I'm in Charlotte too, Weddington to be exact...the service sucks here and I mean SUCKS. Glad it's better for you over by the lake.
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Atomic billet aluminum Ip4 case
- Thread starter yankintx
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I'm in Charlotte too, Weddington to be exact...the service sucks here and I mean SUCKS. Glad it's better for you over by the lake.
Hello folks.
We do pride ourselves on customer service. I do not know how you were or where you were trying to contact us, but we are VERY responsive all the time, and will never leave anyone in limbo. There has to be some misunderstanding on how you tried to contact us without response.
Myself nor any of our staff know "nolesfan" personally. For a week he has been contacting us stating he can help us with our inquiry we made about the aluminum vs. antenna issue. I will not post here some fallacy that months or years of research went behind our cases. We engineered the case to cradle the antenna, to solve the deathgrip issue after the media nationally exposed the problem. We did discover the problem goes beyond contact and that is the aluminum absorbs the signal like a sponge. We have invited knowledgeable "field testers" including the aformentioned where we sent a few cases to aid for a solution rapidly. Thanks to the relentless drive and countless hours "nolesfan" spent, we will have something real soon for the weak areas. Internally, we have lined the cases with a few types of liners, and tapes, and have been successful in achieving what "nolesfan" has though not as significant as his numbers. We could easily installed liners but the balance between form and function would have tipped too much toward function and our case not be appealing. We wanted to keep the walls thin, yet strong. We are working with Nolesfan and few other experienced developers to achieve Nolesfan's numbers in an efficient, appealing manner. This solution to the weak areas should and will be retro fitted to the existing cases sold out there. We sincerely do not want you to drop calls or eliminate signal issues due to our cases.
It is apparent that the antenna short comings of the iPhone4 and AT&T weakness falls on our plate to bandaid; We will have a solution shortly to satisfy the masses, though not all of you die hard-tough crowd case junkies. After all, You all currently have other choices to address the signal issues, such as the free rubber bumper, decals, and many other bumper cases. Something drew you to these wonderful aluminum cases designed by Element, Atomic, and Alumacase, and some others to be released. That is the appeal. Signal weak areas stand by.
Sincerely,
Atomic
I sent an email to your sales department and also filled out your on-line form with some questions I had. That was a week ago, and I received no response. That's about the same as my track record with Element.
I'll test it out and let you know what I find. Do you have one of the first iPhone 4's? I got mine the day it came out and have confirmed that phone's antenna is flawed. The newer ones they are shipping apparently don't have issues like this at all. Even the stupid free rubber case I got f's up my signal...
Last time I did a speed test I had 3.5 mbps up and down on the Charlotte AT&T 3g HSPA towers, with no case at all. SICK!
Regardless what case I've tried, I still haven't dropped one single call. I love my iPhone 4. Booo Droid.
I placed an order with atomic late tuesday night, Sept 14th. I got a notice with my order # and order details. Got email confirming my Paypal payment. I expected a shipping conformation within 24 hours and I didn't get it. I wasn't aware shipping wasn't right away. It doesn't mention on their website that this is a pre-order or they are still in development stages. From what I gather from Atomic's statements here, the case isn't ready for sale. Why did they accept payment and why are they offering something for sale if it's not ready for sale? I emailed them yesterday asking when I could expect shipping and never heard anything back. This is starting to feel a lot Like Element all over again. When you click on the info buttons on their web page for satisfaction, warranty etc they don't work. My order status still says processing..........sound familiar to anyone else? I didn't see instructions on their site on how to cancel an order either.
Atomic is not off to a good start.
Atomic is not off to a good start.
Oh yes here we go again...
. I'm really liking the Fusion Raw, rather than the Atomic rip of the EC .
Oh yes here we go again...
+1
Rhino,
You won't receive anything but a confirmation from paypal that your order status has changed. I order mine on Tuesday with the 2-day shipping. I got an e-mail Thursday saying my status had changed from paypal and that it was shipping via UPS.
Friday, I got home and had my case on my front door delivered by FedEx which was weird since paypal said UPS.
Anyway, I hope your case is better than mine. Their customer service for me was actually great. I got e-mail response very quick and an order on Tuesday got here Friday. That isn't bad.
My problem is that yes, as others have reported, the case is literally a piece of metal. No cushioning on the phone at all. Signal isn't really affected that I can notice (I can play Archetype full speed over 3G with no lag). I do know that if I drop the phone it will get damaged. It is metal on metal/Glass so there is no protection.
Also, their carbon fiber back is literally a Lucky Labs. I'm talking identical. I have 3 lucky labs backs and this comes on the exact same paper and even had the choice of cut-outs. Just like Lucky Labs but for a few bucks more. Website for reference (http://www.theluckylabs.com/iphone-4-teksure-skin-back-only-38.html).
I will say though that there are no markings on my case at all. No logos, no nothing which is good.
Anyway, I won't be using this case at all. The Element, while flawed, at least provided some protection and their carbon fiber back was at least a piece of something solid. Not just a sticker.
Haha, I'll be honest. It was total curiosity. I'm so caught up in all this now that I just wanted the case to compare it to the Vapor. I'm pretty picky so it would have to be one hell of a case to make me like it. I've got my sights on the Fusion Raw. I personally think out of all of them that it's the most attractive.
I've already registered to pre-order. ( Only 50 bucks for group A ) When, if the Atomic gets here and I see no advantage I'll flip it same day on Ebay with no mark up.
Thanks for the reply. It sounds like Atomic will have to make some adjustments if they want to be in the metal case game. I've only seen pics from Nolesfan so far. Would you mind posting some for us?
fair enough, I'm group A pre-order for the fusion raw too...it does look nice and with the open back option it should be nice...and the price is kinda nice too
Yeah, I feel good about that one. The Sabre looks good as well but in the pics it seems like they are using a super matte finish that almost makes it look like it's not metal and I like the look of metal. They are going to offer it in 3 different finishes so it will be interesting to see how the finished product will look. If they can provide some level of customer service than I think they will do very well.
I can do that for you. The only problem is my only camera is my iPhone so I can't take pictures of it on the phone.
I have my iPhone in my Otterbox now so no problems on the case alone. Also took a pic of the "carbon back" they included. It is a texture skins. Even has the same weird camera cut-out. Also the button on top is removable and not permanently mounted in that's why there is a hole next to the headphone jack.
I have decided to just lay low for a couple of days and let things cool down. Yes, I did so some modifications to my case to make it perform the way it is. I have the GPS working perfectly and the speed is almost the same with and without the case and the signal where I conducted my test which was in a very low signal area that fluctuated a bit with NO case on but with my case the test showed pretty much the same numbers constantly. My testing showed that I lost anywhere from two to ten db's with the case. 99% of the time it was losing 5db's which I think is acceptable for a all aluminum case. I took video's of all the tests that I performed and I am sorry for the quality, they were shot with the new IPod Touch but you can get the idea. I only had 1 phone to do my test with so I am sorry that I could not do a side by side comparison but I was in the same location the entire time the db test and the wifi test was being performed as I clearly show in the Video's. But here they are. There are two video's testing the GPS. And 3 more video's of the phone being tested with and without the case in field test mode and the wifi speeds with and without the case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAhZB9bZPfs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXRvf0NwPgw
The db and wifi test's Video's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6PGRNy7_dI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cQ718jM92Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQETXAf-OZw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9thk29EJ_VA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAhZB9bZPfs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXRvf0NwPgw
The db and wifi test's Video's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6PGRNy7_dI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cQ718jM92Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQETXAf-OZw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9thk29EJ_VA
I returned it today. Used it for a day and a half. Did not like the metal on metal action the phone was giving. Also was not happy that the "back plate" was a Lucky Labs sticker.
The Atomic people actually have great customer service despite me not being satisfied with their product in terms of construction.
Was it affecting your phones reception or anything or was it just the fit you didn't like?
Mainly the fit and overall lack of protection.
Obviously these types of cases won't protect your phone like an Otterbox, but with the metal rubbing the glass portions of the screens on the front and back, well, that didn't make me have warm fuzzy feelings. It rode way too tight, yet at times I could hear slight grinding noises.
Reception oddly wasn't a problem. Didn't notice any drops in bars at all (didn't have it on long enough to do any type of scientific testing). Bluetooth was very slightly diminished but not really that bad. GPS was ok for me too.
So I apologize if I'm beating a dead horse here, but I'm new to this forum and looking for some assistance. Like some others that have posted, I placed an order for this case under the pretense that they were ready for shipment. After not seeing anything change in my order status, I sent the company two or three calm and collected emails asking about status and some some general functionality questions regarding the case. Each time redding the automated response stating they strive to answer all emails within 24 hrs. It wasn't until my last email that I became heated. Then and only then did I see some type of progress. I did not receive any reply, however they found time to update the web store to state they would need 3 days handling time for each order. I have surpassed my handling time, and have not received any notifications or replies. I truly apologize for the length of this post, but felt the need to explain the situation before asking those who have received customer service what I am doing incorrectly. Please help, as I'm starting to believe this is turning into element jr. Thanks in advance to anyone who might have some answers for me!