My Eris' Screen Cracked and How Verizon Helped

[ATownEddie]

Hey everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster. I just wanted to tell everyone about my experience with cracking my eris screen and how the matter was resolved. Lets start with where it all began. So one day while on set of a TV show, I had my phone in-hand. When the director called for the scene to be shot, I immediately put the phone in my back pocket (I guess you guys can see where this is going). Forgetting that it was there, I sat down on a hard chair. I sat for a while. Then another cast member asked to use my phone. I immediately sprang up, pulled the phone out of my pocket, and almost fainted. My phone was cracked to smithereens! It wasn't the surface glass that was cracked, it was the vital part underneath. The screen didn't work. I was only able to use the trackball, the call button, and the hang up button. The next day I went to Verizon to see what my options were. Keep in mind that the damage is not just cosmetic, I don't have insurance, I'm on a family plan where I'm not the main name on the account, the account is more than 30 days old, and I bought my phone from Best Buy. I surely thought that one of those factors would work against me. So the next day after the incident, I went to my local Verizon wireless store by myself, without the main account holder. I told the greeter that my phone broke, the screen cracked. She sent me to another guy who asked me what happened. The only thing I said was my screen broke. He then proceeds to type on his computer. He didn't look at my phone, he didn't touch my phone, he didn't ask to see a receipt, he didn't ask anything else. After fiddling with his computer for a few minutes, he said that I'll be able to get a new eris for only $50.00. I was ecstatic! Being that I didn't have insurance, I was afraid that I would have to dish out a lot of money. I don't know if I just got real lucky or if that's just what Verizon does now. Has anyone else experienced a similar situation? How did it get resolved?

 

[Frisco]

Hey everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster.

I just wanted to tell everyone about my experience with cracking my eris screen and how the matter was resolved. Lets start with where it all began.

So one day while on set of a TV show, I had my phone in-hand. When the director called for the scene to be shot, I immediately put the phone in my back pocket (I guess you guys can see where this is going). Forgetting that it was there, I sat down on a hard chair. I sat for a while. Then another cast member asked to use my phone. I immediately sprang up, pulled the phone out of my pocket, and almost fainted. My phone was cracked to smithereens!

It wasn't the surface glass that was cracked, it was the vital part underneath. The screen didn't work. I was only able to use the trackball, the call button, and the hang up button.

The next day I went to Verizon to see what my options were. Keep in mind that the damage is not just cosmetic, I don't have insurance, I'm on a family plan where I'm not the main name on the account, the account is more than 30 days old, and I bought my phone from Best Buy.

I surely thought that one of those factors would work against me. So the next day after the incident, I went to my local Verizon wireless store by myself, without the main account holder. I told the greeter that my phone broke, the screen cracked. She sent me to another guy who asked me what happened.

The only thing I said was my screen broke. He then proceeds to type on his computer. He didn't look at my phone, he didn't touch my phone, he didn't ask to see a receipt, he didn't ask anything else.

After fiddling with his computer for a few minutes, he said that I'll be able to get a new eris for only $50.00. I was ecstatic! Being that I didn't have insurance, I was afraid that I would have to dish out a lot of money. I don't know if I just got real lucky or if that's just what Verizon does now.

Has anyone else experienced a similar situation? How did it get resolved?

No offense, amigo, but long posts are tedious enough to try to read through and become horrendous reads when not broken up into paragraphs (as I did for you in my quoted portions of your post).

Please don't take offence.

 

[alprazolam]

I was offered this option but didn't take it because I decided to upgrade instead. Had a cracked screen on the Voyager. Occasionally, if they are feeling nice and you have been nice to them, they will offer to do the $50 replacement and it's a gift horse because, in my own experience, Assurion ships out pure crap.

Glad you had a good experience and posted it. Verizon employees are often good to people despite the rants that get posted on forums.

 

[cpupeli1]

Good stuff man. I was under the impression that the $50 phone replacement fee was only available for those w/insurance and only if they had an available replacement phone. I have gone to Verizon and instead of dealing with Assurion

in my own experience, Assurion ships out pure crap.

And they said I can either A. Wait for Assurion to ship me my replacement phone since I have insurance, or B. Pay the $50 to get a new phone right then and there. (given they have your phone)

It all depends on your phone and who you deal with. A year back I had a replacement phone from Assurion which they shipped with a faulty MEID number. So after I was polite for about 40min I mentioned I have been a customer for X amount of years and that this was their fault. They then agreed to upgrade my phone to a slightly nicer model/ship it 2-day shipping since they couldn't even figure out my dilemma.

Given that both of the phones were total POS IHMO (that's since upgrading to the Eris) I was just glad to get another phone, and luckily had another retired phone I could activate for the time being.

 

[swe3t23]

if you have insurance with Assurion do they give you a brand new phone or a refurbished one.

 

[OfTheDamned]

It sounds like they were in a giving mood that day. I'm glad it worked out so well for you. Now, go home and remove the back pockets from all your pants.

 

[jreed2560]

Did they actually give you a "brand new", never been used before phone? Or did they just replace it with a refurb. Some stores will carry refurb pdas instore. The 50 bucks is generally referred to as an out of warranty fee.

 

[jreed2560]

if you have insurance with Assurion do they give you a brand new phone or a refurbished one.

depends on how new the phone is. By now I'm sure an Eris would be a refurb.

 

[LiverpoolsNo9]

depends on how new the phone is. By now I'm sure an Eris would be a refurb.

The replacement we just got was brand new. The woman at the desk said that they havent had that many problems with the Eris yet, and were still shipping new ones as replacements.

 

[bjanow]

if you have insurance with Assurion do they give you a brand new phone or a refurbished one.

Assurion sends you a new one, Verizon gives you a refurb. (usually, but since the Eris is new they might not have that many refurbs yet)