I sent our Motorola cell phone to Universal Cellular for repair on July 15. The post office website showed delivery on July 18.
Their website states that they will quickly provide an estimate for the repair and then the customer can decide to have the phone repaired, pay to have it returned unrepaired, or if the customer doesn't want to pay to have the unrepaired phone returned, Universal Cellular will donate the phone to charity.
On July 22, after they had the phone for about a week, I started calling and emailing to find out the status of the estimate. No answer.
On July 26 and July 27 I emailed again to two email addresses:
[email protected] and [email protected]. Still no answer.
On July 29, I finally received a reply from Marcia. She said that the phone was being repaired and that they were waiting on parts.
Also on July 29, I emailed her back asking what the cost was as we had not received an estimate nor had we approved repairs. She replied "It's $75".
I told her that we did not want the phone to be repaired at that price, that the maximum we would pay for repair and return shipping was $50. If it was more than that, they could donate the phone to charity. She said she would run it past the technician and get back to me.
Of course, we've had no further communication from Marcia or anyone else for several weeks now.
Our credit card statement arrived today. On it is a charge from Universal Cellular for $75, on July 18.
This means that they charged our credit card $75 the day they received the phone. Yet, they would not reply to our emails for ELEVEN days, and they NEVER sent an estimate.
This company, as of today (08/15) has an unsatisfactory record with the Better Business Bureau in Florida under two separate business names. I will be adding my complaint to that record.
Also, I will have my credit card company remove the unauthorized charge.
Normally, I am more wary before doing business with small companies over the internet, but I didn't check this one out first.
DB
Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.
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