Obviously, stores sell items that has been returned by other customers as “open box” merchandise, but before reader David left the store, he specifically asked if the phone he was buying was “new” and was told it was. When he got home and found addresses saved on the phone and a few scratches he was understandably annoyed. He launched an EECB on Best Buy and after a little negotiation, he got a $120 gift card. Now he’s writing to compliment Best Buy on the way they handled his complaint.
phones
Verizon: 'You've Earned A New Phone' (Just Not From Us)
By 8.26.08
Is this Verizon promotional email being over-enthusiastic with its subject line, or is it actually misleading? A phrase like “you’ve earned a new ___” doesn’t usually get followed up with, “Just pay us anywhere between $100-$200 for it,” unless it comes from a scam vacation offer. Or Verizon. As Bryan notes in his email to us, “The subject line must mean something like when you tell Verizon, ‘You’ve earned my suspicion and contempt.'”
Sprint Extends Yet Another Contract Without Permission
By 8.16.08
Sprint signed David up for a two-year contract without permission after he transferred his service between a Motorola RAZR 2 and a Sanyo 8400. David owned both phones when he made the transfer last month, long after his contract had expired. Sprint recently decided to send him a letter, charmingly called “keeping you in the know,” which showed that he was the proud new owner of a surprise contract extension.
By 8.5.08
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For all six of you Americans out there who use a Symbian phone, SymbianGear is offering one free app per day for 10 days. You’ve already missed days 1 & 2, but they’ve got 7 more to go if you’re interested. (Today is Texas Holdem). [SymbianGear via Symbian-Guru.com]
Block Text Message Spam
By 6.17.08
If you’ve ever received cell phone spam, you know how infuriating it can be—especially if you pay by the message. David Pogue of the New York Times recently got hit with a spate of junk text messages on his Verizon plan, and he figured out how to block most of them. If you’re with AT&T or Verizon you can block any messages sent through the Internet, as well as change your text message address to an alias to thwart number-guessing spammers. Sprint will let you block specific addresses. T-Mobile lets you block email messages and set up filters based on specific phrases. Login info below.
Someone Is Listening To You Swear At The Customer Service Robot
By 5.30.08
The New York Times recently published an article about those interactive voice response systems that we all hate so much, and in it we were introduced to Walter Rolandi. He designs these systems and it’s his great privilege to be able to listen to you swearing at them.
T-Mobile: We Can't Help You, Sell Your Brand New Defective Phone On eBay
By 5.12.08
A link to the following letter to T-Mobile’s president just popped into our inbox. It seems that if you receive a T-Mobile Sidekick for Christmas and it’s defective… your options are fairly limited. T-Mobile’s best solution to your broken phone? Sell it on eBay.
By 4.21.08
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Skype offers unlimited long distance for $2.95 a month. [Reuters]
Watch Out For Scammers Pretending To Be Your Credit Card Company's Fraud Department
By 4.15.08
This should have been one of the first things your parents told you about avoiding scams, but in case they were busy watching TV or something — here you go:
General Outage Hits GrandCentral
By 4.13.08
Google’s telephone service GrandCentral has been down all morning. The service’s first general outage affects all customers; any calls to GrandCentral numbers are immediately disconnected.
Watch Out For Cramming On Your Phone Bill
By 3.20.08
Josh discovered a mysterious $13 fee on his parents’ phone bill, and as he tracked down the source of the bogus charge, he learned a lot about cramming. The FCC describes it as “the practice of placing unauthorized, misleading, or deceptive charges on your telephone bill” by third party companies, who bank on you being too confused/distracted/annoyed by your hard-to-read bill to notice.
9 Confessions Of A Retentions Representative
By 3.16.08
Retentions representatives are the cellphone company’s last line of defense between you and freedom. One brave retentions representative has come forward to teach us how to craft a direct, earnest request that will lead retention reps to do your bidding. Rivaled in effectiveness only by executive customer support, retentions reps are empowered to strike down nuisance fees and bargain liberally, all to keep you as a customer. If you were ever tempted to threaten your cellphone company with cancellation, this one is a must read.
AT&T Says They'll Charge $25 "Activation Fee" To Move SIM From A Broken Phone To A GoPhone
By 3.13.08
Does AT&T really charge a $25 “activation fee” when you move your SIM card to a GoPhone? A father had to replace his child’s broken cellphone over the weekend, and the rep at the AT&T store told him the only way to avoid an ETF or plan extension was to buy a GoPhone and pay an activation fee, even though the SIM card was the same. Online, you can buy a new GoPhone and have the activation fee waved. Way to treat your current customers, AT&T.
By 3.8.08
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Here’s a free idea for the taking: why doesn’t a bank (cough HSBC cough) offer the option to have text message alerts sent to a registered phone number any time a withdrawal is made from a specific account via ATM? “$120 was withdrawn at 2:51pm EST in Palo Verde, CA. Reference #293005” See how easy that was? Such exception-based reporting would drastically cut down on fraud (we’re guessing) by enlisting the help of customers to report unauthorized transactions immediately.
By 2.19.08
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In response to consumer backlash, Verizon has decided to make it so alarms on its new phones don’t go off on its phones when you dial 911. This is so if you hide and call 911 when a prowler breaks in, you don’t give them a handy homing signal. [KOMO]
Apple Files Patent App To Allow Wireless Ordering At Stores
By 12.31.07
Apple has applied to patent a wireless ordering system that would allow shoppers to place orders from, for example, their iPhones as they approached, oh, let’s say a Starbucks, bypassing an ordering line altogether and going straight to the pick-up counter. The system would also allow stores to keep data on repeat customers to speed up future transactions.
Intuit Planning To Launch "iPhone-Friendly" Version Of Quicken Online For $3/Month
By 12.19.07
Would you pay $36 a year to access Quicken on your iPhone? What the hell, why not, right? You already paid for the iPhone! That’s probably what Intuit is hoping—and the zillion-dollar iPod accessories market proves there’s a lot of “blue ocean” for businesses that want to fish in Apple waters. It launches the product as a web service on January 8th, 2008, with an iPhone-friendly flavor also available then. There are plans to roll out “tweaked” versions for other mobile devices at an unspecified point in the future.
Consumer Reports Survey Discovers People Hate Cell Phone Companies
By 12.7.07
The next issue of Consumer Reports will contain the results of a nationwide customer satisfaction survey for the mobile phone industry. In a surprise to no one who actually has a mobile phone, the cellular industry is “among the lowest-rated services” for consumers, particularly because of termination fees, high prices, and confusing contracts.
