I have read with interest the fiascos that others have encountered with the Cingular Wireless "Exchange By Mail" (XBM) repair / warranty service. I too have found this joke of a service to be highly ineffectual and untrustworthy. My encounter with Cingular XBM started when my Motorola V551 phone (purchased from a local Cingular Wireless store less than a year ago) was having ongoing charging problems.
Customers seeking Cingular warranty service are forced to mail defective equipment to XBM for repair and more likely, they are sent a refurbished phone, as occurred in my case. The replacement phone that Cingular sent me also started having immediate problems, and I took it to another local merchant in my home city to make an objective evaluation and determine what was wrong. It was determined that Cingular had sent me a refurbished replacement phone that had suffered liquid damage to the main board and the internal liquid detection sticker appeared red. It was consequently deemed unfit for customer use. I had written verification of this from a qualified technician and photographic proof of the problem on CD. Furthermore, because the replacement phone was in such bad shape, the manufacturer's warranty on that particular phone was consequently invalidated.
Before even issuing a return authorization and shipping instructions, Cingular Warranty representatives put customers through all kinds of questions, prompts, and instructions to remove and re-insert various components of the phone in obvious attempts to blame the customer, or find some other fault, for the phone's problem. Cingular issues all kinds of disclaimers, warning customers that they will be charged if returning any piece of equipment that has sustained physical damage (i.E. Dropping, water, etc.) and customers have been penalized with this charge, whether proven true or not. But yet — Cingular's own Warranty Service sent us a replacement phone which actually contained evidence of water damage. Unbelievable, but not surprising. They just happened to get caught with this one.
It is appalling that a company as big and prevalent as Cingular Wireless has such an unsuitable warranty exchange procedure in place.
It becomes a matter of honor and trust. Because we could no longer trust Cingular Wireless to suitably remedy our problem, we felt we had no choice except to purchase a fit replacement from an alternate merchant who would satisfactorily resolve any possible future warranty issues on a local level.
The Cingular Wireless corporate office is located in Atlanta, GA. I would highly advise any others who have been impacted by this problem (or any other Cingular improprieties) to contact: The Better Business Bureau of Metro Atlanta, The Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs, ; The Federal Communications Commission, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau, Consumer Complaints, AND the Office of the Attorney General of the customer's own home state.
The majority of customers do not take the time and trouble to officially complain. They just switch to another provider and cease doing business where they feel they have been cheated. It should not be necessary to have to contact the BBB and multiple consumer protection agencies in order to obtain what is right. But unfortunately, huge corporations such as this have caused it to be necessary. If corporations would grasp this concept and deal honorably with their customers in the first place, it would vastly improve customer relations and certainly profit them in the long run. Unfortunately, few in big business tend to understand this.
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