On 3 March I purchased two Samsung SCH-a970 phones with Verizon service from a dealer in the local mall. I later mailed in my information to get the $50 per phone rebate. On 11 April 06, I received a letter from Brightstar saying I needed to submit the original sales receipt. Less than 2 days later, I called Brightstar to confirm what to mail them. After mailing the sales receipt (PO Box 1600, Young America. MN 55594-1600), I waited 30 days (since they usually take 8-10 weeks to mail the checks) and called to confirm they received my letter. They said, No and offered me the opportunity to fax in the required information. I kept the confirmation paper from the fax as proof that I sent them the information. Nine weeks later, I call them to ask why the checks are taking so long (as an active duty Army soldier, we tend to be away from the home for long periods of time). Here is what they told me: 1) The offer has expired and we never received your re-submitted paperwork 2) We cannot accept faxed copies and the faxed information makes your claim invalid 3) There is nothing we can do to help you since you waited to long after submitting the information.
After several calls to Brightstar, they claim absolutely no responsibility in this situation. They have proof I called after receiving the letter. They have proof of my calling on 22 May but seem to locate the person I talked to (Jan). To make matters worse, their letter does not contain a fax number. A reasonable person would conclude that I probably called them and asked for a fax number. To add, why not inform me before giving me a fax number that I must mail in the required information? The supervisor (Diane, Badge #2067) claims that they never received a fax and if they did, they cannot accept the fax. She had the audacity to claim that I should have mailed the information AGAIN since they lack the ability to properly account for mail (or faxes) which contains detailed customer information. Soon afterwards, I called Brighstar back and asked them to either fax me the information they have in my file (there is the distinct chance they already had my information), mail the information to me for verification purposes or find the documents in their office and we can determine what they actually have and don't have. The customer service rep said, We don't have any hardcopies of what you sent in (original or re-submitted) so we cannot verify what you sent us.in that case, how do I really know you did not receive ALL the required documents? Is there no mechanism to verify that claim?
I feel that this process in obtaining a rebate after responding to Verizon and Brightstar's offer is a blatant attempt to prevent a sensible solution to this problem. I highly encourage all of you considering a cell phone plan to AVOID Verizon and, especially, anything concerning rebates with Brightstar. To add, I'm going to publicize the deceitful nature of Brightstar on a web site dedicated to helping the military avoid traps and cons. My next step is to contact Verizon and the rep who sold us the phones but I suspect they will also claim no responsibility in this matter.
0 comments