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.

ETF's shouldn't exist IF:

(1) The customer didn't get a subsidized phone and
(2) Wasn't on a plan that was discounted because the customer agreed
to a contract.

Too many people, though, think that the phone isn't subsidized (see:
William) and don't realize that part of the pricing strategy is based
on the knowledge that the customer is captive until the contract is
over.

I also agree with you that changing your plan shouldn't reset your
contract.

Of course if you sign a contract you are agreeing to and early term
fee. Its in the contract you signed. I agree about having them, but
its a contract.
About the reseting of the contract, If you have been into a Verizon
store lately you would know that they have not done that for over 3
months now. They do not extend contracts and they do not reset them if
you change your plan. THE ONLY TIME IT WILL CHANGE IS IF YOU DO THE
NEW EVERY TWO UPGRADE WHICH REQUIRES A TWO YEAR CONTRACT (HENCE THE
TERM "NEW EVERY TWO") TO GET THE DISCOUNTED PRICING OF THE EQUIPMENT.
You are always welcome to leave the contract alone and just purchase a
new phone FULL RETAIL or you can purchase one online somewhere, like
ebay or craigslist or Kijiji. All these places sell new and used
phones. You can usually find what you are looking for. These won't
bother the contract either. ONE THING TO REMEMBER, is that when you
purchase your phone elsewhere and not through VERIZON, you can NOT add
insurance to that line, so the phone will not be covered for any
reason, because that is considered to be your OWN equipment.

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.

Cell phones are electronics. They don't cost $20. They cost $200.

The reason you THINK they cost $20 is that's the price you pay when
you sign up for 2 years of service.

If you don't want to sign up for the service, pay the full price on
the phone.

You won't find any company that will sell you a phone for $20 within
some strings attached. Even the cheap phones with prepaid services
come with an expectation.

Oh, any by the way, the Verizon DSL company is NOT the same one as the
cell phone company.

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.