My friends HATE my iPhone!

[Velodog2]

No, it's not because they are jealous of the sleek interface, or the full web browser, or the cool video iPod...

IT'S BECAUSE THEY CAN'T FREAKIN' TALK TO ME ON IT!

Them: What did you say?
me: I must be in a bad signal location, let me move...
Them: What?
me: Still can't hear me?
Them: Huh? You're breaking up.
me: Arggh, it must be this phone again.
Them: What did you say?
me: Oh fine, I'll just send you a text.
Them: What?
me (going to get my Razr to put my SIM card into): Nevermind.

It's not a new problem and doesn't happen all the time, but it's infuriating when it does happen and I actually did finally switch back to my old phone to make some calls this weekend.

Just ranting. I feel better.

 

[Lincoln]

I must say I'm not too happy with volume either. However, people can hear me when I'm talking, I just can't hear them all to well. This is not the iPhone's problem; it's AT&T.

 

[slingshot110]

Amazing Tech, Lousy Net

Unlike your friends, I hear you loud and clear. In my opinion, the iPhone is the best phone ever made as long as you don't try to make/receive a phone call. That said, I cannot fault Apple for this, they created a truly amazing piece of tech. I place all of the blame squarely on the shoulders of AT&T's crappy network. When I had Verizon, I never had 1 dropped call and got full bars everywhere in my city & home. With AT&T, dropped & static laden calls are the norm and I can only get service in my home if I stand in the corner of the living room (while balancing on 1 foot w/ a tin foil hat on my head). The fact that I have absolutely no intention of giving up my iPhone and switching back to the reliable (albeit boring) Verizon network speaks volumes to how good a job Apple has done with the phone. Hopefully AT&T will get their act together.

 

[ahaxton]

Until I got an iPhone, I never had problems on the AT&T network.
It is Apple's fault and it's better that way, because it can be fixed in hopefully a short time.

I still love the iPhone though. Just use my bluetooth headset instead, so I can hear people more easily

 

[nobbie]

See, for me, I rarely go over 200 minutes a month on phone calls. Usually, there of the "Oh, practice got out early? I'll be right there." nature. I mostly surf the net, send and receive emails and play games on my phone. Hence, why I love the iPhone sooo much!

 

[Hawk]

Volume issues are a Harware issue- unless you are trying to cite Static.
I've been on ATT since about "95 through their Cingular days, and still with them now that they are the NEW AT&T.
I have an iPhone and I don't have problems with people hearing me or me hearing them. same with the 4 different phone I had before M'iPhone
I would tell you to back up your Data, and do a restore and make sure you are on 1.0.2 for the phone software. If that doesn't help, or tomorrow's pending software release doesn't improve volume, then i saw contact CS.
There is no way on this planet that Apple is going to want you to be walking around bitching about how crappy the volume is. They will make it right.

 

[slingshot110]

The problems I have w/ the phone are a lack of good coverage in my area. There are A LOT of dead spots in my neighborhood - I get a full signal in my living room, but zero signal 20 feet away in my office. If I lived in a rural area, this would be understandable, but I live in San Francisco (in the city itself, not in a suburb close to the city). I have also experienced evenings of repeated dropped calls - these seem to be particularly bad on Fridays around quittin time...hmmm...I wonder if that has to do w/ people being stuck in traffic, making calls, and overwhelming AT&T's network?

I can't speak for the OP, but the problems I am having seem to be network related.

 

[ahaxton]

Unless you have anothe AT&T phone to try like a razr, I wouldn't come to any conclusions. Signal issues are obviously the iPhone. I have never had stuff like this happen before on AT&T:
signal bounces from 5 to 1 and back to 5, or from 5 to no service then back to 5 all in one spot.

 

[Indy]

I can sympathize with the OP on the bad coverage area deal. Although I don't use att yet nor have an iPhone, I am on tmobiles network and pretty much outside the city limits you can forget about it. VERY FRUSTRATING! Especially since my job requires me to travel all over the state!

 

[x999x]

MY iPhone HATES YOUR FRIENDS!1!

 

[Velodog2]

MY iPhone HATES YOUR FRIENDS!1!

Lol who can blame it?

If u read closely u will see that I switched back to my razor, on att. The implication is that doing so helped. And its true. Same network, same location. iPhone = sucks for actual phone calls, at least in marginal coverage areas like mine. Other phones = much better. I love my iPhone but its just plain embarrassing to not be able to make a phone call on your $600 'phone'.

Ps. It has nothing to do with iPhone volume - its they who cannot hear/understand me. Jeez people.

 

[x999x]

My Pebl can't get reception in my office, my iPhone does. Odd.

You might want to try taking your phone in for an exchange at an Apple store, your antenna may be defective, because you're right, this thing cost 600 bux so it had better work as intended.

 

[iLLGT2]

My problem only lies within the hardware/phone speaker volume itself not att's actual service or the iPhones antenna, that's flawless for me!

 

[fosterhere]

Unlike your friends, I hear you loud and clear. In my opinion, the iPhone is the best phone ever made as long as you don't try to make/receive a phone call. That said, I cannot fault Apple for this, they created a truly amazing piece of tech. I place all of the blame squarely on the shoulders of AT&T's crappy network. When I had Verizon, I never had 1 dropped call and got full bars everywhere in my city & home. With AT&T, dropped & static laden calls are the norm and I can only get service in my home if I stand in the corner of the living room (while balancing on 1 foot w/ a tin foil hat on my head). The fact that I have absolutely no intention of giving up my iPhone and switching back to the reliable (albeit boring) Verizon network speaks volumes to how good a job Apple has done with the phone. Hopefully AT&T will get their act together.

THATS EXACTLY HOW I FEEL. I was a Verizon customer before the iPhone and the network was as good as a land line.

 

[Velodog2]

THATS EXACTLY HOW I FEEL. I was a Verizon customer before the iPhone and the network was as good as a land line.

Just to belabor the point a lil more, lol...

It sounds like some of u changed TWO things at once: your network and your phone. You may be blaming problems on the wrong one. I kept the same network and only changed the phone.

Now I'm not saying its entirely the iPhones fault. Since it doesn't give me problems all the time in a particular location, the difference is probably due to quality of the signal, which is att. BUT, the problem of not being able to work with those marginal signal conditions, when other phones have demonstrated that they can, is the fault of the iPhone. Its an interaction: marginal signal + marginal phone = bad call quality. Whereas marginal signal + good phone = acceptable call quality. I wonder how many people are blaming the wrong entity?

 

[haridsv]

Just to belabor the point a lil more, lol...

It sounds like some of u changed TWO things at once: your network and your phone. You may be blaming problems on the wrong one. I kept the same network and only changed the phone.

Now I'm not saying its entirely the iPhones fault. Since it doesn't give me problems all the time in a particular location, the difference is probably due to quality of the signal, which is att. BUT, the problem of not being able to work with those marginal signal conditions, when other phones have demonstrated that they can, is the fault of the iPhone. Its an interaction: marginal signal + marginal phone = bad call quality. Whereas marginal signal + good phone = acceptable call quality. I wonder how many people are blaming the wrong entity?

This is exactly the kind of information I am looking for. I am in a weak signal area and my Treo650 gets between 1 to 3 bars most of the time (and I can actually make and receive calls), where as my W800i almost never has any signal (phone saying no coverage, or emergency calls only), unless I take it to a corner in the second floor. I am interested to get iPhone, but now worried that its reception will be as bad as my w800i. Thanks to Velodog2 for doing the comparisonl.

It is sad that most replies here deviated from the OP's intentions, talking about either the volume or comparing Apples to oranges (verizon to AT&T).
It will be useful if others can compare their iPhones to a different phone at the same location on the same network (preferably at the same time) and confirm OP's observation wrt. to the signal strength or call quality.

 

[Hawk]

My iPhones reception is generally at least 1-2 bars better than my wife's razr, and yes, we are both on ATT

 

[TomTomTuning]

respect ion isn't a problem for me.. its call volume.

I usually tell them to old while i plug my head phones in.
Which sucks..

I might get a blue tooth headset. but was never a fan of them.

I have a blue tooth head set i got from Warhack (ps3 game) and i tired it on my iPhone it worked and seem good. but it was unconformable so i think ill try to buy a nice one.

 

[JMG]

My friends (and kids) hate my iPhone too. Becuz they r JEALOUS!

 

[mrgisriel]

I personally have had Cingular/AT&T for ever actually before Cingular bought cellular one and have not had any problem with reception or dropped calls. I am quite impressed with their network, Including the iPhone. I will agree the volume on the phone could be louder, but this is a hardware problem and not the network (in most cases). I think actually the worst phone I have ever owned (especially with volume problems) is the razor, I could never hear people even with the vol turned all the way up.

Derek Gisriel