What starts with a D or maybe a P and caused Motorola to efuse to give reader Julie W. her Razr back? A mystery signature on a UPS slip! Oh, and did we mention that Julie’s house was trashed in Hurricane Katrina?

UPS, Motorola and Mother Nature all screw Julie after the jump…

When I read the update on the FedEx package story I was prompted to share with you my UPS/Motorola story, which after 7 months still has not been resolved.

At the end of July my husband and I got new Razrs. My husband had his 3 days and the LCD screen cracked after we went on plane flight from Los Angeles. Naturally, we contacted Motorola and sent the phone it saying it must have been defective and we wanted another phone. Well the phone went through the standard repair procedures at Motorola and they decided that the cracked LCD screen was “owner misuse” and declined to fix it. They then sent it back to us and it was scheduled to arrive August 29.

Well, we live in New Orleans and you know what happened Aug. 29. Needless to say, thanks to Katrina, we didn’t get the phone that Motorola refused to fix.

Well, we were a little distracted having had a decent bit of damage to our house from the storm and having had to relocate to Baton Rouge and we didn’t contact Motorola back until mid September. They told us how the package had been returned to them due to the hurricane and they would try to locate it. A week or two later I called them again and they said that they had found the phone and would have it shipped to us at our temporary address in Baton Rouge. Again, the phone was not our top priority; I was trying to negotiate with contractors in New Orleans (another consumerist nightmare) from Baton Rouge and get a new roof put on our house.

After a while had gone by, and a number of trips to the apartment office to check for the phone, I called Motorola sometime around mid November to find out what the holdup was. This is where the story gets really exciting. They told me that the phone had been delivered Oct. 6. The overseas CS woman even gave me the tracking number. I entered the tracking number on UPS’ web site and it sure said it was delivered, however, we never received the phone. I went to the apartment office and they said if the package was delivered we would have received it or UPS would have left a note on our door. There was never a note. I contacted UPS and they refused to talk to me. They said they can only talk to the shipper.

I contacted Motorola and someone told me that someone would contact me within 10 days after they had looked into it. I called 10 days later and another CS rep told me they had found the phone and I would be contacted. I was again, never contacted and I again called them. I found out the last agent thought she’d found the phone after it had been returned from the hurricane. I called Motorola and after two phone calls (and over an hour) I found an overseas rep who knew what to do and she contacted UPS to start a “trace” on the package to see what happened to it. I had to call back two weeks later to find out the results of the trace. I was told that the trace had been closed because of delivery confirmation.

I called again, another hour on the phone, I told Motorola that we never received the phone, the apartment office said they’d never received it and I didn’t know how there was delivery confirmation. We started another trace. I called back another week later and again UPS had closed the case. I finally got a Motorola rep to contact UPS and find out why they were insisting the phone was delivered. They said there was a signature, it was illegible. I quote: “It looks like there is a D or a P in the name.” After all that Motorola said that was all they could do. UPS won’t talk to me directly because I’m not the shipper. We never got the phone but supposedly there’s a possible signature with a D or a P in it and that is all the proof UPS needs to know it was delivered.

I am frustrated that after hours upon hours of hold time and having to explain my story over and over that UPS has an out because of an illegible signature. We purchased insurance for $200 when we mailed the phone to Motorola. Motorola purchased $220 of insurance when they mailed the phone back to us. But UPS doesn’t have to replace the phone because of a possible D or P. My final call to Motorola was back in February, I believe. Maybe we should just try to claim the phone as “lost in the hurricane” on our insurance.

These are our different case numbers from contacting Motorola:

moto case no. 1-71619204

moto case no. 1-81377715
ups tracking: 1Z E9F 476 01 5068 2645 delivered oct 6?

1-89058866 moto case # 16 jan

1-89968914 case # 23 Jan someone will call by 25th

Thanks for giving me an outlet to share our horror story with all your readers.

Thanks, Julie! Anyone have any advice for Julie on how she can get this resolved? Also, don’t forget to send us your own consumerist horror stories at tips@consumerist.com

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