I purchased two Motorola Razr V3 mobile cellular phones from Wirefly.com online last June in 2006. I was pleased until this August when one phone broke. Obviously I knew that it was over the warranty period but because sometimes a manufacturer might give advice or accept a paid repar, I still went ahead and called Motorola. Motorola not only began to help me but was willing to try over the phone line from their offices to try to code my phone to repair itself. When I gave them the proper IMIE code from my phone they informed me they couldn't help because my phone was "FOR USE ONLY IN SINGAPORE!" My phone actually had that printed inside of it too. I asked them what to do and they said not only should I contact the seller (wirefly.com) but that it was illegal for them to sell this to me and they would make a report to their fraud department. I then tried to call customer service at wirefly and of course this service was outsourced to a call center and there wasn't much they could do. One guy said he could let me call their tech service so I did. Of course, the tech service wouldn't even talk to me because my warranty was up (one year). I tried to explain that I wasn't looking for free help but that they should help considering they sold me an illegal phone. One would expect that they would want to rush me out two new phones - fat chance.
Next, I started my search to find their parent company, Inphonics, contact information and corporate headquarters. I found one corporate address in Washington, D.C. On the Inphonics website and two other addresses in Largo, MD and reston, VA. I then searched their press releases (thank goodness companies like to brag about their doings) and found out the name of their president, David Steinberg, CEO and their CFO, Kenneth Schwarz. There wasn't a number but I called Washington, D.C.'s 411 and got two numbers (one is a FAX, I think). I called them and asked if they had a department for customer relations or service. They transferred me to a Reston, VA guy who said he was head of products and services (didn't catch his name). After very nicely telling him my story he said because I was out of warranty no one could help. I did grow angry and said that I'm not letting this go and he said, "do what you have to do". He did tell me there was a batch of phones that got into the U.S. Market and they have since corrected it. He couldn't provide any answers or help. Then I called the Washington headquarters back and asked to speak to Ken Schwarz or David Steinberg please. They gave me Ken's secretary, Tracy. She listened and said she would email some folks, ask around, and write a report. Who knows if she will do that but I gave her my contact info anyway.
Without a second phone to use, I went and called my service, AT T and while they couldn't give anything for free to help they arranged for me to buy two new phones at a discount (although I had to extend my contract). We did that. When we decided to go into the store to get the new phones, the manager said he could make a video with how many people have told him about wirefly anf their ripoffs.
I will not let this go - a pitbull on a poodle as they say.
0 comments