- 755
- 17
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2004
-On 12/20/10 I purchased a refurb iphone 4 from att. I recieved it on12/23 only to find out it was DOA and wouldn't work. This was after Ihad activated however and it de activated my 3g. I was not able to callanyone for the entire night, since verizon landline service was down inmy area because of a storm. How you can send someone a device that youknew was not working is beyond me, but this was strike one for me andatt.
- The next day I take the phone to a corporate storeand they attempt to reflash it at the store, but that doesn't work andhe confirms that it is messed up. I also cannot return it there becausethey said I needed a valid ID (my fault for letting it expire), sinceapparently we change our identities after they expire. However, he didre activate my 3g. I'm assuming he believed I was the person I said Iwas for that. The other 4 valid IDs I had were not convicing enoughbecause they weren't state issued. This was the second strike.
-So I decide to go home and just mail the device back to them (inhindsight I probably should renewed my ID first and returned it to thestore). When I called customer care, the operator was baffled as to whythey just didn't process the return anyway. However, she was nice anddecided to send me a label, 3 to be exact (this would come back to biteme later). I pick one of the labels and sent it back on christmas eve. I have returned a few items through mail and this newgistics servicehas to be slowest thing I have ever seen (next to aid for katrinavictims), but my package eventually reached att on 1/5.
-This is where things got interesting/ frustrating. I can guarantee thatevery individual time I call, I will recieve a different answer. Thefirst time I called on 1/8 the rep said they didn't have any trackinginformation for the package and that it didn't arrive. It turns out shewas looking at the wrong one of the three tracking labels (told you itwould come back to bite me). I called a day later on the 9th and theysaid it would take 7 days after recieving it. Another person asked mefor the tracking number because they couldn't see it. Rather than waitfor 7 I decided to call on the 10th and they said they recieved it, butit could take a full month before any refunds or changes are made. Ichuckled, hung up and called back Today. I was then told that theydidn't see it in the system and that I now had to call the att premiernumber (no one previously mentioned this). After going through a bunchof menus I finally reached somebody that had a thick indian accent andhad a strange need for me to repeat everything I said 2-3 times. Thesecalls equaled strike three.
The unfortunate thing is thatfor now thru the end of the month (or longer) I have no new phone, acontract that says I used my upgrade (so I couldn't get a new phone nowif I wanted to) and that I can have it back in 2012, and a credit cardbill that I'll likely need to pay before the refund comes through. Itry to remain optimistic, but I have this strange feeling of being asucker. I pay my bill on time every month (unlike some people I know)and would have gladly paid the difference for a new phone at the store,but wasn't allowed.
What's really funny is that mycontract (the original one) is up in february and verizon has announcedthat they will be getting the iphone 4 that month. I can't even make amove until I get this situation delt with. I guess the best piece ofadvice I could give is to only buy new hardware (I did until made thisimpulse buy in december) and make sure your IDs are up to date.
Has anybody else had this problem? Does anybody know how long it really takes to process a return?
EDIT: LMAO at when you call att customer care now, they have a recording that tries to persuade you to continue iphone service with them rather than go for the competition.
- The next day I take the phone to a corporate storeand they attempt to reflash it at the store, but that doesn't work andhe confirms that it is messed up. I also cannot return it there becausethey said I needed a valid ID (my fault for letting it expire), sinceapparently we change our identities after they expire. However, he didre activate my 3g. I'm assuming he believed I was the person I said Iwas for that. The other 4 valid IDs I had were not convicing enoughbecause they weren't state issued. This was the second strike.
-So I decide to go home and just mail the device back to them (inhindsight I probably should renewed my ID first and returned it to thestore). When I called customer care, the operator was baffled as to whythey just didn't process the return anyway. However, she was nice anddecided to send me a label, 3 to be exact (this would come back to biteme later). I pick one of the labels and sent it back on christmas eve. I have returned a few items through mail and this newgistics servicehas to be slowest thing I have ever seen (next to aid for katrinavictims), but my package eventually reached att on 1/5.
-This is where things got interesting/ frustrating. I can guarantee thatevery individual time I call, I will recieve a different answer. Thefirst time I called on 1/8 the rep said they didn't have any trackinginformation for the package and that it didn't arrive. It turns out shewas looking at the wrong one of the three tracking labels (told you itwould come back to bite me). I called a day later on the 9th and theysaid it would take 7 days after recieving it. Another person asked mefor the tracking number because they couldn't see it. Rather than waitfor 7 I decided to call on the 10th and they said they recieved it, butit could take a full month before any refunds or changes are made. Ichuckled, hung up and called back Today. I was then told that theydidn't see it in the system and that I now had to call the att premiernumber (no one previously mentioned this). After going through a bunchof menus I finally reached somebody that had a thick indian accent andhad a strange need for me to repeat everything I said 2-3 times. Thesecalls equaled strike three.
The unfortunate thing is thatfor now thru the end of the month (or longer) I have no new phone, acontract that says I used my upgrade (so I couldn't get a new phone nowif I wanted to) and that I can have it back in 2012, and a credit cardbill that I'll likely need to pay before the refund comes through. Itry to remain optimistic, but I have this strange feeling of being asucker. I pay my bill on time every month (unlike some people I know)and would have gladly paid the difference for a new phone at the store,but wasn't allowed.
What's really funny is that mycontract (the original one) is up in february and verizon has announcedthat they will be getting the iphone 4 that month. I can't even make amove until I get this situation delt with. I guess the best piece ofadvice I could give is to only buy new hardware (I did until made thisimpulse buy in december) and make sure your IDs are up to date.
Has anybody else had this problem? Does anybody know how long it really takes to process a return?
EDIT: LMAO at when you call att customer care now, they have a recording that tries to persuade you to continue iphone service with them rather than go for the competition.
