Before I go talk to cingular...

I have a sony Z520A(cingular) and this is most ridiculous model I've ever seen in my life and I can't believe 5/5 of these around my circle of friends are dead in less than 6 months (including mine). Error:"Inserst Smart Chip". I tried to take the SIM out and put it back in gazillion times and I know I can get the same model as a replacement from cingular store quite easily. But I am basically done with this model. Here's my other option and the question.

I have an access to a motorola razr cell (previously cingular based). Do you think I can simply switch my SIM into the motorola? Or what's the possibility cingular can give me a totally new model?

OK as I work for cingular let me advise you here. The z520A had several problems. One was freezing up, another the screens would go bad and unfortunately the 3rd is the sim card reader going bad. If you have any friends with cingular 1st try putting their sim in your phone, if it still says insert sim card then its definitely the sim reader. Secondly if your phone is under 1 yr old you should contact our warrently department at 800-801-1101. There is an upgraded model to your phone where they got the "bugs" out called the z525. If you play nice and ask them they will most likely give you the upgraded phone. The warrently swap is free but make sure you call from another phone and have your imei handy (under the battery on back of phone) also make sure there is no other damage to the phone and that the water damage sticker is white otherwise they will charge you for the new phone and find it to not be in warranty. As for the use of the unlocked razr... stay away!! The only plus to that phone is that its free. If the razr was even properly unlocked and all features are available it will prob be more trouble then its worth. In my market razrs are not picking up good signal and all of them have problems with the speakers going bad as well as the screens. I would say if you have no other option go for it but if you are in warranty try the swap 1st.

Thanks for your answer. By now I already have a new model of z520a but never knew z525 was even remotely possible after talking to them. Hmmm.next time this z520 breaks, I will think about that. Cell phones are a rip off.. such a waster in US.

You may be able to exchange it depending on how you got it.. let me know and I will see if it can be done

This is how I got it: I called cingular store and after having my brains fried, they agreed to exchange the crappy z520 with another z520. I just had to mail the old one to their address.. u know the way you have people. Do it.. yea that way.

But so far this new z520 set has given me no problems. Also I noticed on cnet.com, z520a has a higher (7.3) rating than z525(7.0) so I am not sure if z525 is worth the hassle again. On top of that, my z520 has been okay so far.

Thanks for your help so far. I like how people working in the stores just get into forums that have to do with the stores. That way we understand what is REALLY happening. Thanks bud!

Update:Last week I just had another problem with the replaced set, too. This is again going to be replaced. This is model is really a piece of .

As cspeeks said, one of the most common problems is de SIM reader, a trick that is useful sometimes is to clean the pines where the SIM card is inserted, clean the SIM it self, and other more "risky" is to push the card to the reader.You may want to try putting a small sheet of paper (a post-it woudn't be a good idea because the glue, but a normal sheet of the same size would be ok), fold the paper to the SIM size, put the paper in the back of the SIM, usually under the battery.