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How Not to Upgrade Your Smartphone and In Store Warranties...

kblanco

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2015
171
67
How Not to Upgrade Your Smartphone Device and My Fluke With In Store Warranty…

So I’ve always had mid-range handsets. I’m not opposed to a flagship device, I just can’t afford a flagship device and my life doesn’t warrant the specs that one comes with. I’ve been quite happy with mid-range devices and tend to the Moto G line up of which I’ve now owned three, the G1, G4 and now the G5.

My Moto G1 died of a boot loop during the start up routine one fateful day. This spurred me to buy a product from LG, the LG G Stylo, primarily because it’s what my provider happened to have on sale at the store and I needed a phone quick (I’m only cellular, no landline). However the Stylo proved to be too much of annoyance. For example I couldn’t remove any of LG’s bloatware, Moto doesn’t put any bloatware on their devices. The Stylo’s internal memory was just too little; I’m a mid-range kind of guy and thought that I could get by on eight gig’s internal memory. But between what Google and LG put on the device – the OS and bloatware – I was left with a measly one gig which needless to say I went through quickly. A brand new device and I was already hitting the Out of Memory popup after only one month!

So in 2016 I became aware that the Moto G4 was about to be introduced. It was a beautiful looking mid-range device. I read everything I could about this device, looked at every picture I could get and watched every YouTube review from the trusted resources that I subscribed to. I was going to get this device. I jumped on Best Buy’s website and pre-ordered it and waited patiently while whispering bad things to my Stylo about how its days were numbered. Then it came. Initially I was ecstatic! Kiss my Stylo and its annoyances goodbye! But a problem developed after a bit. I looked on the net and I wasn’t the only one with this problem. What to do, what to do?

I had forsaken the offered in store warranty for fifty dollars, but thankfully the unit was brand new. So after a few messages with Best Buy via Facebook they quickly said to drop in on any Best Buy store and they’d exchange it. During the exchange process for a second G4 they offered me a gift card which I inquired about as it was an exchange and not a new purchase. The clerk ringing me up said the computer says to offer a fifty dollar gift card, so I took it. The clerk said I could put it towards their in store warranty, which I thought about and then figured what the heck, I can use the gift card to pay for it so why not? I never thought that I’d be more thankful for an initial problem and a clerk who blindly does what the computer told him to do some eight months later…

For eight months my second G4 and I were quite happy. We did all together. Then one Sunday night this past week of March 2017 it all came to a sudden and tragic end. I dropped my device. Not only did I drop my device, but it smacked on the corner of a marble table and then face planted on a marble floor. I prayed that I hadn’t cracked the screen and got extremely lucky that I hadn’t. However smacking the corner of the marble table gouged, not scratched but gouged, the power button and jammed it so that the device began booting, shutting down and then booting again (using a pair of tweezer I ultimately had to dig out the power button so it'd stop looping). Needless to say I was !@#$ed! I’d just ruined a two-hundred fifty dollar device! I didn’t have two-hundred fifty dollars to drop on another device! Then I remembered that in store warranty that I had on a fluke purchased…

After work I ran home. I found my paperwork which I had kept up with these last eight months and score, it was still in warranty! The next problem however was via my personal computer the Best Buy website said that there were no more G4’s in the thirty-two gig capacity. So again what to do, what to do???

I was off to my local Best Buy. Once there they were struck by the nasty tumble that my device had taken, but Ahque Smith - at Best Buy at 2601 South Stemmons Freeway, Lewisville, TX - was only to happy to exchange my device. The problem however is their computer confirmed my computer in that there were no more thirty-two gig devices available, regular G4 model or the G4 Plus. Not any that were in store, that I could drive to another store or even that could be ordered from the warehouse! The only model of G4 to be had anywhere was the entry level sixteen gig model which I didn’t really want – I mean talk about being downgraded – and Ahque didn’t offer me which was gracious of him.

What Ahque did however was offer me the newest from the Moto G line, the G5 Plus. While we were trying to figure out what to do, I had suggested that in the absence of a G4 with thirty-two gigs to be had anywhere (likely because the G5 was being introduced) that he should consider offering me the G5 and I’d just pay whatever the difference was. Thankfully however cause I had tricked out my G4, the price of my G4 matched the price of the G5! So with a little bending of the store’s computer to our bidding, Ahque graciously offered me an upgrade to the Moto G5 Plus… We switched Sim Cards and SD Cards, my apologies for the screaming my G4 began – the antivirus I use has an anti-theft scream if you try to swap the Sim or SD cards – and a little while later I was leaving with a shiny new G5 Plus.

But lest I forget, Ahque offered me a new in store warranty; which considering events I agreed to. I normally don’t because they’re a waste of money with most electronics today. Your new flat screen television is going to just sit on a table, the computer in your house will probably never leave the room it’s in. Unless your just an extremely careless person the odds of your in home electronics having an accident aren’t so great. But cellphones are different. They go skeetering across concrete, smack floors, smack tables, get bent, go for swims in water fountains and toilets. So in the case of cellphones an in store warranty might seem like a duplication of the manufacturers warranty; but can also cover things the manufacturer won’t and be the difference between haggling with Motorola via email vs. a twenty minute stop at your local Best Buy and an instant replacement.

So not for an annoyance with my original G4 way back in mid-2016 that caused me to do an exchange... So not for using an offered gift card then on a fluke take the in store warranty… I’d have to pony up two-hundred fifty dollars or so, which I really have better things to do with for a new device. But I just wanted to pass along the lesson that I learned. To be more careful when handling your device of choice. And that at times the in store warranties can seem that they aren’t worth it, but when it comes to cellphones and the spills they might take, that warranty can totally be worth it…

KB
 
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