I am absolutely outraged and appalled with today's discovery of how incredibly unscrupulous, dishonest, misleading, etc., InPhonic Inc. Is (Wirefly is its subsidiary).
After numerous "complete waste of time" phone calls and emails regarding the denial of a rebate total of $250.00 on a cellphone purchase I made in August, from Wirefly, I did a search on Inphonic Inc. I was only trying to get more info on the company, but, instead, I was immediately met with innumerable sites featuring complaints from an astonishing number of people describing almost word-for-word my own ripoff experience by InPhonic.
Last summer Wirefly advertised the Motorola RAZR V3 cellphone for $249.99, which would be free with a $125.00 Customer Appreciation rebate, plus a $125.00 Customer Loyalty rebate with Cingular. I already had service with Cingular, but I thought this supposedly state-of-the art "free" phone was a great deal.
I obviously should have checked for and relied on more than just Wirefly's featured great customer satisfaction ratings on its ad, as well as trusting that Cingular would not be associated with a scam and ripoff company. I ordered the phone and it was sent by Fed-Ex and activated immediately for me.
The rebate forms indicated I had to have my phone in service at least 180 days before I could submit them (separately), along with a copy of my phone bill indicating 6 months of service. After 180 days, I sent in the forms and all they asked for. I was emailed and told they had received everything and it was being "processed, " but to check on my rebate status regularly at their internet address to see if they would be requiring anything further. The site was supposedly updated daily.
After the stated 8-10 weeks of processing time had expired and nothing new was posted on their site regarding my rebates, I started calling and emailing them. That's when I started hearing their repeated, broken-record excuses of how my phone bill was "invalid" but they were researching it further. This excuse was relayed to me only verbally and through eventual emails after I started coomplaining. They never changed the official status of my rebates (which were "still in process") on their site. I repeatedly asked how I could remedy the "invalid" phone bill, even though I had provided exactly what Cingular sends me. I never received a reply. After over 3 months, they finally changed the status of my rebate on their site to say the following:
"We are currently unable to approve your rebate for the reasons listed below:
"Your submission was not postmarked within the valid time frame. The wireless bill (s) we received is invalid."
Since this is the first time (after 3 months of repeated delays) that I heard the postmark excuse, in addition to their apparent dislike of the way Cingular prepares its customers' bllls, I am now convinced beyond any doubt that these scam artist never intended to honor my rebate, and according to what I have read on all these sites about them, their "MO" is to string people along until they wear them down with their ridiculous excuses.
But I am not worn down. I am, in fact, furious. This has now become more than just about a phone I didn't really need in the first place and wasted $250.00 on a scam ad. After learning that my experience was not the exception, but rather the rule of ripping people off through their fraudulent ads, promises, and eventual lies, they have just acquired minimally, a painful thorn in the side, and more realistically a nightmare that is not going away.
I will use every legal remedy available to stop this nonsense. I realize that InPhonic uses promotion and fulfillment centers to handle such things as rebates (in my case they used "Continental Promotion Group" in Arizona). But I spoke with Inphonic's own representatives, and they were fully aware of my particular rebate status. It appears that both companies work in tandem to ensure the denial of as many rebates as possible.
I may not get my $250 back, but I do promise to be an incorrigible pain in the you-know-what to both of these companies and any others that are involved.
Jana
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
U.S.A.
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