PunkyBoo
03-19-2020, 04:31 PM
DS1 and I got new cell phones and switched carriers just after Christmas. (DH planned to swtch too, but held off for various reasons). DS1 has been fine, no problems at all. I have had nothing but problems since day 1. The phone never worked properly consistently. I had to do factory resets twice in the first week just to get it activated correctly (I called the carrier and that was their direction). I work full time at an office building, and the phone would not send or receive texts or phone calls at all while at work. It would not ring, would not show missed calls, and I found out that it only sometimes allowed the caller to leave me a voice mail (but it never notified me if I did get a voice mail). At first Ithought it was because of the office building, but my old phone on my old carrier had no issues, and the other several hundred employees in the building were not having issues. I did a bunch of troubleshooting with my work IT people to figure it out and they said it was just me/my phone. I was having serious anxiety at work because I could not reach my kids or DH, I had to leave work early a few times because I was panicking. I had DS1 come to my office about a month and a half after getting the phone, and we tested to see if his phone worked in my office and building, then it was a problem with my phone not the carrier. (I posted about that here in early February). Turns out his phone worked just fine, so it was clearly an issue with my device. I called the carrier many many many times, taking literally hours and hours of my time after work (since my phone wouldn't work during work hours) trying to jump through their hoops of troubleshooting. Finally the carrier said since its a device issue, and the carrier only has a 2 week return policy, I had to deal with a warranty return of the device company. (Even though I knew it wasn't working right within the first 2 weeks, but I had to do all their required troubleshooting, and I could only test if things were truly working properly when at work. ) They made me take it to their authorized repair shop who diagnosed that it was a defective non-repairable device. So the device company said that they would do an exchange, but I had to send them the defective device first, and once they get it they'll send me a replacement. When I finally got an email notification that my replacement phone had been shipped, it said I'd returned a NEW device and they'd shipped me a REFURBISHED phone. I called them and asked why I was getting a refurbished phone when the brand new phone I am paying for was defective to no fault of my own, and the guy didn't even know they were sending me refurbished at all until I pointed out in the email where it said what they were sending me. Eventually he said that they have to do that sometimes if a new one isn't available. I appealed to the carrier that this is fraudulent/ bait and switch, that I am now paying full new-device retail price for a refurbished device which I am not stupid enough to go along with. They denied my appeal for a device return to let me out of the purchase contract.
So I am still making monthly payments for a "new" phone I have never had full use of. I had to purchase a tracphone and forward my calls from my regular phone number to the tracphone so I would have phone service when I was returning the defective phone and waiting for the replacement. Texts will not forward, so I have undoubtedly lost many contact attempts. Basically the carrier is pointing at the device company, the device company said it's the carrier's problem since I'm buying the phone through the carrier and that's a 3rd party purchase. The amount of stress and anxiety and hours of myy life I have wasted on this are massive. I have elevated to the highest level of supervisor I could get at both the carrier and the device and they're both basically telling me they don't care. This has truly put me through hell for 2 and a half months.
Do I have ANY recourse? The purchase of the phone is on autopay from my bank account- that was required to purchase it. Can I call my bank and ask them to stop the payments? I don't want to risk getting sent to collections or hit on my credit score over this. I have the refurbished phone, but I did not open the shippping box because I'd hoped they would let me return it and get out of the payments. We do not have a contract with the carrier (it was a No Contract/ no Fees type of set up, just pay month by month plus we added the purchase of the phone.). but we are required to autopay the full cost of the device. I want to go back to my old carrier and get a reliable phone. I do not want to make 2 years of payments for a piece of crap *refurbished* device.
So I am still making monthly payments for a "new" phone I have never had full use of. I had to purchase a tracphone and forward my calls from my regular phone number to the tracphone so I would have phone service when I was returning the defective phone and waiting for the replacement. Texts will not forward, so I have undoubtedly lost many contact attempts. Basically the carrier is pointing at the device company, the device company said it's the carrier's problem since I'm buying the phone through the carrier and that's a 3rd party purchase. The amount of stress and anxiety and hours of myy life I have wasted on this are massive. I have elevated to the highest level of supervisor I could get at both the carrier and the device and they're both basically telling me they don't care. This has truly put me through hell for 2 and a half months.
Do I have ANY recourse? The purchase of the phone is on autopay from my bank account- that was required to purchase it. Can I call my bank and ask them to stop the payments? I don't want to risk getting sent to collections or hit on my credit score over this. I have the refurbished phone, but I did not open the shippping box because I'd hoped they would let me return it and get out of the payments. We do not have a contract with the carrier (it was a No Contract/ no Fees type of set up, just pay month by month plus we added the purchase of the phone.). but we are required to autopay the full cost of the device. I want to go back to my old carrier and get a reliable phone. I do not want to make 2 years of payments for a piece of crap *refurbished* device.