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.

I worked for a cellular company as a tech for 8 years and yes, I did
not like some of their policies but being in a small town with less
than 2000 people, you don't make any friends by not giving less than
great service. I started a system to help people who could not afford
to buy insurance each month (some who lived on fixed incomes-72 bucks
a year makes a difference.) and lose or have their phones break before
they can renew their contracts to get a discounted phone.
The store I worked from would buy phones from select suppliers and
naturally shop around so that they were careful not to get refurbished
ones, but get a decent price on buying in quantity. The Cellular
Company pays a set amount to the store for each contract sold, it
usually covers the phone and a day's pay for the store personnel to
process the contract, plus the store gets a little profit per
transaction.
We also had people who had disposable income, didn't care how much the
phones cost, THEY JUST WANTED THE LATEST AND GREATEST PRICE BE DAMNED!
Others took very good care of their phones, hardly used them and
"traded them in" for new ones at the end of contract. I collected,
cleaned, and tested them, replaced small parts like keypads, batteries
of course and screen protectors and kept them on a shelf marked
"loaners". These were for the people who needed phones until their
contracts were up and then they are more likely to renew if they are
treated well.
We told them that this was a refurbished phone, kept a record in our
files and in the event that it failed, they could get yet another just
so long as they "consider" renewing their contract with the same
company. I would reprogram the phones, download manuals if we didn't
have one and everyone was quite happy. I don't think we ever had a
single customer who turned tail and ran away from renewing with this
particular carrier.
So, it was not the carrier per se that affected service in so much as
it was us. People need alternatives and when your only choices are
pay a lot of money you don't have, take your chances on finding a good
phone on ebay for maybe half the price or not have a phone, people get
mad.
I had my own phone destroyed in a car accident and I had insurance. I
was told that my phone would be an exact replacement. Well, they
stopped making my model (I am so lucky) so they did the best they
could and quite well they did, but I still paid $50 for a replacement
phone that I pay $5.95 a month to insure. I don't like the phone
though, I am a traveling service tech and it not tech friendly, so I
am buying the phone I want which is already configured for my
particular carrier and will have the carrier activate service for me
by land line when I get my new phone and give them the ESN. My
choice, not theirs, so I don't mind paying 110 bucks for a nicer phone
that they would charge me 90 for and I have to sign a 24 month
contract. I will still have the not so glamourous phone as a backup
and have to drop insurance on my line because I have a phone not
supplied by the carrier.
I want the option of changing carriers in the future.

but you have to admit the op does not understand the system.

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.

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.