Jawbone Version A and B

[PBCliberal]

The jawbone is the best bluetooth headset we've ever seen for intelligibility and noise rejection. Its compatibility with the Motorola Q is problematic, the company's customer support is downright awful, and the website doesn't accurately describe changes that have been made to the product.

Quick Read

There are currently two versions of the jawbone headset, Version A and Version B. These are identified by a product ID near the charger cap. Jawbone support says this ID is three lines, and the last line is four alpha characters. The first alpha character is A or B and identifies the model. Our model, however, has two lines. The first line is the FCC ID. The second line has three elements separated by hyphens. The middle number begins with an A. We know this is a first generation jawbone.

The new version has been tested with the Motorola Q and Q9m by an independent testing lab and has passed the tests.

The gory details

Our first encounter with customer support came shortly after we bought the headset. We'd had some problems with the Motorola Q with other bluetooth sets. At this point there was nothing on the jawbone site warning Q users. We were moderately persistent. (Jawbone's customer service consists of a web form. Diligent research will net you a company phone number where you're stopped at voice mail. Sometimes they call you back, sometimes they don't).

Our moderate persistence resulted in email that said they were aware that some Motorola Q users were having trouble, and "we are unable to recommend our headset for use with it at this time."

At the time they sent us that email, they had begun shipping a Verizon-specific version of this headset to Verizon stores. This unit was not the same unit that had--to that point--been sold on the web or through third party resellers. Parsing its words carefully, however, jawbone claims:

"It has not been redesigned. We did nothing specific to the Motorola Q. The only changes that we made.. were to solve ...some echo ... problems that CDMA users had reported, because we did design this not with Verizon units in mind but with AT&T units in mind. We were very clear about that on our website as we were clear about issues we were having with Motorola."

We have been told that the production cutover took place in October of last year, and were later told that it took place early last month. The units that were given away free at CES were the new version and the old version is no longer made.

These new units were tested by a third party lab for compatibility with the Motorola Q and the Q9m and passed. The old unit was never tested with the Q.

Why they admitted this to me

These admissions did not come easily. I have several emails from jawbone that "correct" previous communications. One claimed that the website was wrong and that the Q-specific information would be removed. A later clarification said it was probably correct and would remain. The earliest communications claim jawbone knows nothing about the problem and that we should contact Motorola. This email was sent one week after we now learn they were shipping Verizon-boxed new versions to Verizon stores.

Jawbone began to become more forthcoming after we were told by a customer service rep at Verizon that the answer to our problems was to pay them more money and enter into another 2-year contract, which caused a ballistic response from us, which resulted two months later in Verizon replacing the Qs with Q9ms at no charge. The Q9m does work acceptably with the Version A jawbone.

In escalating the issue at Verizon (no easy feat) I was able to get the email address and phone number of one of two heads of customer tech support, whose first solution was the usual Verizon "there are no known problems" followed by "we'll make them work." Since we've been through that several times, I started to send him our detailed history with jawbone, including their website and email statement that they don't recommend the phone.

Our tack was that there should be something in the Verizon knowledge base on this problem from our considerable previous contacts let alone the considerable amount of chatter on the forums. They punked me back to sales, who suddenly was a lot more anxious to find a replacement solution that didn't involve additional commitment or documented testing.

I can only assume that, since Verizon is jawbone's customer and they sell these products in the stores, we focused jawbone's attention on answering our questions by forcing the issue at Verizon and putting the two groups in touch with one another.

[Dave53]

Thanks for sharing this information. I purchased my A version Jawbone from AT&T and it's still within their 1 year warranty. Do you know if the B version is available at AT&T, or is that a Verizon exclusive.

Thanks,

Dave

[PBCliberal]

Originally Posted by Dave53

Thanks for sharing this information. I purchased my A version Jawbone from AT&T and it's still within their 1 year warranty. Do you know if the B version is available at AT&T, or is that a Verizon exclusive.

My prime focus was on Verizon and getting it to work with the Verizon Q, which may have its bluetooth configured differently. One thing we notice with the Q9m is that we can now download contact information over BT to the Toyota Prius, which was either not enabled or not working correctly on the initial Verizon-configured Q.

Also, the excuse for Verizon CDMA problems was that the jawbone was developed with the AT&T network in mind and that Sprint & Verizon CDMAs were what were addressed in the revision.

I have been told that the A version is no longer made, so if AT&T is still selling the jawbone, they are probably selling the B version, but there may not be any changes in the B unit that would affect the AT&T system.

Once again, I am not an expert on this, and I came away from the whole experience with jawbone believing that good customer service to them is saying whatever it takes to close the ticket. Where they went awry with us is that my partner started the process with them and I finished it; their answers to me only raised questions about why they answered him the way they did. Their attempt to harmonize those two answers only raised questions with why they hadn't advised their customer Verizon about these issues.

I'd suggest you raise this issue with AT&T and point them to this thread. I'm observing good netiquitte by not posting people's names, phone numbers and emails on public forums, but I'll be happy to provide those privately if you get the, "Well whom did you talk to," or the more strident, "I can't imagine why anyone would tell you that."

We've been very careful to document this thoroughly when we realized that somehow Verizon claimed they didn't have a clue about this when the forums are lousy with complaints, and jawbone didn't seem to have a consistent answer about what they knew and when they knew it.

[Dave53]

Thanks for your response. Actually, my Q is from Verizon, but I bought my Jawbone from an AT&T store before you could purchase them from Verizon and other stores. Connectivity with my Verizon Q and the Jawbone has always been challenging, so I have been hoping for some kind of update.

I guess I will see if AT&T has the B version of the Jawbone since I am still eligible for a warranty replacement through them.

Thanks again for the info!

Dave

[CaptainDave]

Huge thanks to PBCliberal (Palm Beach County, I assume) for the massive research, documentation and discussion of this. What a detective you'd make!

I just bought a JawBone (silly me) and my Q can't "find" it. I have three lines on serial numbers:

FCC ID <8 letters>
C51 - A05085 - XX
BCHW

Is it the A in the middle of the second line or the B starting the third line that tells me the version? Purchased last week through Amazon, not a Verizon store.

I'm assuming that if it's an A I'm screwed, but if it's a B there's some chance of me getting it to work. Or should I go back to Verizon (my phone's about a year old and just demand a Q9m?)

Many thanks for all you've done so far, and for answering this.

[PBCliberal]

Originally Posted by CaptainDave

FCC ID <8 letters>
C51 - A05085 - XX
BCHW

Is it the A in the middle of the second line or the B starting the third line that tells me the version? Purchased last week through Amazon, not a Verizon store.

What you have squares perfectly with what Jawbone told me about how to identify the versions, so I'm pretty sure you have a B. Not only are the numbers formatted the way I was told they would be (though it didn't match ours) but I was told the first letter of the last line is the determiner.

Yes, I'm in Palm Beach County. I spent a lot of years in journalism mostly radio news in Southern California, and that was how I approached this.

Where I had success was to quiz them on why there was no information about this in their knowledge base. Obviously this is a known problem, not only from the history of postings on the forums, but from our own repeated calls to tech support about it. We were told we had to go to stores, we went through countless hard and soft resets and customer service automatons reading scripts; countless hours of doing the same thing expecting different results.

You will spend hours doing this, because it appears that Verizon's policy is to expend their own staff time acting like they've never heard of the problem before instead of putting something specific in the knowledge base and owning up to the problem.

If I were you, I'd try and point them to this thread in an email, but getting a Verizon rep to give you an email address is difficult. Just keep going up the ladder from minion to supervisor to super-supervisor. They will try to firewall you, tell you that they don't know anything about the chain of command in their own department.

If they succeed in stonewalling you, there's a division in the corporate office designed to handle people who are at the boiling point. You can try there; they'll probably give you an email address. Point them to this thread and ask them why they don't just fix up their knowledge base so that they can support their user base. Their new marketing pitch is that they'll solve your problem on the first call. That's pretty hard to do when they serially deny there is a problem.

[CaptainDave]

I'd been following the directions on the cover of the JawBone owner's manual without success. I went to the Verizon store and the salesperson was quite confident that I'd already paired the JawBone to my Q. I hadn't, but her certainty that it would work persuaded me to work on it more diligently. I then performed the steps on the inside of the manual, which highlight the colored flashing lights that tell you what's going on with the JawBone, and tht's when my luck changed. In fact, it came right up, first time out, textbook. So I have an up-and-running Q & JawBone pairing without hours on the phone with Verizon, angst and frustration. Thanks to all who posted here, especially PBCliberal. For everyone else, take heart, the B-version JawBone should work with your Qs!



quote=PBCliberal;144348]What you have squares perfectly with what Jawbone told me about how to identify the versions, so I'm pretty sure you have a B. Not only are the numbers formatted the way I was told they would be (though it didn't match ours) but I was told the first letter of the last line is the determiner.

Yes, I'm in Palm Beach County. I spent a lot of years in journalism mostly radio news in Southern California, and that was how I approached this.

Where I had success was to quiz them on why there was no information about this in their knowledge base. Obviously this is a known problem, not only from the history of postings on the forums, but from our own repeated calls to tech support about it. We were told we had to go to stores, we went through countless hard and soft resets and customer service automatons reading scripts; countless hours of doing the same thing expecting different results.

You will spend hours doing this, because it appears that Verizon's policy is to expend their own staff time acting like they've never heard of the problem before instead of putting something specific in the knowledge base and owning up to the problem.

If I were you, I'd try and point them to this thread in an email, but getting a Verizon rep to give you an email address is difficult. Just keep going up the ladder from minion to supervisor to super-supervisor. They will try to firewall you, tell you that they don't know anything about the chain of command in their own department.

If they succeed in stonewalling you, there's a division in the corporate office designed to handle people who are at the boiling point. You can try there; they'll probably give you an email address. Point them to this thread and ask them why they don't just fix up their knowledge base so that they can support their user base. Their new marketing pitch is that they'll solve your problem on the first call. That's pretty hard to do when they serially deny there is a problem.[/quote]

[Dave53]

I did a warranty exchange on my Jawbone and got one with the same numbers as CaptainDave except the third line is BPHT.

I have not had any pairing issues with the Verizon Q, but I have had ongoing call transfer issues. I have found, based on a tip I read here, that calls only connect to the headset consistently if I have the headset profile set to vibrate. The downside of this, of course, is I don't hear the call ring if I don't have the headset on or the phone in close proximity to be aware of the vibrating.

I was hoping this update would resolve these issues with the Q, but preliminary testing indicates that I am going to have the same problems. I know that some of the problems are definitely related to the bluetooth on the Q based on trying other brands of headsets, but the Jawbone / Q combination seems more troublesome than when the Q is paired with Plantronics, etc.

I am curious what others are finding with this recent version of the Jawbone.

Thanks,

Dave

[DMofDoom]

Very informative and insightful thread thank you all for the work you put into it!

[cubanman90]

i have a Q9m and last night i bought a jawbone at my coworker's recommendation. It is paired correctly and all of the physical commands work correctly and i can hear sounds from my phone in my headset. but for some reason, my headset is not picking up sound. I have the voice activity sensor touching my face, ect. It just doesnt pick up sound. What should I do? return it?

ID
FCC ID RKIJABAI
C51-A05085-XX
BCKW