A few months ago my daughter started having trouble with her less than 1 year old iphone and spent hours on the phone with tech services
troubleshooting and trying to get issues resolved. After all of the options had been exhausted with the phone she had in hand she was sent a refurbished phone in the same model as a replacement. The replacement phone had all of the same issues she had been experiencing plus a few more so she spent more time on the line with tech services and ultimately it was decided that her phone would be replaced with a new Galaxy. Since she was not
yet upgrade eligible we would pay a fee of the difference in price between for the new phone. When the new phone arrived it was not the version that had been discussed. This time rather than going back to customer service we headed to a corporate store location to try to get things resolved in person.
The first representative we spoke with at the store was rude, dismissive and clearly not interested in helping us so I asked to speak with a manager and was introduced to one. He was attentive and seemed genuinely interested in helping us resolve our issues. He introduced another associate to assist and the four of us spent the next three hours together. We discussed all possible solutions and the ramifications of each. We all agreed that the best option for getting a working phone that day was to do what we had previously set out to accomplish, get the most recent version of the Galaxy as a replacement for the malfunctioning phone and pay the fee required.
I had asked a lot of questions about fees and charges and changes to the contract and made it clear that I did not want to do anything that was going to create an extension of the existing contract. I was assured that it would not and then was introduced to the idea of switching to the edge program. Switching to edge was supposed to 1) give us more sharable monthly data 2) allow us to finance the phone and pay for it with a monthly credit 3) give us additional merchandise. The merchandise in question was a phone case, an extra charger and a wireless speaker. After running through the numbers with the rep twice I decided to go ahead with this option and the merchandise was packed into our bag. We were almost done, I was told there was an additional charge of $1.47 that needed to be authorized on the account and asked to sign for that charge. This is the only charge that was discussed and the only charge that I authorized as a result of the interaction on that day.
The following week I received notification that my bill was ready to view, when I logged in to look it over there was a charge of $275 for equipment from the day we had visited the store. I figured it was a mistake and immediately contacted both of the reps who had assisted thinking it would be a simple matter of making some adjustment on their part. When I got a call back I was informed that the charge was for the phone case, extra charger and wireless speaker, the merchandise the reps had specifically stated was free of charge and was being “thrown in” as an incentive to switch to the edge program that day. I was first confused and then upset. Neither of the experienced reps I had spent three plus hours with on a Saturday afternoon had discussed any cost to me of the items they placed in my bag. To the contrary they had assured me twice that there was no charge for those items and that the only charge I should expect to see until the next billing cycle was the $1.47 I had authorized. When I reminded them of this they were apologetic, said I could bring everything back because it was still within the two weeks allowed. But that would probably change the price of the phone. And we would have to review the cost of data outside of the edge plan. So basically we would be starting over, again. After at least six hours and three phones we still weren’t done. I was furious, they had lied to me and wasted our time.
I took a few minutes to think things over and then called an attorney friend who informed me that what had taken place was illegal. The Fair Trade Commission considers giving someone an item you state will be free and later invoicing them for that item to be a violation of fair business practices.
I again contacted both of the gentlemen involved in the transaction to notify them that I would be filing a complaint and would like to be contacted by legal services.
I am still waiting for that call. I have the names of the reps, the store, the dates and times as well as the records of calls and texts exchanged between myself and the representatives. Please have someone contact me as soon as possible.
