NO customer service?

[Pabear]

My son bought a phone at a store that has banners saying "cricket" with accessories and takes money and everything. 4 days later the phone doesn't work, put in a new battery, phone quits again. Go back to store , we're told to drive 40 miles to a "corporate store". I feel cricket should warrenty this phone through the store that sold the new phone through, I shouldn't have to drive 40 miles away. I even called the toll free number, but got a corporate run around..It's cutomer service..no we're a call center, we're customer service...no we're a call center. I wish we had 150 to THROW-AWAY, but we don't. That's what he paid for a phone HE CAN"T USE !

[Woof]

you bought your phone from an indirect dealer. They are authorized resellers of the phones and service..

They are not however authorized to do warranty or insurance transactions. This sort of thing is industry wide. Sprint,At&t, Verizon all do it. Does it make it easy to deal with? No.

Unfortunately you will need to go to a corporate location. I wish I could do something to help you here. Sorry.

[lexie69x]

cant u go to a full service cricket store and get it taken care of thats wat i did and i bought mine from a cricket authorized dealer but i didnt have it activated at the dealer i doont know if thats y but when i called in the new phone i asjed for drvice portection

[Gravy Baby]

technically, if the phone is under the indirect return policy, they should do it. Normally that policy is 30/30. 30 minutes or more on the phone's call timer, and over 30 days; whatever comes first. The only problem I see is that the indirect store cannot tell how many minutes were used on the phone. Hence, they are asking you to go to a corporate store to do the exchange. Its only throwing your money away if you don't go and get it replaced.

[Pabear]

It still is no easy pill to swallow. I think it's bad buisness not to have a better exchange policy for defective NEW equipment from any store of any kind, I mean 30 miniutes isn't alot of use for a 150 dollar phone to quit working.

[Woof]

It still is no easy pill to swallow. I think it's bad buisness not to have a better exchange policy for defective NEW equipment from any store of any kind, I mean 30 minutes isn't alot of use for a 150 dollar phone to quit working.

Three things you said I'd like to comment on.
1 Exchange policy. There is no exchange policy per se. There is a Return policy which 30 minutes or 30 days whichever comes first. This allows you to test the phone to ensure it works where you need it to work. 30 minutes of talk time is plenty of time to verify the phone will work in the location of your need. It also allows you up to 30 days to use that 30 minutes. Thats pretty flexible and generous unless you're not terribly smart and talk on your phone for a half hour as soon as you walk out the door.

2. NEW equipment. Once you have used it beyond the 30 minutes it's no longer new even if it's 31 minutes after you walked out of the door. It's not new once you have used it.

3. 30 minutes isn't alot of use. Perhaps in the grand scheme of things no 30 minutes isnt a lot but it is enough times for you to make numerous short calls to ensure functionality. I might also point out that the 30 minute has nothing to do with the warranty, which is 1 year from the manufacturer.

I have to ask you, what do you think would be fair? The ability to return your phone anywhere? Fred Meyer ( a grocery chain) sells Cricket phones in my market. Should they be able to do service?

How many minutes would be enough for you? 60? 90? 300? Some one will always complain no matter what it is. The point of the thirty minute rule is that it is long enough to test reception in your area and short enough that most folks wouldn't destroy the phone in that time. (this part is my opinion and not the position or interpretation of Cricket)

If this 150 is so important (which in my world certainly would be) why haven't you driven the 40 miles to the corporate store and gotten it swapped. If it's only 4 days old most corp stores would likely swap it for you with no fee. There is a $10 shipping charge to swap it in the first 30, but if you were just 4 days from purchase I would waive that no problem (that 10 bucks is the shipping back the the manufacturer which you would also pay if you shipped it yourself). Two hours and you'd have been done.

Let us know how it turns out.

Also next time you buy something that you consider expensive, it might be in your best interest to ask about the warranty process before you buy.

[Pabear]

Yes I have found out there doesn't seem to be an exchange policy.

Yes, I know nothing is NEW once it walks out the door, but I don't need anymore smart talk please, I 've gotten enough already from "customer service". 30 miniutes my be good to check fuctionality in an area, but it shouldn't quit working all together either.

I never thought that the store should work on the phone even though that is this store's sole buisness, they don't sell produce or anything else, just phones, but they should at least be able to make adjustments to an account. They don't seem to even care, and that makes matters worse. This is also why GM doesn't sell cars through convenience stores, and cricket should only sell phones through phone stores, no grocery stores.

To my son and his mother and I 150 is alot of money, but with her spending the last 3 months with her father at Hospice of Dayton, and me driving truck from Sunday to Friday night over the road, getting to a corporate store isn't easy either. And we did make it to one finally, and guess what, they didn't offer us any more than a new battery, and then directed us back to 800 cricket for adjustment, who directed us to our local store, who told us they can't do anything, who directed us to 800 cricket, who told us thay can't do anything. We want his "FREE MONTH" of service like he should have gotten if his phone would have worked plus one free month for being LIED TO by nearly everyone we'ved talked to, plus the fact that I've left 4 messages on the customer service line that clames they'll call back in 24 hours or less...still waiting. We're not unreasonable people, but we do really feel like we're being ignored, and a little good PR by a big company would save a lot of bad press.

[Woof]

As I indicated in our pm exchange, I looked into your account.

It was disconnected by you on 6/11/07. As a result there is nothing i can do to help you.

I have pm'd you the phone number for Corporate Customer Relations. Perhaps they can do something for you.