5th bolt refurb

[quantumandroid]

I received my 5th thunderbolt refurb today. First launch device worked perfect. Sent it in because kickstand coating was peeling and small crack by front camera since I got it. Since then I am now on my 5th refurb. I keep dropping data on some refurbs, had to get new SD card from Verizon for other data issues, which did cure it for a while, now my 5th refurb don't recognise the SD card or keep data connection. What to do? Switch to Droid charge refurb? Demand a new thunderbolt? Or ask for upgrade to bionic at subsidized cost? I'm at this point unwilling to accept another refurb from Verizon. What should I do?

 

[TxGoat]

I feel your pain.... http://androidforums.com/htc-thunde...uld-i-do-verizon-refurb-looks-like-poooo.html

 

[Yeahha]

What to do? Switch to Droid charge refurb? Demand a new thunderbolt? Or ask for upgrade to bionic at subsidized cost?

Out of those 3 options I would think the only 1 VZW will go for is switching to the charge refirb. I think you would be better off staying in the refirb roulette with the TB, it is a better phone than the charge, IMO, and VZW is known for crappy refirbs of any phone.

Sorry to hear you are having to go thru refirb hell, many of us have been there at some point. I went thru it with a feature phone before.

 

[TxGoat]

I wonder how effective it is to register a complaint to the BBB.

 

[quantumandroid]

If my journey to the Verizon store dosnt go so well today I will be contacting the BBB.

 

[Chi-TownTx]

I wonder how effective it is to register a complaint to the BBB.

First off to the OP sorry to hear about your bad luck with the Blunderbolt.

As for the BBB it will do nothing at all. Often you see people threaten with the BBB but what many consumers do not realize is the BBB is not affiliated with the government. In fact it's just a club businesses can choose to join or not. What's even better is that your rating is determined not by complaints but by how much cash said company donates to the BBB.

Various tests have been done with the BBB rating system to see exactly what effects what. 60 minutes even did a dummy corporation setup a few times. One company had 100% customer satisfaction but donated no money to the BBB and thus had a D+ rating. Another had nothing but bad customer satisfaction yet donated 1k dollars to the BBB and the score insta jumped to an A-.

The BBB's name is misleading on purpose. The whole company is designed around fooling the consumer into thinking it's a government watch dog when in fact it has nothing to do with the gov at all. It's just a club businesses can choose to join to get the BBB plaque on their wall to lure consumers into a false sense of security.

The only way you could ever hurt a company (or at least make them think) is to threaten to make a claim with your states Secretary for Business Practices department. That is the real section of the government that is in charge of fair dealings with businesses in the United Sates. Each state calls it something different but you can look up yours in the phone book. Should be called something along the lines of " Secretary of State for Better Business".

When a business is reported to this department an investigation is launched by the state government. Companies know what this is and often want no part of uncle sam snooping around their offices.

A threat with the "BBB" however, is something even i myself would laugh at in the business world. It means nothing especially since it was setup to fool the consumer in the first place.

Anyway, hope this info helps.

 

[joesaysso]

I don't know how bad that small crack by the camera might have been but the coating on the kick stand peeling?? Seems like a terrible reason to turn a phone in for replacement.

As I read through the thread, I thought to myself how I am still on my first launch T-bolt and I am still perfectly satisfied with it. In another thread a while back, I told somebody who was not satisfied with his T-bolt that I'm just not sure anymore what people expect from their smart phones these days.

And I guess now I can say the same thing to you? Did you plan on mounting it on the wall when you were done using it? I took a look at my kickstand just for the F of it after reading this and what do you know....its peeling a little too.

The crack I can't comment on because I didn't see it. But you yourself said that the phone worked perfectly. I'm not going to say that I'm happy that you are having problems. And I won't say that you deserve your problems.

What I will say is that if you turned in a perfectly working phone for some minor aesthetic flaws that most likely only occurred because you were getting use out of your phone, then you played with fire and asked to be burned.

Think about it, Verizon only has those replacement phones because they got turned in due to something being wrong with them. You should have kept your first phone until the crack started effecting the operation or physical stability of the phone. Hopefully the lesson has been learned. Its a tough break though, I feel your pain.

 

[TxGoat]

I don't know how bad that small crack by the camera might have been but the coating on the kick stand peeling?? Seems like a terrible reason to turn a phone in for replacement.

As I read through the thread, I thought to myself how I am still on my first launch T-bolt and I am still perfectly satisfied with it. In another thread a while back, I told somebody who was not satisfied with his T-bolt that I'm just not sure anymore what people expect from their smart phones these days.

And I guess now I can say the same thing to you? Did you plan on mounting it on the wall when you were done using it? I took a look at my kickstand just for the F of it after reading this and what do you know....its peeling a little too.

The crack I can't comment on because I didn't see it. But you yourself said that the phone worked perfectly. I'm not going to say that I'm happy that you are having problems. And I won't say that you deserve your problems.

What I will say is that if you turned in a perfectly working phone for some minor aesthetic flaws that most likely only occurred because you were getting use out of your phone, then you played with fire and asked to be burned.

Think about it, Verizon only has those replacement phones because they got turned in due to something being wrong with them. You should have kept your first phone until the crack started effecting the operation or physical stability of the phone. Hopefully the lesson has been learned. Its a tough break though, I feel your pain.

So what you're saying is if you buy a new car and the paint is a little scratched or there's a small tear in the headliner then you'd keep the car since it doesn't take away from the "functionality" of the car?

Sure we're talking about a 100x difference in price, but to some people it's not so much the price but the quality of the product. I know some people were complaining about quality issues that are more design issues (light leak issue) and kept returning phones in hopes of getting one that didn't have such issues.

As far as a peeling kickstand, if I get a refurbed phone with that then you'd better believe I'm going to return it. If their Quality Control can't do their job correctly then that's not my fault, but you can bet that they're going to get their phones returned to them until they can get one to me that measures up. I'm locked into a 2 year contract so you'd better believe that I want something that's going to last those 2 years.

 

[Yeahha]

I was actaully glad when my kickstand started peeling, I took a penny and chipped away the rest of the coating to give me a better looking shiny kickstand. If I got a refirb and it had a peeling kickstand I may decide to make a fuss about it but I'm not sure.

I am not entirely sold on your comparison to a car. The expected lifetime of a car is quite a bit more than the 2 years you are expected to have your phone. Say you buy a new car and after a year the paint start to chip do you expect the OEM to repair/replace it for you? I doubt they would and call it normal wear and tear

 

[TxGoat]

I was actaully glad when my kickstand started peeling, I took a penny and chipped away the rest of the coating to give me a better looking shiny kickstand. If I got a refirb and it had a peeling kickstand I may decide to make a fuss about it but I'm not sure.

I am not entirely sold on your comparison to a car. The expected lifetime of a car is quite a bit more than the 2 years you are expected to have your phone. Say you buy a new car and after a year the paint start to chip do you expect the OEM to repair/replace it for you? I doubt they would and call it normal wear and tear

I've known some guys that have bought brand new cars and get that orange peel thing going (where it has bumps in it like that of an orange peel for those not familiar) and have tried to return the car only to be told by the dealer that it's "normal".

I say it's the same attitude because technically it's not taking away from the functionality of the car. I'd personally want the refurb to look "as new" even though my current phone (my 2nd brand new original) has the peeling kickstand as well.

Sadly the phones I've received as refurbs in the past look to be in worse shape than mine so I haven't minded so much the screen going black on the rare occasions that it does, but I may call Verizon back again and start the whole refurb-of-fortune odyssey again.

 

[Yeahha]

Yeah I hear you, a refirb should be the same as a new phone but as we all know they aren't.

 

[TxGoat]

Yeah I hear you, a refirb should be the same as a new phone but as we all know they aren't.

I know when I worked at Apple I was told that returned phones are typically skinned and the inside components are re-used, but the plastic/glass covers are generally replaced with new pieces, which makes sense. Your customers are less likely to return an item if it looks like new.

 

[Yeahha]

There was a post before here (somewhere in the VZW forum I think) from a guy who works where the refirb phones for VZW (other than the iphone more than likely) they get between 90 and 120 seconds to inspect a phone and declare if it is worthty to be a refirb, this is a standard for all phones, from what I understood they were not specialized to one specific phone but all phones sold on VZW. If that was all true the system is really set up for failure IMO

 

[TxGoat]

There was a post before here (somewhere in the VZW forum I think) from a guy who works where the refirb phones for VZW (other than the iphone more than likely) they get between 90 and 120 seconds to inspect a phone and declare if it is worthty to be a refirb, this is a standard for all phones, from what I understood they were not specialized to one specific phone but all phones sold on VZW. If that was all true the system is really set up for failure IMO

That sounds about right. They probably get paid about $10 an hour and are required to process a few hundred phones per hour.

 

[quantumandroid]

At this point if I could get my original tbolt back I would, all the headaches I have had are not worth it 2 months without a properly functioning phone.....I should have done my research before jumping in.

 

[Yeahha]

At this point if I could get my original tbolt back I would, all the headaches I have had are not worth it 2 months without a properly functioning phone.....I should have done my research before jumping in.

I feel for you. Honestly you didn't do anything you shouldn't have you expected to receive quality service but haven't been given that. VZW needs to address the issues with bad refirbs being sent out to people. Have you contacted VZW to see if they will address your concerns other than just sending refirbs out perhaps crediting your account because you have not been able to fully utilitize the service you pay for due to them sending you poor quality products?

 

[Frisco]

I wonder how effective it is to register a complaint to the BBB.

I found it to be very effective, having resolved an issue using the BBB resolution department. Each BBB regional office has one.

In my case, a Blackberry Curve I had in for repair was gone for over two months, and I was still being billed by Verizon for data. I contacted Verizon numerous times to get the (paid) bill refunded in the data portion, to no avail.

The BBB called them and sent them a resolution form (via email, I believe, because it happened fast) and the following billing cycle showed the refund on my statement.

Call the BBB in your area, I recommend.

http://www.bbb.org/us/Dispute-Resolution-Services/