I bought a Straight Talk phone online on 11-23.
- It shipped on 11-25.
- I received it on 11-29 via FedEx.
- I called them and canceled my service within an hour of activating it on 11-29. I asked for a refund at that point as I was unable to use the service (which, in itself, was bad). They assured me that I would receive a refund within 30 days. The customer service representative was extremely rude despite my politeness. She was also inept and tried to claim that I had service for an entire month.
- They would not pay for return postage.
- I e-mailed the next day to verify that I will receive a credit before I shipped the phone back. They did not respond to my e-mail for a long time. When they did reply, they refused verification and told me to call. I believe this is to avoid having a paper trail.
- I called and the customer service representative informed me that my credit request was "pending" and there was no way to say whether I would receive it or not. I was a bit taken aback that the first customer service representative had lied but there was nothing I could do.
- I returned the phone using FedEx with a tracking number on 12-01. It arrived on 12-06.
- I received a full refund on 12-21.
- I received a charge to my card on 12-29. Despite the fact that it is a no contract service and my account was canceled, they still bill monthly with "auto refill" since they have the credit card information. I will have to go through the entire process again and wait to receive a refund for this!
It is a despicable business practice to continue charging someone after they have canceled their service. I have e-mails and audio recordings of the calls verifying that my account was canceled. They have a "no refund" policy for minutes as well, so it's difficult to get them to refund even if the charge is unauthorized. I may have to file a charge-back.
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