PlasmaTwa2
The Second-Hottest Man in my Mother's Basement
So last night I managed to crack the screen on my phone. It's completely shattered in every direction because it fell out of my pocket in some weird anti-gravity incident. I know it isn't covered under warranty and I am only a year and a half into a three year contract, but I assumed I could just take it in and either pay to get it sent away for repairs, or if that cost too much, pay the remainder of what I owe for it off and just upgrade now to a Galaxy III. I thought it would be a really easy process.
Needless to say, I went in to the dealership and not even ten minutes later walked out with the same broken phone and no hope of getting it replaced. Why? Well first, apparently I cannot "just pay off" the remainder of what I owe them. They didn't even acknowledge the idea and said it would be $600 dollars to pay off this phone today since I'd have to pay off the entirety of the phone, not just what I still owe. SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS. For a phone that is discontinued and was never worth that much money to begin with. The best the kid behind the counter (who I could tell didn't want to tell me all of this stuff, so I don't really blame him) could tell me was that I could keep paying this phone off and just get another phone activated instead, but the only other options I had there was either buying a new phone outright (hundreds of dollars) or getting my old, non-4G phone reactivated for the remainder of my contract, which would mean I'd be paying a data contract for a phone that can't use it.
I then asked about sending it away for repairs and they flat out rejected that idea since fall damage isn't covered by my warranty, I knew that, and asked about having it sent away and paying for it out of my own pocket and got shot down AGAIN, with the excuse this time being that they won't even look at it since it's not covered by warranty. I nearly yelled at the kid that this makes absolutely no sense. Why can't I pay them to fix my phone? Why are they forcing their customers to have broken phones when they want to pay to have them fixed? The customer service here is complete bullshit and I honestly don't know how they can get away with this. Cell phone dealers charge a premium for phones that go obsolete in less then a year, give you warranties that cover 1/3 of your contract and then say the only way to get out of such a shitty deal is to pay obscene termination fees that are worth more than the phone is. I know a lot of networks are being forced by government to cap cancellation fees at a price that is actually affordable, but for whatever reason the government-owned network with no competitors in the province is still allowed to price-gouge their customers.
Anybody else have problems dealing with shit like this?
Needless to say, I went in to the dealership and not even ten minutes later walked out with the same broken phone and no hope of getting it replaced. Why? Well first, apparently I cannot "just pay off" the remainder of what I owe them. They didn't even acknowledge the idea and said it would be $600 dollars to pay off this phone today since I'd have to pay off the entirety of the phone, not just what I still owe. SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS. For a phone that is discontinued and was never worth that much money to begin with. The best the kid behind the counter (who I could tell didn't want to tell me all of this stuff, so I don't really blame him) could tell me was that I could keep paying this phone off and just get another phone activated instead, but the only other options I had there was either buying a new phone outright (hundreds of dollars) or getting my old, non-4G phone reactivated for the remainder of my contract, which would mean I'd be paying a data contract for a phone that can't use it.
I then asked about sending it away for repairs and they flat out rejected that idea since fall damage isn't covered by my warranty, I knew that, and asked about having it sent away and paying for it out of my own pocket and got shot down AGAIN, with the excuse this time being that they won't even look at it since it's not covered by warranty. I nearly yelled at the kid that this makes absolutely no sense. Why can't I pay them to fix my phone? Why are they forcing their customers to have broken phones when they want to pay to have them fixed? The customer service here is complete bullshit and I honestly don't know how they can get away with this. Cell phone dealers charge a premium for phones that go obsolete in less then a year, give you warranties that cover 1/3 of your contract and then say the only way to get out of such a shitty deal is to pay obscene termination fees that are worth more than the phone is. I know a lot of networks are being forced by government to cap cancellation fees at a price that is actually affordable, but for whatever reason the government-owned network with no competitors in the province is still allowed to price-gouge their customers.
Anybody else have problems dealing with shit like this?
