If you bought the phone unlocked, you can get it unlocked again once it's repaired. I don't recommend that myself -- Cingular did not certify that phone on their network for some reason or another -- but there are people out there who will do it for a fee. It likely won't be cheap, but it's better than owning a $250 paperweight.

After exploring all of my options, I decided to return this cell phone to the company where purchased for an exchange. I have now received a replacement phone. The same audio problem still exists. I believe I may have been sent the same phone again. Could anyone tell me which number on the phone identifys it as being the same phone-is it the FDC-ID#, the IMEI#, or the S/N?

If this isn't the same phone? Does any one have any suggestion as to what I could be doing wrong? Maybe having it on a wrong setting or pushing a wrong button?

Thanks for the help.

The serial number should be unique. If you have the s/n from the "previous" phone, you can check it against the s/n on this one.

If it is a different phone but you have the same problem, you can do a few things:

- Try to do a "hard reset" of the phone. This should set it back to factory defaults, so if it's a setting you changed inadvertantly, this should set it back to normal. The instructions should be in your user's guide. If not, you should be able to call Sony-Ericsson's tech support for help. You may have to re-enter your phone book info, reload your tunes, and set things like ringers again. But the phone isn't real usable as it is, so ....
- See if you can return it yet again. I know it's a pain, but maybe your vendor just got a bad batch. Try to get a phone with a s/n further away from the bad phones.
- Check the Web to see if others are experiencing this problem with this phone. Good forums would be http://www.howardforums.com and http://www.phonescoop.com . You also might check http://www.agoraquest.com ; it's a fan-site for Sony product users, though I don't know if that includes SE phones. When you get to those sites, search for your phone's model number and see what people say before you post a question.

Thanks, Steve--You have been a big help. I checked all of the numbers and then contacted the SE Customer Service. All of The numbers from this phone--matched the numbers to the other phone-so it seems that instead of replacing the phone--the seller just sent me the same phone again. I have contacted him -but no reply yet. I tried the reset,but I'm still having the same audio problems-this isn't suprising since it is the same phone.

I am going to check out the web sites to see if anyone else is having this problem with these phones. Thanks again for your help.