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Review 4/21/2008
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This is the email I sent their corporate their complaints department......
On 4/21 I called your company about the warranty you offer for your devices. The warranty is vague, but seems to cover hardware defect. My phone's menu button simply stopped working quite suddenly. It worked one second then simply stopped. The phone wasn't abused in any way shape or form, and I have had the phone less than a year.
I talked to one associate at the beginning of the call who didn't really know your own company’s warranty. He advised I look up what I needed from your website. He attempted to terminate the call at that point. I stopped him and told him I had already done that but the warranty was vague at best. The details of this conversation are moot as he just didn't know your company's own warranty. I asked to speak with his supervisor.
I then began talking to Eric (ID 631693). He flat out told me the phone would not be covered because of "wear and tear." I asked what “wear and tear” according to helio is because it’s not explicitly stated or defined in the contract and who determines this. I asked if he was telling me that by using the device, I was basically voiding the warranty. He told me yes, and that keypads are not covered for any reason as they are used. This is not stated in your contract. Such a blanket statement and uneducated response to the situation from someone in authority should really be reflected in your own warranty and be clearly expressed to the end user. This inference has obviously become company practice and must be reflected in your warranty to be fair.
All hardware devices are made to some sort of use hours. Everything has some sort of normal operating life where it will continue to function normally. So is it that the phone was designed to last less than a full year so that I would be forced to buy another one at full retail? That is at the very least immoral and shady. Or is it that this phone didn’t last as long as it should, but since I opened it, took it out of the box, and used it I am just out of luck because your company doesn’t warranty the part of the device that is designed for user input? So which is it? Is it a crap product combined with a blatant scam, or is a truly defective product that you just don’t want to honor because I touched it? Eric did explicitly state that the warranty wouldn’t cover the keypad and nothing outside of verifying it was a bad pad would be done. I would be charged full retail price for a new phone that according to your contract would actually be a refurbished phone. You really can’t do that either. That is completely and totally false advertisement of the purchased product.
If that last paragraph was a bit hard to follow, then let’s try this angle. Merriam-Webster defines the term “wear and tear” as “the loss, injury, or stress to which something is subjected by or in the course of use; especially : normal depreciation.” In one possible universe we have that a product you sell normal depreciates to the point of failure within one year as it should. I sign a two year contract meaning I would have to buy a new phone at full value every 2 to 3 times. I find that very hard to believe as I would probably see a lot more complaints about this online. In the much more likely universe two we have that the phone being operated under normal conditions depreciated to the point of failure much faster than it should have (ie a hardware defect). However since the buttons aren’t covered under warranty (which isn’t stated on your website) I have to pay full price for a refurbished phone if I send it in for a warranty issue. That should sum it up quite nicely.
Your warranty does state that the device could be sent to an authorized repair facility. Why wasn’t this presented to me as an option? Is it not an option and again your employees just don’t know their own contracts?
Your warranty doesn’t really state what it will cover. The only phrases I see is that it covers “manufacturer’s defect” and doesn’t cover “devices subjected to neglect, misuse, water damage, wear and tear and the like are not eligible for any return or exchange program.” So if my phone stops turning on due to an electrical short, will that be considered “normal wear and tear” because electricity normally travels through the phone’s circuit boards and some capacitor decides to fail because it was used in the course of the device being on? Is the dual slider also not covered if a spring breaks because I open the phone? Again, things are meant to withstand tolerances over time and I am arguing that the phone didn’t survive that amount of time under normal use.
I again would like to call attention to the phrase “Devices subjected to neglect, misuse, water damage, wear and tear and the like are not eligible for any return or exchange program.,” most notably “wear and tear and the like.” Your phrase lacks certain commas in it to actually denote what part is being compared to “and the like.” It would appear you are trying to draw reference to everything after the last comma. What is like “wear and tear” exactly. Eric told me it meant using it. So you are saying “anything like using the device.” So in full context of the rest of the sentence we have that you don’t cover anything that is used properly or improperly. According to the conversation I had with your reps and the warranty at hand that’s what I am left with. Granted you used way more words than I did. Kudos on the thesaurus skills.
I am very upset because I did pay very good money for this phone and your service is one of the most expensive. Your warranty is not clearly defined and I was told with no diagnostics over the phone and with none to be expected once you received the phone that I would be charged the full amount for a newish phone because I used it. If you want to not honor your own warranty in a contract that we are both signed into then by all means back out and cancel me at no cost. If you want to partake in deceptive and possibly illegal activities in the pursuit of not honoring this contract then again, please again cancel me with no cost. I would prefer to have your company honor the contract, warranty exchange my phone after going through a diagnostic check to verify I haven’t abused it and it has indeed failed due to defect, and let us both go about our happy contract. As per my conversation with Eric, I expect a return email within 24 hrs, After that point in time, I will continue through the arbitration ladder.
*** after thinking about it some more and contacting the BBB, I really just want to cancel. Their contract is horrible and I have been assured by Eric that the company will not honor it. So unless this is handled outside the normal system, I will be shafted.
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