have pulled it. Thanks!

 

[danzilla911]

yeah. they guy at the store said he'd seen 5 other phones with the tab pulled out. Gotta love a bad design.

 

[chad_petree]

any pictures? i still dont get it ( im not from the us xD )

 

[danzilla911]

i dont have any pictures, since they took the phone away. But you can see a picture of it here. BTW they have recently announced that removing the tag won't void the warranty

Don't void your Droid X warranty: The 'Pull' tag is for the battery | Android Central

 

[Spinninghorse]

Yup, I did the same thing. Also saved it and put it back in. Every thing works fine.

 

[FireDroid]

This is not a bad design, it was common sense when I saw it! A ton of electronics have these battery pull tabs to get the battery out.

I have been seeing a trend of people jumping to smart phones yet they dont fully understand something about it and blame the design or software ect...

Take responsibility and admit that you screwed up and instead of reading the quick start guide you just started going to town.

I suggest reading the starter guide next time.

 

[danzilla911]

FireDroid I beg to differ. If you happened to read my post carefully, you would see that I consulted the "Getting Started" Guide about the pull tab before i removed it and there is no mention or picture of it anywhere. Even on the User Guide, which is not included with the phone, you cannot even see the pull tab unless you zoom waaaayyy in on the PDF, and the tab in the diagram is a different color than on the actual device. There is no mention of the pull tab or any battery removal device in the entire "Getting Started" guide or the User Guide.

You're correct in the fact that i did not understand the purpose of the pull tab, but the fact that hundreds if not thousands of people have done the same thing i did proves that this is a design flaw. Nobody would intentionally damage their brand new phone.

I admit that i messed up my phone, but if the pull tab was properly labeled this would not be an issue for so many people. You should not have to be an electronics expert to correctly operate a cell phone.

 

[JonKyu]

FireDroid I beg to differ. If you happened to read my post carefully, you would see that I consulted the "Getting Started" Guide about the pull tab before i removed it and there is no mention or picture of it anywhere. Even on the User Guide, which is not included with the phone, you cannot even see the pull tab unless you zoom waaaayyy in on the PDF, and the tab in the diagram is a different color than on the actual device. There is no mention of the pull tab or any battery removal device in the entire "Getting Started" guide or the User Guide.

You're correct in the fact that i did not understand the purpose of the pull tab, but the fact that hundreds if not thousands of people have done the same thing i did proves that this is a design flaw. Nobody would intentionally damage their brand new phone.

I admit that i messed up my phone, but if the pull tab was properly labeled this would not be an issue for so many people. You should not have to be an electronics expert to correctly operate a cell phone.

I've seen this in a few nokia phones. I think it's not about bad design (because I think it's a pretty genius lol, efficient and cost effective) but more of bad labeling/communication lol blame the info designers! I'm sure if it was labeled correctly and in the documented better people wouldn't have tried to take it out.

 

[HemiDroid03]

Lol! I've had my DX for about a week and a half now and upon unboxing it... First thing I do is PULL THE TAB! LOL!... NOW I'm reading this post and it makes so much sense, the battery is a PITA to get out, well I have the tab put away, hopefully it still sticks!

But lucky me, I have NO problems with my phone, except for the horrible battery life....

 

[polwar]

FireDroid I beg to differ. If you happened to read my post carefully, you would see that I consulted the "Getting Started" Guide about the pull tab before i removed it and there is no mention or picture of it anywhere. Even on the User Guide, which is not included with the phone, you cannot even see the pull tab unless you zoom waaaayyy in on the PDF, and the tab in the diagram is a different color than on the actual device. There is no mention of the pull tab or any battery removal device in the entire "Getting Started" guide or the User Guide.

You're correct in the fact that i did not understand the purpose of the pull tab, but the fact that hundreds if not thousands of people have done the same thing i did proves that this is a design flaw. Nobody would intentionally damage their brand new phone.

I admit that i messed up my phone, but if the pull tab was properly labeled this would not be an issue for so many people. You should not have to be an electronics expert to correctly operate a cell phone.

I've seen this in a few nokia phones. I think it's not about bad design (because I think it's a pretty genius lol, efficient and cost effective) but more of bad labeling/communication lol blame the info designers! I'm sure if it was labeled correctly and in the documented better people wouldn't have tried to take it out.

Yeah documentation like DO NOT REMOVE would be nice on the attached part :icon_eek: lol