Replace broken cell phone

Thank you for this

I'm with you, William! I'm having a similar problem with my college
daughter's cell phone. They have replaced it with a "refurbished" one
valued at less than 1/2 of the original price, and her phone is only 7
months old. They have crappy customer service, crappy policies, and
they lie to you to get your business. I'm switching to AT&T just as
soon as my contract expires, too. They'll never get it!

ATT did it to us too!

just in our circle of family and friends it is happening regularly. Is
this an intentional sabotage on consumers?

What is he method to speak up and demand change? They are holding us
all hostage and have guaranteed sales with no quality or customer
service required!

A T & T did the same thing to us

I agree 100% with you. Give me excellent customer service and I will
continuing renewing with you...give me bad customer service and I will
start checking out the competition.

I am also disappointed that even with good care, many of these phones
start experiencing problems before the warranty runs out. After
several replacements under warranty, they finally acknowledged that
this particular phone had "known issues". But then you are left high
and dry after the year runs out BUT BEFORE YOUR NEW EVERY TWO takes
effect. I have never gotten a phone wet or dropped it but still end
up with lemons.

Maybe the phones don't really cost as low as $20 but there is NO WAY
these phones are worth $200 either. Electronics have become "cheap"
over the years, both in price and quality...but still you can find a
digital cordless phone for $10 so a basic cell phone shouldn't cost
that much more (and I did say BASIC so that at least you can get by
until the New Every Two comes around).

It is a shame when Verizon would rather me take my $1200 a year phone
service to another company rather than helping me out with a cheap
replacement when their crappy phones start having problems.

I hope you get someone's attention at Verizon as it will eventually
help all of us poor souls out!!

I lost a phone when I was with Alltel & the exact same situation came
up when I went in to try & purchase a new phone. Evidently they are
all like that.
We went to a phone store that sells all different types of gently used
cell phones & got one that was quite a bit cheaper than what I would
have had to pay with Alltel. I would go that route. You just have to
have the store imput your carrier & away you go!

It's worse with AT&T. I've had both, and AT&T was worse!

1st of all they don't allow you to put insurance on any phone over 300
bucks. Sometimes when you think you are getting a new phone, you are
really getting a polished refurb. AT&T net work is horrible. Verizon
Prices are tooo high!

Go with T-mobile if they are available in your area.

When my niece dropped her cell phone in a glass of Coke on the day
after the warranty expired, I went in to buy her a new one (she was
working off the cost in babysitting for me). One of the sales reps
suggested that I speak with a technician or someone in the customer
service area to see if there was anything they could do to help with
the cost of the new phone. I was very lucky to get an awesome tech
who tried his best to get the phone fixed & then replaced it under
warranty when he couldn't. It's not something they are required to
do, simply a case of "you catch more flies with honey than with
vinegar." I was pleasant & fully aware that I was probably going to
have to pay full price for a new phone. And grateful for any help or
small discount that they could give me. Now, the replacement was one
of the inexpensive free phones you get when you get a free phone with
new service, but that's what she had to begin with so we were all
happy.

Of course, I had to pay full price for it because my current phone was
out of warranty & it wasn't time for my new-every-two phone. But I
bought the phone I wanted, paid full price for it, opted to get the
insurance on it this time around & didn't have to extend anything.
I'm sure they'd be glad to sell you a new phone at full price to
replace your wife's broken phone. Just ask...

I've had cellualr south, cingular (which turned into AT&T) & Sprint
before I switched to Verizon. Verizon has been the most dependable
for me with the best coverage area. As for Vonage, I cancelled that
because the service just wasn't consistently good.

Good luck with the new companies.

I agree. I believe there is legislation that was introduced recently
(or will be soon--I know it was in the works) that would eliminate
this ridiculous policy of extending contracts by two years every time
you make a change to your service or phone.

It's about time. I don't even own a cell phone and think this
practice is absurd.

I do hear you on this one. I have Verizon and I had to beg and plead
the first time to get a faulty phone fixed. I'm not sure if we had to
sign anything else because I have a phone under my mom's family plan.
What I do know is now the Razor I got as a replacement has broken
buttons and I know once I go in to get a new phone they will make me
sign a lifetime commitment and pay too just to get a new one. I am
trying to hold out with the two buttons but it gets annoying because I
can't backspace on text messages and have to start over if I make a
mistake. I hope they pull through with you guys. Maybe write to
corporate??

You can cop an attitude and all that, but it won't get you anywhere.
From what I hear they are all this way (including AT$T). If you can
make and sell a cell phone for $20 OR $80 you should go into business.


Vonage is its own animal - good luck with all of that.

I pay around $35 a month for VZ local phone and VZDSL combined. The
wireless carriers can't convince me I need to be connected 24/7, so I
don't have that cost. If you need to take advantage of the latest
tech goodies, you need to pay for them.

Good luck with your vonage. We are in North Florida. The closest
area code vonage can give us is Orlando.

Good luck with another carrier, they all work this way. Heck, I have
2500 lines of service with Nextel and I can't get a low cost
replacement without extending the contract on that phone.

Guess again. Electronics are mass produced overseas. They are cheap.
They do not cost $200. They cost less than $80.00. Why do you think
they change the models every year? Because it costs so much? I don't
care that Verizon DSL is NOT the same on as the cell phone
company...they're VERIZON!

Ok, let's just go with your made up number of $80.
You want that phone for $20. Why should they give it to you for the
deep sale price with no further effort from your point to show you
will continue to relationship for a length of time.

Give it up

(1) Verizon (the landline and DSL) company is NOT the same company as
Verizon Wireless. Verizon has licensed the name to the wireless
company.

(2) Overseas, particularly in Asia, cell phones are not subsidized
like they are here. They cost the equivalent of US $200, US $300, or
more. In Korea, for example, it's not uncommon for phones to cost US
$500. However, they don't have the same contract requirements we
have.

(3) Part of the reasons that these phones cost so much is because, as
you say, they come out with new models every year. This means that
the R&D costs are not amortized.

(4) Look at what a PDA (like a Palm device) costs. It's not $20 and
it's the same electronics, pretty much, as a cell phone. Know why a
PDA costs $300-$400? Because they aren't subsidized by the cell phone
companies.

(5) Even if they are making a ton of money, that's how it works. You
whining about it won't change it. Once you and everyone else decides
to stop buying cell phones every few years, with subsidies, maybe
that'll bring down the prices.

you think there is such big business for buying prepaid cell phones in
the states and then shipping them overseas if they cost just 20
dollars?

First of all, you should have gotten handset insurance.

Second, I don't know where you got the idea that phones cost $80. I
don't have prices for Verizon, but here are some prices from T-Mobile.
First is the MSRP, second is the price for employee to buy the phone
without contract (which is usually company cost plus a small
percentage) and the third is how much anyone can buy the phone for
with a contract.

BlackBerry Curve
MSRP: $449.99
Employee: $349.91
Contract: $249.99

Motorola W490
MSRP: $159.99
Employee: $115.75
Contract: $19.99

Nokia 6263
MSRP: $199.99
Employee:$151.57
Contract: Free

Samsung Blast
MSRP: $179.99
Employee: $140.61
Contract: $49.99

Now do you see why Verizon would not want to sell you a phone at a
severely discounted price without a guarantee that you're not going to
up and cancel a couple of months down the line?

There is no phone with Verizon that only costs $20.00. You are
looking at the discounted price and not the retail price. Most phones
with Verizon retails between $200.00 and $300.00. I used to work for
AT&T for 6 years and they are the same way. You better do more
research.

I agree - AT&T is the same way. I lost my phone & had to replace it. I
ended up buying a $99 prepaid go-phone. I was able to use it with my
current contract instead of having to sign a new 2 year agreement for
a new phone at a reasonable price.

William E.,
This is the way most other retailers do this.
No insurance on it?
BillR.

You're not going to like AT&T because they operate the same way with
replacement phones. I really didn't care because my cell phone is my
only phone and I've always been satisfied with their service.