I purchased a Samsung Protocol cell phone from Walmart on April /, along with an extended breakage loss warranty.
1. About 3 months ago the phone started losing functionality. I would try to dial and it would go directly to Verizon. Six times over the past 6 months I have had to have Verizon reactivate my phone.
2. When dialing, the phone just sat there. After a couple minutes I would hang up. Dial again, and sometimes I would get a prompt saying the phone was already dialing. Again I would wait. Sometimes the call would go thru sometimes it would go back to the desktop and I would have to start all over again.
3. I am 65 years old and rarely use my phone. I rarely use the web or gps, and I do more short texts to my kids and grandkids. Sometimes they do not get my texts at all. When texting, I can see the letters as I type them but when I hit the space bar a completely different word is there.
4. It does not always recognize names that are in my contacts.
5. It gets hot when charging it and if I am on it for any length of time. Sometimes I don't make 6 phone calls the entire week, but everyday at least twice a day I have to charge it as it goes critically low battery.
6. When I dial a number the desktop disappears and I cannot get it back, so if I have prompts I have to go thru to get to the party I am calling, I cannot complete my call because I cannot get the dial pad to come back.
7. I have to use the voice to text most often because the keyboard just does not respond to the words I type.
I emplained this to 4 different people yesterday, including a supervisor at Straight Talk. I asked 3 times for a reference or case number so I did not have to go thru this lengthy list of issues again and again, yet each person I talked to would not give me a reference number. I asked and asked.
I was told they would replace the phone but that I had to send it in to them to be diagnosed, that it would take at least 15 days to do this, but then they would send me a replacement phone. I explained to them that I am disabled, live alone, can barely walk, and it is a safety issue for me to be without a phone for that long. I asked if they were going to replace the phone anyway, could they please send me the replacement phone with a return authorization and I would send them the defective phone. They refused to do this as it was not protocol.
They then said that I had to have another phone where they could reach me. I explained repeatedly that I only had the one phone. Finally I remembered I had a Samsun Precedent phone I had bought in March that I could not use because Straight Talk had not advised me it used Spring towers. I could not call any of my family, could not call my doctors or even the pharmacy 6 blocks away. I never got more than one bar with that Precedent phone so I had to buy another one. I bought the Samsung Protocol and it pulls from Verizon and it worked ok for some months then gradually starting having the above issues.
I paid for a product in good faith, bought the extended warranty, and none of it did me any good. I have never been so frustrated with a company in my life. I buy a lot of technology because I am homebound and worked for over 50 years before retiring in June due to health reasons.
I was advised I would get an email with an airbill and instructions on how to return the phone. I waited all day yesterday and it never came. I waited most of the day today, and again it never came. I went to Walmart and purchased yet another Straight Talk Samsung phone, this time a Centura which pulls from Verizon, just so I could have a phone while they receive, diagnose and send me a replacement phone. No one should have to go thru this kind of hassel for a stupid phone. Because I bought it at Walmart I told them what was happening but because it was beyond their policy term they could not help. I then called the extended warranty company and explained this all again, just to be told that because it was inside the manufacturer's policy, they could not help, and because I had not lost, dropped or damaged the phone, they could not help. I then called Samsung because they are the manufacturer and was told they could do nothing, that I had to work with Straight Talk. I then called TracFone because that who runs Straight Talk but they could not help because Straight Talk restricts them from any kind of IT on the phones purchased for their plan.
Today I bought a new phone and had it activated with my phone number and called Straight Talk again. And no surprise but they wanted a reference or confirmation number, which I was never given, so I had to go thru all this yet again. After talking with Tessa, and explaining all this, she finally gave me to a supervisor name Gideon who asked me again to explain. At least this time he went thru all this with a final reference number, with a promise to send me the email with the Airbill and instructions for returning the phone.
The reference number I was finally given was 1082427253. I am now waiting on the email so I can send them their defective phone. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous in your life? I just could not let this one go by and not issue a formal complaint. I am on a limited budget, disabled, and have had to purchase 3 phones just to be able to have the service that is a real safety issue for me. I am sure I am not the only one that has gone thru something similar to this, but I hope you can do something so maybe in the future people will be treated with the respect, honesty, and integrity they deserve.
0 comments