Hi to all the people here.
I am very sorry to bother you with my problem, but I am already at the end of my power, and have decided that the only thing I can do is to let all the people around the world know about it.
How this is connected with Athena. It is, very strongly. Athena and ERA network with it's BlueConnect 3G connection is my last resort to live and work since 18 may 2008. How?
So listen:
I live in a suburb of Warsaw, Poland, exactly 23 km from the very center of the city. Warsaw is the capitol city of Poland, Europe (I am very sarcastic now).
I run my office at my home, I write and sell software for hotels, but also am admin for some company networks and run my own, small, commercial VoIP network. Unfortunately, my home and office is, or rather was connected to the world with two phone lines with Internet connection from TPSA, the biggest telco in Poland having practically monopoly on our market. TPSA belongs to France Telecom, and have introduced rules and ways of dealing with customers which were imposed by France Telecom.
Now, on 18 of may the pole, on which my telephone cables hanged, felled down. The pole was standing by the road on a field belonging to some farmer exactly in the middle of the entrance from the road to this field. The pole was put there without permission of the owner of the field, many years ago. The owner of this field was asking TPSA to move the pole 2 meters aside to let him use the entrance to his property, but TPSA never even answered to him. This is how they behave here.
When the pole felt down (it was hit by some car during the winter, but never repaired), the owner of the field came and said that he is not going to let the people from TPSA to enter on his field as long as TPSA agrees to move the pole 2 meters aside (still on his property). They said that TPSA can do that, but only if the owner of the field, were the pole was standing, will pay for it. Obviously he didn’t agree, so they just have gone and left the pole lying down. But after two days, while the owner was not there, they came and put the new pole on in the same place as the old one. They have connected all the cables from main road, but did not connect cables from my small road which was also connected to this pole.
And since that time nothing more happened. I am trying to contact TPSA and make them to do something, but the only option for customers with problems, to contact TPSA, they have left in Poland is to dial they call center were very nice lady says (in short words) “ just fu… of”. Exactly they are saying that “the customer” (meaning me) “does not let the TPSA people to enter on the field and repair the pole and because of that the repair is so called ‘difficult to fix’”.
This answer I received several times already, and when I told the lady that this is not true, and actually the pole is already repaired in spite of the protest of the owner of property, but only ma cables are not connected to it, she was surprised but nevertheless she still said as above.
There is no any office where I could go and complain, there is no any way I can make TPSA to fulfill my rights (there is a low that the maximum the complaints has to be fulfilled is 30 days) , but TPSA just does not care about that because they fill that they are untouchable, and it shows that they are right. There are state institutions here who should monitor and control the market, but they are so afraid that they do not even touch the subject. Why? Because TPSA is France Telecom.
The only think I can say is: fu…k TPSA and fu…k France Telecom.
Please be nice to me and do not shout on me. I just have to throw it out. This is actually the only thing, I can do. I am going to put this post to as many forums as I can, to at least make a small scratch on the face of those "European" institutions. They left me without any option to make living for already over a month. They did not even propose me to make a redirection of my office lines to my mobile. They did not even suggest that I could get a HSDAP device from Orange to have any Internet connection. I had to sign a contract with my mobile network (not orange, I will never ever go to them) for two years, to have any possibility to receive my emails. This is not the way the telco company should behave in Europe or anywhere else. They have a contract not with John Smiths but with a company. Cutting any company from the connection with the world for a month is just killing this company, and specially the one, which deals with networks and software. And name of my company is TKSoftware. Every month they print an invoice for this name. And they dare to ask the farmer to pay for moving their pole from his road. They never paid him for having this pole on his property, on the first place.
Again: to hell with Polish TPSA and France Telecom, which accepts such a behavior.
Edit June 24:
I am calling TPSA call center (number 9330-for business) twice a week. They keep giving me a new complaint number and that's all. No other changes.
I decided that I should be fair to France Telecom and sent this post as an email to their mail address for international business. This address is officially shown on their pages. Guess what. I got a mail rejection info from my mail server saying that it was blocked on FT server as a spam on basis of spamming countries classification. It means that FR is an owner of biggest telco in Poland having over 70% of national market and they put Poland on spammers list on their mail account for international business. Awesome arrogance.
I would very happily accept some help.
1. If anybody could suggest forums dealing with telecomunication, were I could place my post, I would be glad.
2. If someone not from Poland, possibly from France (hope France is not on their spammers list) could resend my post to them, please let me know. I will send copy of my mail which was refused. It has small introduction just saying that the following will be posted to forums around the world.
By the way, I have received invoices for previous month. They have charged me full price. No deduction for not having any connection since 18 Maj. When I called them and complained, they said, I should send an official complain on the paper with standard post. The phone company is not going to make business using the phone. They probably know how useless it is if it is a phone line from TPSA.
Unfortunately that is how big organizations work is in their interest to show invulnerability in the face of anyone having a claim against them, they only play nice if is lest costly to do so and wile they are bound to the law in democratic countries, business are not democratic institutions, there is not a single multinational that work in a democratic manner,no one of them.
You should get in touch with your parliament local representative, communicate with the phone company by letter, so you have records and dates of your claim, take pictures and send your history to local and national newspapers, get in touch with the local consumer association and national consumer watchdog if that does not work, get in touch with other neighbours affected and build a court case together.
If nothing of that works, you and the other affected people in your street will have accumulate a sizeable quantity of documents, letters etc that can be used as evidence and you will start becoming an itch for the phone company so that they consider more worth to do something about your problem rather than do nothing, if only to get rid of your complains
I f none of this works you will have already collected enough solid evidence and are noticeable enough that you can take your case to the European institutions with enough weigh that they bother to take a look.
The problem is
Getting through this process is a lot of hassle, can take long time and is hard work, stressful and wile the telephone company may decide to sort your problem early in the process, also they may not, so you will have to go through the whole process.
And the longer it takes, the bigger amount of hours lost at work expend instead sending letters, bureaucracy, expending money to go from an office to another...the works
can you bother that much?...... exactly, that is way big companies got away with it, many people can't, do not have the meanings and/or the know how.
my advise, take your case as far as you can, it is your right, and when/if it becomes to anti economic,stressful whatever ...seek an alternative.
Good luck
Thanks for your advice and good word.
The problem is that the only alternative in my place is either cable from TPSA or mobile with 3G, which is not enough reliable to run an office.
I work in the office alone, so for sure I will not have enough time and money to go through all this process. That is way I have decided to post such posts in any possible forum I can get access to. I also have sent this post to France Telecom to let them know about the case. This is what I can do, and wait.
July 20 - No change
I have received info from my email server that it could not deliver my mail to address ([email protected]) because their server has a rule which says: all mail form Poland is treated as spam. How France Telecom can make business in Poland and not receiving mails from the country?
I have received answer from TPSA confirming that thay accept my complain and pay me back 1/30 of my previous payments per each day of service being down, but 2 months and almoast a half have passed and they nither repaired it nor payed me back.
I have received an answer for my complain from UKE (Polish main office for electronic communication) confirming that I am right with my complain but they have got an answer from TPSA that I will be paid as described in paragraf above and they are doing everything to repaire my line, so the UKE director (the one who answered) is closing the case.
Today I have no lines , no communication, my customers are going to others, am loosing my work, and all this in the middle of Europe in the year 2008.
Can anybody from France help me and send my email to France Telecom? if so please PM me and I will deliver it to be resend to FT.
Tadeusz said:
(..)
Today I have no lines , no communication, my customers are going to others, am loosing my work, and all this in the middle of Europe in the year 2008.
(...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are in Europe, and the best thing to do is what latins are used to say. SI VIS PACEM PARA BELLUM ("If you want peace, prepare for war" )
Contact a good layer collect a STRONG documentation about the business you are losing, the france telecom faults, and prepare for a fight.
In ANY CASE start the complain, you are a company, and you are loosing your business.
Related
I ordered (and paid for) the Brodit Proclip mount for the Touch HD on 23rd December from MountOnUs (http://www.mountonus.com/Brodit-Model-5-7-19344/HTC-Touch-HD-Holders.aspx)
Having heard nothing other than an automated email acknowledging receipt of the order since, I have finally managed to speak to someone about this.
The gentleman, Chris, informed me that they had deleted the order as the holder is no longer supplied, and that they do not stock any other Brodit holders for the Touch HD. This despite the 5 shown on their website.
The holder itself is an excellent product (I had one for my Touch Pro) and I have no problem with Brodit.
As yet I have not recieved a refund (£41.98 including shipping) and will continue to pursue, but I would recommend you look elsewhere for you mount solutions.
I'd definitely recommend DSLDevelopments. I ordered a Proclip vent clip for my Mk5 Golf and a passive holder for my HD late Thursday afternoon and it was on my desk at work by 9am next morning for the same price. The only let down was no despatch email / sms but I can live with that for next day delivery
dsl and mountonus both use the same ordering schema with Brodit and the fact you do not yet received your product means the product is out of stock at Brodit (read the delivery page at mountonus), nothing else and of course it DOESN'T mean that mountonus is bad.
You can order the same product at dsl or anywhere else, but you still will NOT get it delivered since dsl DOESN'T manufacture the Brodit products, but orders at Brodit same as mountonus.
And if you both are not from DSL itself to promote your business while I consider mountonus being much better than DSL, then go to mountonus web-site and write such things directly to them.
I think that dsl web-site is a total mess comparing to mountonus, period.
P.S. Go to dsl and type "htc touch hd" in their search and you will get the same products listed.
I'm nothing to do with DSL. I'd seen them mentioned on here in the Touch HD car holder threads and most of the other sites that have the Proclips seem to have my car missing from the vent clips. I've got a Mk5 Golf and if you look at most of the other sites they go up to 2005 and then have 2007-2008. Would you like to hazard a guess what year my car is? Now the 2005, 2006 and 2007 one's are identical but DSL had the 2006 listed so I went for that (peace of mind).
I've no idea if they hold stock or if it's shipped direct from Brodit but I ordered Thursday and had it Friday which is good enough for me.
Mountonus and dsl are the competitors and actually they do the same business, they have the same offers and same products, so it is more a question of convenience of their web-sites that plays role.
I am sure both sides have satisfied and not satisfied buyers, so the poster here should write to the web-site form instead of posting such threads.
thanks for the advice! ;-)
I wasn't complaining so much about being out of stock, more that they took my money and a month later hadn't even had the courtesy to email me to say there would be a delay.
I have ordered before from MountOnUs with no problems - however this time it's been a bad experience. When I eventually got through on the phone the chap I spoke to didn't seem at all interested.
They have now refunded my money though.
If you would call to them after several days of delay, there would not be the problem. Even with dsl you have to call to see whether the item is in stock.
Mountonus might process tens of orders daily and your order could just lost in the batch.
Always call directly or write email if you experience delay, everywhere, not only with mountonus. I think you will not find better service.
Your post actually may impact them, since it goes on top when searching for "mountonus" in google. Not a good thing.
Well I for 1 am pleased that this shows up on google.
I too placed an order with Mountonus, only last thursday in my case. I payed 7 pounds odd for next day delivery, and waited, on friday night I emailed them to ask where my holder was....
I was answered on monday that the nount was out of stock and would be 3 working days....
So I phoned them today, and having been in a queue for 20 minutes I was told that the product was discontinued and that I would be refunded....
So, all's well that ends well you may think, well I think you should not advertise and sell gooods you do not have, especially as they take the payment as soon as the order is placed.
If they had just emailed to say they were out of stock on monday I wouldn't have minded, but they responded to my normsl query like I was completely unreasonable in wondering where my order was.
So Mr mountonus,, if you're reading this, communication is a wonderful thing.
Communication is a good thing....
I think that this thread is developed by dsl or other mountonus competitor.
Otherwise the complaining users would place something to prove their words, like order numbers or something like that.
I can freely tell that I had an excellent experience with mountonus and a very bad experience with dsl - who will argue with me? How will you prove I am not?
So I do not consider the above to be true, moreover that dsl seems to stuck deeply in this forum, right Dave?
I haven't ordered from dsl or any other mount supplier so can't comment on their performance.
I just think that any company that wants repeat business should be honest about delivery times and communicate with their customers.
If I had had any communication from mountonus that would be fine, C**k ups happen and are understandable. My problem is that they took an instant payment from me and then it was down to me to repeatedly phone and email to find out what was going on.
There is no point putting my order number on here as the only people that would convince are mountonus themselves, I have used their phone number and contact form to communicate with them, quoting my order number and they had plenty of opportunity to sort the mess out.
If people have had positive experiences with mountonus then they should feel free to post them, just don't give me a hard time for flagging up my negative experience. Hopefully someone from mountonus will read this and they will revise their ways of dealing with problems.
My brodit holder is hopefully on it's way from an ebay purchase...
What you say is overall right.
But even your eBay purchase goes from Brodit, not from mountonus or dsl. And Mountonus buys from Brodit and all the resellers of Brodit buy from Brodit.
So if your order is on its way as you say (are you sure anyway it is not a backorder again?), then this just means Brodit had it at stock the time you ordered it.
Mountonus as other online shops or any other business has pleased and not pleased buyers. Even GeForce has a lot of not satisfied buyers including me.
When you ordered from them Brodit did not have the item in stock and that caused the issue. Maybe mountonus should just work on their customer support or hire somebody who treats the customers better, that's it, no need to tell they are bad. Their web-site is the best I saw among Brodit suppliers and they work hard to make the shopping experience better each time and it is again the human factor that may fail, some guy from customer support team seats there and he maybe cannot imagine what efforts were put to make the business and to make the web-site. Probably we should just know moutonus that such a guy works there and they will know that and take actions on that.
Actually the fact that nobody still posted a proof of their orders tells me that this is probably a fake testimonial as I said before. Tell me your details and I will contact the moutonus by email and show them this thread with your order details, then we will see.
Not taking sides here at all but I can say with absolute honesty that I have been dealing with DSL for a fair few years now, the details they have given have always proved to be accurate as to stock levels (and they do actually hold stock unlike other vendors).
In all cases they have shipped the goods on time and met their commitments.
There was a problem with one order, but it was caused by me not giving clear order instructions and a dialog was instigated by them to resolve the matter and the mounst was still shipped the same day.
I for one am more than happy with DSL as to price, delivery, service and promises being maintained. In all my dealings with them they have been courteous and professional in every way.
I guess we all have our favorite suppliers and for me DSL are my preferred Brodit stockist.
Just my humble opinion!
Oh and 'Net_user', I half expect a flame as a reply to my post as you seem to attack everyone who has a good thing to say about DSL.
If you do that of course is your choice, but as I'm not here to start a flame war please no not expect a response.
My opinion is my own plain and simple and I feel those who detract from the good name of an honest reliable supplier may have ulterior motives.
Nuff said.
Just to reiterate, I have had a good experience of ordering from Mountonus - the Brodit holder for my Touch Pro was fine - arrived two days after ordering and was exactly right.
For my HD, I just placed the order and had to wait. I had an order number (four digits). I was able to log on to their website and check the status which said not yet dispatched, but no more details.
I tried to call but the phone just rang .....
There was no email saying "sorry, we are waiting on suppliers" or anything similar, just an email saying thank you for your order.
When I finally got through to someone on the phone they were very short and just told me that my order had been deleted, like I should have already known that. At very least I would have expected an email explaining in this situation when they deleted it.
They also stated that I would have been refunded when the order was deleted. This had not happened and took a further phone call to secure the refund (which was made in full).
Not a complaint about having to wait, just the level of customer service.
I do not have any affiliations with any other mounting solution providers either, just keen to share the facts about my experience to allow others to make an informed judgement.
I'm experiencing problems with mountonus.com too...
Sorry to wade in but I thought everyone on this forum and Google would benefit from my experiences with mountonus.com...
To start, I am in NO way connected with mountonus.com or any of its competitors and bring a first hand and unbiased view on ordering from the http://www.mountonus.com website.
Last week after trawling the web for hours I plumbed for Brodit mounts and clips for my Blackberry Storm and Nextbase in-car DVD system. I ordered and paid in full from mountonus.com and immediately received an email from them telling me they would be in touch "as soon as possible" and that shipping would be within 2-3 days via recorded delivery.
After four working days, I have still not received any update from them even after sending two emails asking for the status of my order and their website says the items haven't even been despatched.
My experience seems to mirror that of other customers above and has so far proven totally unsatisfactory.
Being a dedicated Internet fan and an online customer of Amazon, Dixons, Halfords, eBay, CDWoW and Argos (amongst many other) I would rank mountonus.com's customer service the lowest out of any site I've ever ordered from.
I'll update this thread with updates but for now would caution anyone ordering from mountonus.com until their customer services are dramatically improved.
Matt
More Mountonus problems
I ordered some in-car phone holders and mounting brackets in mid December with a 3-4 day delivery time. I chose Mountonus as they gave a shorter lead time than other retailers. A couple of days later I got an e-mail from them to tell me that they were waiting for supplies from Sweden which would take 1-5 days (no idea why they didn't know this in the first place) but that they would refund my postage.
Despite the fact that Christmas may have delayed things I have now been waiting for 2.5 weeks (13 working days) for these parts. I have now cancelled my order and asked for a full refund but have not received any confirmation of my request. I have tried contacting Mountonus both by e-mail and by phone but get no response to either (voicemail only on phone line).
They say that refunds can take up to 30 days so I guess I'll just have to wait it out and keep trying to contact them.
How does The Mount Shop (Amazon retailer) rate as they seem to be the cheapest for what I want to order.
I don't know who/what/when/where or how, the power button on Photon is missing? I have never dropped my device, I don't even toss it onto bed!!! I hope I dont get a new phone because it took me over a WEEK, 10 - 14 hours a day to get it like I wanted it!!!
..... cool dude
That sucks bro. Happened to mine too. It's just held on by adhesive tape.
How is this under accessories? How is it under anything really...
Sent from my MB855 using XDA Premium App
beyondinferno said:
That sucks bro. Happened to mine too. It's just held on by adhesive tape.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, it appears its held on by some glue as I can see the white on the button on the bottom.
@Codee, I put it here becuase if I could (and I cant) find another button, I'd buy it and put it on myself.
Now: I'm a pretty easy going person, i rarely get upset at anything, life is too short. I go to Garden State Plaza to Sprint store to speak to one of the Brightest Minds in America. Her nametag says "Manager" so I know I have the correct person and I'm going to get top notch service!!! I tell her its broken, the power button fell off! The first thing out of her mouth was "Have you had the phone for 30 days or less?" (I will not insult you guys, phone came out August 1st, therefore, this chick cannot count!) After this hiccup, she ask where I got it? (Again, I will not insult you. I treat my toys well and I have insurance, I dont care if I got it in Mississippi, it says "Sprint" on it, you see my insurance on my account, give me a working phone!!!!) After 10 minutes on the phone with "whoever", she tells me I need the box because they need the IMEI #. ITS A BOX, I DONT GIVE A RATS...............I'm going back with box and phone at lunch.
Imei is under the battery too isn't it?
Sent from my MB855 using XDA App
I will make this short and sweet, I got a new Photon. I'm pissed at the way I got it, but I got it. I could not figure out how to restore from my backup, so I started the pain staking task of putting it back like it was.
Now, I will bring some comedy to this thread!!
If you go to the Evo forum, the Fuze Forum.......any of them. Everyone can tell you I'm anal about my toys. If your here, you likely are too! My phone has special mouse pad to sit on everywhere.
I return to the same store with a guy I work with that used to do mobile support for our company. I talk to the same manager, she asked me the same 30-day question. I just turned around and looked at Will and srugged my shoulders. She then asked me to taked it to the technicians and signin. These 2 clowns come out and look at the phone, then then again ask me the 30-day question! The Photon is your flagship phone, its IMPOSSIBLE for me to have had it longer than 23 days!!! OK, we will replace it!
After 45 minutes, I get the same manager back. She tells me she needs to turn it on to make sure I did not root it. I have rooted/flashed likely 200+ times. Each one I'v done contain 4 things. Disclaimer that it will void your warranty, Instructions on how to Root/Flash, another Disclaimer that BEFORE you return to your carrier, and Instructions on how to un-root/Un-flash? One would think if I'm smart enough to root/flash, I would be smart enough to un-do it? Personally, I dont think she would know if i did or did not (Unless she noticed something like 'Sprint NASCAR" was missing?)
She then preceeds to tell me "This is clearly physical damage?" Again, I just turned and looked at co-worker. I asked her and the technican to find one single nick on that Photon! They tell me they cannot, but it was likely dropped. I say BS, show me.
I got tired of playing and had to get back from lunch. It dont matter, I have TEP and repair, you can't repair it, give me another one or similar phone per this $8.00 monthly TEP. She tells me physical damage is not covered. I say show me? After playing on her computer for 15 minutes, then a phone call, she gave me a new Photon.
Only at Sprint!!! Sad thing is, next year she will likely get promoted to CEO!!!!
dsims7_2000 said:
I will make this short and sweet, I got a new Photon. I'm pissed at the way I got it, but I got it. I could not figure out how to restore from my backup, so I started the pain staking task of putting it back like it was.
Now, I will bring some comedy to this thread!!
If you go to the Evo forum, the Fuze Forum.......any of them. Everyone can tell you I'm anal about my toys. If your here, you likely are too! My phone has special mouse pad to sit on everywhere.
I return to the same store with a guy I work with that used to do mobile support for our company. I talk to the same manager, she asked me the same 30-day question. I just turned around and looked at Will and srugged my shoulders. She then asked me to taked it to the technicians and signin. These 2 clowns come out and look at the phone, then then again ask me the 30-day question! The Photon is your flagship phone, its IMPOSSIBLE for me to have had it longer than 23 days!!! OK, we will replace it!
After 45 minutes, I get the same manager back. She tells me she needs to turn it on to make sure I did not root it. I have rooted/flashed likely 200+ times. Each one I'v done contain 4 things. Disclaimer that it will void your warranty, Instructions on how to Root/Flash, another Disclaimer that BEFORE you return to your carrier, and Instructions on how to un-root/Un-flash? One would think if I'm smart enough to root/flash, I would be smart enough to un-do it? Personally, I dont think she would know if i did or did not (Unless she noticed something like 'Sprint NASCAR" was missing?)
She then preceeds to tell me "This is clearly physical damage?" Again, I just turned and looked at co-worker. I asked her and the technican to find one single nick on that Photon! They tell me they cannot, but it was likely dropped. I say BS, show me.
I got tired of playing and had to get back from lunch. It dont matter, I have TEP and repair, you can't repair it, give me another one or similar phone per this $8.00 monthly TEP. She tells me physical damage is not covered. I say show me? After playing on her computer for 15 minutes, then a phone call, she gave me a new Photon.
Only at Sprint!!! Sad thing is, next year she will likely get promoted to CEO!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What was the address of the store? Did you get any part of her name at all?
EDIT: Got it, Garden State Plaza store. I'm going to escalate your experience to help improve future customer interactions. I'm not sure if this is a Sprint owned store or a 3rd party, but it shouldn't matter. You should be treated better than that.
Garden State Plaza
Merchant ID: 8015689253
Jessica Mendez
It's the one above the food court (there are 4 Sprint Stores in this Mall. They have the one I mention on Second floor above food court. In the food court they have a 3D/Photon Setup. They have a kiosh outside JC Penny's. And they have a store on the other side of Macy's!)
What I think is, Honestly, each of these stores are owned by different individuals. Each store likely get's a quoto # of Photon's to sell. The Store by Macy's told me I had to take it back where I got it, likely because it would cut into the number of phones THEY had to sell. Where I got it, more or less, just gave away $600.00!!! Just my opinion!
dsims7_2000 said:
What I think is, Honestly, each of these stores are owned by different individuals. Each store likely get's a quoto # of Photon's to sell. The Store by Macy's told me I had to take it back where I got it, likely because it would cut into the number of phones THEY had to sell. Where I got it, more or less, just gave away $600.00!!! Just my opinion!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right. I'm pretty sure that's a 3rd party store, but they should still be more helpful and sound less clueless. Sprint is working hard to overcome a bad reputation for customer service and things like this don't help.
I'm glad you finally got resolution, but it should have been handled in one trip. The whole thing about the box was a joke. I'm betting she was hoping you would hit a different store when you came back
Online is not much better. Before reading, go to the middle of this and read my original complaint, then come back here and read Sprint's reply, then go to bottom and read my response!
Dear David Sims,
Thank you for contacting Sprint. I apologize for the inconvenience that
you have experienced.
As per your account, I can see that your phone is under 30 days return
policy. The Sprint 30-Day Risk-Free Guarantee allows you to return a
like-new phone to the point of purchase.
If you will opt for the different phone, your account will be charged
for the $35.00 for restocking fee.
Also, I can understand that your account is charged for the
International long distance calling. Let me explain that what is the
difference between International long distance and the International
roaming.
1- International long distance (ILD) is defined as making a call from
the United States to other countries in the world.
2- International roaming (IR) is defined as traveling to countries
outside of the United States, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
So, these charges are valid on your account. So, due to system
restriction, we are unable to apply the credit on your account.
We value your business and appreciate the opportunity to answer your
questions.
Sincerely,
Cheryl B.
Sprint
Get the best value for your money & exercise your freedom
to change plans anytime without penalties - we promise!
www.sprint.com/planpromise
Sprint.com is all about you! My Sprint puts what you want to know,
right at your fingertips -- take a tour and sign up today!
www.sprint.com/mysprint
Original Message Follows:
------------------------
========================================================================
Name: David Sims
Form: Ask A Question Learn OR Feedback and Suggestions - Learn
Topic: Equipment
Contact Number: 201-681-5429
========================================================================
Original Question:
Question: I have Motorola Photon 4G, somehow, the power on/off button
fell out. I took the phone to Garden State Plaza in New Jersey. At
first, she asked if I had the phone for 30 days or longer. As a manager,
I felt she should have known this as Sprint did not release the phone
until August 1st. She then asked where I got it, I told her that and she
told me I had to take it back there. 1. As the phone is almost new I
should be able to replace it at ANY Sprint store I choose. 2. I go back
to where I got it (Same Mall, different store), Im told I cannot replace
it without the box? 3. I have insurancce on the phone? I'm getting mixed
answers everyone. I spent $500+ 2 weeks ago, I would like a WORKING
phone!
========================================================================
****************************************************
Additional Data
****************************************************
SUB Topic : Insurance
Current Customer ?: Yes
Email Address: [email protected]
Address:
City:
State: PA
Zip: show details 4:30 PM (21 hours ago)
OK, I will attempt this ONE more time!! I was NOT returning the phone, I just wanted a WORKING phone. That's all I wanted. It was clear to the 2 technicans that looked at it, and it was clear manager the phone was missing this button. Additionally, this is SUPPOSED to be "Sprint's Flagship" phone. It was released August 1, 2011. The 30-day Risk-Free Guarantee should have never been a question as it's impossible for me to have owned this phone for more than 23 days. Next on this, I pay for insurance & equiptment repair to cover this, so it should not matter if I owned the device 2 days or 50 years. I was told by the Manager it was clearly physical damage. I asked her and her 2 technicans to show me ONE mark on that phone? After an hour, the phone was replaced.
Next, lets go back to my bill. CDMA Phones (Sprint and Verzion) do NOT work in Europe (well until this phone. All AT&T and T-Mobile work globally as they are GSM), If you looked at my account as you stated, you can see that 1. I do not have International dialing on my account nor did I enable it. Therefore it is impossible for me to make a International call. Secondly, in order for me to use THIS phone outside the US, I have to call Sprint to enable me in whatever country I am traveling to, therefore I could not have made those +44 (which is the UK by the way!) calls. I think we can both agree this HAD to be an incoming call (like all the rest of them!) In the last year this has not been on my bill!
Lastly, since I'm here, If you look at the attached invoice, my upgrade is $0.00. If I look at my current bill, it $19.08!!! Therefore, that charge should be removed from my bill!
Thank You for your understand.
Honestly that exchange is a little hard to follow. Did you mention the billing problem to the rep in the original submission?
I think that maybe she was trying to solve a problem when what she should have done was escalate the issue to an area manager. Did you get the billing issue fixed?
I actually noticed a Photon at the store with the power button not attached. Believe me, I will return mine in the event that falls off.
Thats like receiving a phone with a glued on screen and being help accountable if that glue wheres off and my screen is no longer attached.
To me it sounds like alot of people talking about policies and processes that they have NO OBVIOUS idea how they work.
Lets start:
First...the Evo 3D is Sprints "flagship" phone. Look up the definition if you need further assistance.
Second...ALL returns, regardless of 3rd party or Company owned require the original box when returned or a fee will be accessed. Its in your contract you sign. Try for starters to read it thoroughly before yelling and screaming at the ones of us that work for Sprint and can help you if you help yourself!
Can this be overridden? OF COURSE...but if your attitude sucks, chances are youre not going to get the "customer service" you think you are deserved.
Third...as for TEP, its Total Equipment Protection, not Insurance! BIG DIFFERENCE! This is to assist you in the cost reduction of a new device if something happens to yours. Again, reading the TEP agreement, physical damage is noted as obvious damage or missing components. YES I know, its a flaw in the design, BUT UNTIL Motorola releases a statement to Sprint verifing that this is a "known issue" with this device it will be looked at as physical damage! (Return a car to a dealer after 2 weeks with a missing door handle and see what happens...just sayin)
Fourth...its not as easy as walking in and saying "I want a new phone. Give it to me now". Again, this goes back to your TEP agreement and Sprints 30 day policy. If within 30 days, its exchange/replaced. Now, if you purchase at a Company owned store, you can return it at a Company owned store ANYWHERE. However, if you purchase it from a 3rd pary dealer, you must return it at one of their locations. This can be overridden thru customer care, but you will get NOWHERE in store. This is just the way this process works.
Fifth...understand that the person that you are dealing with in store has all the control, and its usually based off of the attitude the customer has. You yell and scream and act a fool, Im not doing **** for you. Flip side, youre calm and understanding of the processes Sprint has in place, Im gonna make SURE that you are taken care of. (Free accessory, bill credit, something...)
Hope this may lay to rest those that are only customers that think they are the CEO.
...And let the rage ensue..........
To be fair I have also walked into a sprint store and was mistreated by a person from the get go. I did nothing wrong or had any kind of bad attitude with them. I just knew the policies better then they did. Luckily a manager noticed the situation and took over helping me.
I do agree tho that some people do have horrible attitudes on both sides. Sad thing is it is those events that get blasted online. In your case I completely understand. The warranty question was ridiculous.
Also I have had beter experience at a corporate store than a 3rd party one and I always askif the store I am going to is corporate or not. I stay away from the 3rd party stores.
Sent from my MB855 using XDA App
This was filed in febuary,
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/13/ColinvASUS.pdf
It's a class action suit against Asus regarding the tf-201's problems that we have with it's GPS and wi-fi etc..., but it's for U.S. residents.
Last winter, Asus customers in the U.K were offered refunds for their tf-201.
A few lucky owners who bought their primes from bestbuy, staples, amazon and and other major retailers got a lucky break, and were able to get a refund, or an exchange for their primes. But it seems that these stores that gave these refunds or exchanges gave them out of good business practice and had to absorb the full loss, Asus not authorizing those refunds or exchanges.
Realisticly, you cannot expect you local computer store to be able to do the same, these guys work on a 5% to 15% margin maximum.
Here's my personnal experience ; since laste decembre, like most of you, my tablet has never worked really well, especially the GPS wich has never worked at all.
I called the service dept. twice in the first few months I had the tablet to complain about it, they did not offer an RMA, they told me to wait for the ICS update, it would fix everything.....wich it did not like we all know.
Then, up to now, my tablet has been in their service center 2 times to fix the GPS, the weak wi-fi, and a loose power connector....just about everything has been changed in the tablet....the list of parts is astounding. And stil, absolutely no GPS, and no improvement on the wi-fi,( i'm on my 6th different wireless router now !, rewired my modem so I could install the router centrally in the house, got a netgear 6300 )
Before the last RMA,, I talked to a supervisor in California, spent 30 minutes on the phone with him explaining the problems, asking him what other solutions the service center was planning to offer after changing every component in the tablet and even installing ' foil ' on the antennas on the last RMA ?...... demanding that this time they either replaced the tablet with a new one ( mine must have a design flaw ), exchange it with a different model, or refund like Asus did in the U.K......his answer....we wil give you another RMA.................It was like talking to a robot,,,this guy was a supervisor ?
And the icing on the cake came with the email giving me the RMA number........ASUS - North America (NA) is a warranty service center only. Please contact place of purchase for credit, refunds, upgrades / model changes, or new retail box replacement. ASUS does not provide these services under any circumstances..
Ok, so I contact my reseller with a copy of this email...he responds very politely with a copy of his contract with Asus of north america wich states very precisely that Asus is responsable only for warranty services.......but what does waranty cover ?....is a non functionning device broken or badly designed? and how do you resolve the problem then ?
On another note, I must add that on the last occasion, I explained to the supervisor that I am a small business owner...computer reseller. In the last 11 years, I have bought and sold to my clients about 1 400 000$ worth of Asus products. That I was extremely disapointed in the way they were inable to resolve this simple issue, and considering in the future stopping completely buying any of their products for any of my clients, even the ones that requested their brand, considering the fact that the after sale service was inadequate.
Well, yes, I guess you could call it an attempt at a special treatment......but that did not in any way unphase the supervisor.....just gave me anothe RMA number like the good robot he was programmed to be.
So, on a personnal level, I live in Canada, and we have consummer laws that apply to protect consummers against corporate giants like that.
It's called the small claims court. It takes a while, but you can file claims up to 7000$
My tablet is in the service center again.......for the third and final time
If it comes back again with ti's GPS not working, I will follow what our legislature reccomends and send a demand letter with a 10 day delay to give Asus a final occasion to make amends, giving them a choice of either exchanging / refunding / replacing with another model.
After that delay, if no solution is reached, I will file my suit with the Quebec small claims court......it's gonna take a while to have a court date, but that's ok, I'm in no hurry.
I just don't get how Asus figures it's cheaper to spend that much on replacing parts , paying for deliveries, paying to send lawers in Quebec.....it must add up at some point ? is it just me, but it would have been a lot cheaper to just exchage the damn thing ?.....
Anyways, i'll keep you posted on how it goes, maybe it's gonna be a while !
I agree with you about poor quality in wifi, gps, nand and whatever... But I live in Italy and no one of our sellers (neither in other Europen country, as far as I know) has never talk about or agreed with costumers about refund or change with other working product. We had only to fight with asus assistance service that, sometimes, in really unusefull. Unless in Europe, gps issue was well know before comercialization, infact gps feature wasn't even mentioned so we cannot complain about this... Honeslty I didn't bought this tablet to use it like a pnd
But wifi, speed of nand, virtual keybord, are relly awfull....sometimes far from cheaper tablets sold by other manifacturer...or by the same Asus!
Now I'm tryimg to make understand to some dumb guy of asus assistance that I could not upgrade to latest firmware because my tablet don't show serial number anymore...and I haven't erase by mistake. It came back from Asus service without s/n, where I sent in rma 2 month ago. The only answer I had is that I have the last firmware..and this is obviously false!
Here none talk about a class action against Asus, but I hope you Canadian could be more lucky in your fight against Asus, that onceI considered one of the best brands
Well, here in Canada, when it came out, it was clearly advertised with GPS feature. And while I agree with you, even if did not buy it only for that feature, i expect it to work when needed........compare that to the air conditiining in my car, even if i dont use it during the 6 months if winter, when summer comes, and its 100 degrees outside, i expect it not to blow hot air.......and thats exactly what the GPS is so far.....a whole lot of hot air, and nothing else !
Sent from my HTC Glacier using xda app-developers app
asus rma robots
speed4134 said:
This was filed in febuary,
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/13/ColinvASUS.pdf
It's a class action suit against Asus regarding the tf-201's problems that we have with it's GPS and wi-fi etc..., but it's for U.S. residents.
Last winter, Asus customers in the U.K were offered refunds for their tf-201.
A few lucky owners who bought their primes from bestbuy, staples, amazon and and other major retailers got a lucky break, and were able to get a refund, or an exchange for their primes. But it seems that these stores that gave these refunds or exchanges gave them out of good business practice and had to absorb the full loss, Asus not authorizing those refunds or exchanges.
Realisticly, you cannot expect you local computer store to be able to do the same, these guys work on a 5% to 15% margin maximum.
Here's my personnal experience ; since laste decembre, like most of you, my tablet has never worked really well, especially the GPS wich has never worked at all.
I called the service dept. twice in the first few months I had the tablet to complain about it, they did not offer an RMA, they told me to wait for the ICS update, it would fix everything.....wich it did not like we all know.
Then, up to now, my tablet has been in their service center 2 times to fix the GPS, the weak wi-fi, and a loose power connector....just about everything has been changed in the tablet....the list of parts is astounding. And stil, absolutely no GPS, and no improvement on the wi-fi,( i'm on my 6th different wireless router now !, rewired my modem so I could install the router centrally in the house, got a netgear 6300 )
Before the last RMA,, I talked to a supervisor in California, spent 30 minutes on the phone with him explaining the problems, asking him what other solutions the service center was planning to offer after changing every component in the tablet and even installing ' foil ' on the antennas on the last RMA ?...... demanding that this time they either replaced the tablet with a new one ( mine must have a design flaw ), exchange it with a different model, or refund like Asus did in the U.K......his answer....we wil give you another RMA.................It was like talking to a robot,,,this guy was a supervisor ?
And the icing on the cake came with the email giving me the RMA number........ASUS - North America (NA) is a warranty service center only. Please contact place of purchase for credit, refunds, upgrades / model changes, or new retail box replacement. ASUS does not provide these services under any circumstances..
Ok, so I contact my reseller with a copy of this email...he responds very politely with a copy of his contract with Asus of north america wich states very precisely that Asus is responsable only for warranty services.......but what does waranty cover ?....is a non functionning device broken or badly designed? and how do you resolve the problem then ?
On another note, I must add that on the last occasion, I explained to the supervisor that I am a small business owner...computer reseller. In the last 11 years, I have bought and sold to my clients about 1 400 000$ worth of Asus products. That I was extremely disapointed in the way they were inable to resolve this simple issue, and considering in the future stopping completely buying any of their products for any of my clients, even the ones that requested their brand, considering the fact that the after sale service was inadequate.
Well, yes, I guess you could call it an attempt at a special treatment......but that did not in any way unphase the supervisor.....just gave me anothe RMA number like the good robot he was programmed to be.
So, on a personnal level, I live in Canada, and we have consummer laws that apply to protect consummers against corporate giants like that.
It's called the small claims court. It takes a while, but you can file claims up to 7000$
My tablet is in the service center again.......for the third and final time
If it comes back again with ti's GPS not working, I will follow what our legislature reccomends and send a demand letter with a 10 day delay to give Asus a final occasion to make amends, giving them a choice of either exchanging / refunding / replacing with another model.
After that delay, if no solution is reached, I will file my suit with the Quebec small claims court......it's gonna take a while to have a court date, but that's ok, I'm in no hurry.
I just don't get how Asus figures it's cheaper to spend that much on replacing parts , paying for deliveries, paying to send lawers in Quebec.....it must add up at some point ? is it just me, but it would have been a lot cheaper to just exchage the damn thing ?.....
Anyways, i'll keep you posted on how it goes, maybe it's gonna be a while !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have encountered these RMA robots,you will never get anywhere with them.I emailed one of the lawyers on the casa and he said Asus would award us $17 for lack of GPS and give us a gps dongle. WOW I'm so excited .F******g assholes.
speed4134 said:
This was filed in febuary,
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/13/ColinvASUS.pdf
It's a class action suit against Asus regarding the tf-201's problems that we have with it's GPS and wi-fi etc..., but it's for U.S. residents.
Last winter, Asus customers in the U.K were offered refunds for their tf-201.
A few lucky owners who bought their primes from bestbuy, staples, amazon and and other major retailers got a lucky break, and were able to get a refund, or an exchange for their primes. But it seems that these stores that gave these refunds or exchanges gave them out of good business practice and had to absorb the full loss, Asus not authorizing those refunds or exchanges.
Realisticly, you cannot expect you local computer store to be able to do the same, these guys work on a 5% to 15% margin maximum.
Here's my personnal experience ; since laste decembre, like most of you, my tablet has never worked really well, especially the GPS wich has never worked at all.
I called the service dept. twice in the first few months I had the tablet to complain about it, they did not offer an RMA, they told me to wait for the ICS update, it would fix everything.....wich it did not like we all know.
Then, up to now, my tablet has been in their service center 2 times to fix the GPS, the weak wi-fi, and a loose power connector....just about everything has been changed in the tablet....the list of parts is astounding. And stil, absolutely no GPS, and no improvement on the wi-fi,( i'm on my 6th different wireless router now !, rewired my modem so I could install the router centrally in the house, got a netgear 6300 )
Before the last RMA,, I talked to a supervisor in California, spent 30 minutes on the phone with him explaining the problems, asking him what other solutions the service center was planning to offer after changing every component in the tablet and even installing ' foil ' on the antennas on the last RMA ?...... demanding that this time they either replaced the tablet with a new one ( mine must have a design flaw ), exchange it with a different model, or refund like Asus did in the U.K......his answer....we wil give you another RMA.................It was like talking to a robot,,,this guy was a supervisor ?
And the icing on the cake came with the email giving me the RMA number........ASUS - North America (NA) is a warranty service center only. Please contact place of purchase for credit, refunds, upgrades / model changes, or new retail box replacement. ASUS does not provide these services under any circumstances..
Ok, so I contact my reseller with a copy of this email...he responds very politely with a copy of his contract with Asus of north america wich states very precisely that Asus is responsable only for warranty services.......but what does waranty cover ?....is a non functionning device broken or badly designed? and how do you resolve the problem then ?
On another note, I must add that on the last occasion, I explained to the supervisor that I am a small business owner...computer reseller. In the last 11 years, I have bought and sold to my clients about 1 400 000$ worth of Asus products. That I was extremely disapointed in the way they were inable to resolve this simple issue, and considering in the future stopping completely buying any of their products for any of my clients, even the ones that requested their brand, considering the fact that the after sale service was inadequate.
Well, yes, I guess you could call it an attempt at a special treatment......but that did not in any way unphase the supervisor.....just gave me anothe RMA number like the good robot he was programmed to be.
So, on a personnal level, I live in Canada, and we have consummer laws that apply to protect consummers against corporate giants like that.
It's called the small claims court. It takes a while, but you can file claims up to 7000$
My tablet is in the service center again.......for the third and final time
If it comes back again with ti's GPS not working, I will follow what our legislature reccomends and send a demand letter with a 10 day delay to give Asus a final occasion to make amends, giving them a choice of either exchanging / refunding / replacing with another model.
After that delay, if no solution is reached, I will file my suit with the Quebec small claims court......it's gonna take a while to have a court date, but that's ok, I'm in no hurry.
I just don't get how Asus figures it's cheaper to spend that much on replacing parts , paying for deliveries, paying to send lawers in Quebec.....it must add up at some point ? is it just me, but it would have been a lot cheaper to just exchage the damn thing ?.....
Anyways, i'll keep you posted on how it goes, maybe it's gonna be a while !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW! Earth shattering stuff!! How has nobody submitted this as a news tip?
Asus already gave out free GPS dongles to everyone who has purchased the Prime before and even a bit after the GPS feature advertisement was removed. The Wi-Fi is weak but it works fine. Let it go already.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 2
whycali said:
WOW! Earth shattering stuff!! How has nobody submitted this as a news tip?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you took 2 seconds and read the post, you would have first realized that
1) it's in the Q/A section....so, in fact, it's not a ' tip'....
2) the title is '' Any news on the class action suit '?
Soooooooo, the post is a genuine question. don't get you panties wet !
I know there is a class action suit, i just want to know if there has been a settlement, or any developpement.
And has far as the dongle goes, just to let you know, I requested mine in april, and never got it
Chrono_Tata said:
Asus already gave out free GPS dongles to everyone who has purchased the Prime before and even a bit after the GPS feature advertisement was removed. The Wi-Fi is weak but it works fine. Let it go already.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean saying "Wi-Fi is weak but it works fine"? If it's weak isn't working fine!
What is wifi good for if do not allow to move to a room 10 meters far from access point (wifi n protocol)??
---------- Post added at 07:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:52 PM ----------
speed4134 said:
Well, here in Canada, when it came out, it was clearly advertised with GPS feature. And while I agree with you, even if did not buy it only for that feature, i expect it to work when needed........compare that to the air conditiining in my car, even if i dont use it during the 6 months if winter, when summer comes, and its 100 degrees outside, i expect it not to blow hot air.......and thats exactly what the GPS is so far.....a whole lot of hot air, and nothing else !
Sent from my HTC Glacier using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you buy a car that has not air conditioned at all, or has a not working air conditioned and you know this before buying that car, than you can't complain with seller if you need in summer but it don't work.
But this, according to me, is not the worst issue in tf201...even if is not a good advertisement for asus and this tablet.
The worst are features that should have to work perfectly, wifi above all.
asus just doesn't give a damn about the customers,
we bought their $500 POS and pretty much they're going f-off now
i given up with the GPS and wifi issue
but my camera has been RMA twice for the same problem (green lines)
now it has happened again, clearly ASUS is doing something wrong and should fix the problem instead of patching it... so it'll break again down the road....
i emailed them all they did was offer RMA
after i explained to them that RMA is clearly not fixing the problem permanently, they ignored my emails since then
posted on their FB, they replied me going "we're sorry that you're unhappy about our product, is there anything i can help you with" i explain it to them, and they ignored me there
like wth is this service? -_-
1di9 said:
What do you mean saying "Wi-Fi is weak but it works fine"? If it's weak isn't working fine!
What is wifi good for if do not allow to move to a room 10 meters far from access point (wifi n protocol)??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works fine meaning that you turn it on and it works if you are in a good range of your router. It gets weak when you move far away from it, but Asus never advertised their tablet to have the greatest WiFi strength. Does it make the Prime a bad tablet? Probably, but there is no legal case here, unlike the GPS which simply just didn't work to any acceptable degree, which Asus remedied with the dongle.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
speed4134 said:
If you took 2 seconds and read the post, you would have first realized that
1) it's in the Q/A section....so, in fact, it's not a ' tip'....
2) the title is '' Any news on the class action suit '?
Soooooooo, the post is a genuine question. don't get you panties wet !
I know there is a class action suit, i just want to know if there has been a settlement, or any developpement.
And has far as the dongle goes, just to let you know, I requested mine in april, and never got it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in spite of the fact I read and understood your entire post, it really didnt deserve 2 seconds. Its another crying the blues because you were not smart enough to return a product you found defective in the return window offered by your retail establishment. This is xda not asus north america. Nobody here should give a damn about product warranty as we should be here to void the warranty. Unfortunately somebody told people like you where a forum named transformer prime exists. stupid google. Not going to get into the reasons for it but YOU SHOULD HAVE RETURNED IT WHEN YOU FIRST DISCOVERED IT DIDNT MEET YOUR NEEDS. That being said if you want a gps dongle I dont really need mine for anything but testing if it works on a rom. PM me and I will mail you mine at my own expense if you promise not to post another waste of space complaint thread. It works very well
whycali said:
in spite of the fact I read and understood your entire post, it really didnt deserve 2 seconds. Its another crying the blues because you were not smart enough to return a product you found defective in the return window offered by your retail establishment. This is xda not asus north america. Nobody here should give a damn about product warranty as we should be here to void the warranty. Unfortunately somebody told people like you where a forum named transformer prime exists. stupid google. Not going to get into the reasons for it but YOU SHOULD HAVE RETURNED IT WHEN YOU FIRST DISCOVERED IT DIDNT MEET YOUR NEEDS. That being said if you want a gps dongle I dont really need mine for anything but testing if it works on a rom. PM me and I will mail you mine at my own expense if you promise not to post another waste of space complaint thread. It works very well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really, nobody gives a damn about product waranty?.......that might reflect your own opinion, not mine, not the majority of people.
So,, next time, just resist waisting your precious time.....' cause you've waisted mine also... .........still no answer to the original question.....'' any news on the class action suit ?
That's all i'm asking
speed4134 said:
Really, nobody gives a damn about product waranty?.......that might reflect your own opinion, not mine, not the majority of people.
So,, next time, just resist waisting your precious time.....' cause you've waisted mine also... .........still no answer to the original question.....'' any news on the class action suit ?
That's all i'm asking
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently you do not understand the title of this website. Developers do things that void warranties in order to bring out the best in the item they are working with. your comments belong here http://www.facebook.com/IHateAsusComputers with other non doing complainers. by the way 2 r's in warranty and no i's in wasted.
Hi,
I've been reading around the NL/WP8 forums here for quite a while and just wanted to share my horrid experience at the MS store at Washington Square.
I'd been waiting and wanting a Nokia WP8 device since the rumors began and with some odd luck suddenly had a work related trip to the US for the first time. On my last day in the US I had a few hours to do some shopping and landed up at Washington Square mall in Beaverton, amazingly appeared before me a MS store :good::laugh: . Went over there, played around with the NL920 & 8x, I was originally a bit concerned after reading so many reviews pointing out the weight issue of the 920. While standing there naturally the sales personal starting chatting with me, I immediately stated I was from overseas and that fact I was very interested in the 920. The first lady mentioned that there's no problem using it overseas, again naturally I was surprised and quite suspicious. I kindly asked if she could verify this with someone "technical", to cut a long story short after about 15 minutes standing there and talking with 3 different MS people, the "higher up" insured me "The AT&T logo is just for sales reasons". Sadly my overseas SIM (& phone) were standard and not the Micro variant so innocently I took their word for it and left there a jolly shopper.
BUT once I got home, replaced my SIM with a Micro SIM via my cell carrier I was amazed to discover that it's locked!
I don't want to sound like an imbecile or an over innocent person, I simply believed what 3 different (and very convincing) sales people told me, it was "just what I wanted to hear" but I still couldn't believe the misleading would be so blatant.
Emailing MS & Nokia was completely and utterly pointless, they didn't even say they'll check it out or even make sure the salespeople are aware of this. They both responded that they basically don't care and tried to blame each other, and just ignored my replies without even a word of response. Such disappointing and non-existent customer service from two companies that really need the consumers to back them.
Just wanted to share this with you people and make sure no one else gets scammed by 'em, it isn't too much fun getting home after 16 odd hours of a long flight and work trip to discover you have a giant wp-Pod (even though it's quite a cool device)..
BTW, really appreciate all the people here trying to find and test out unlocking services and as everyone hoping something new comes up soon.
R.
Unfortunately, I'm not surprised. People in this country (even those who work in the Microsoft Store or other U.S. telecom company) have no idea what the difference is between "unlocked" and "off-contract". They also don't know the concept of frequency bands either.
I was at the U Village Microsoft Store in Seattle, WA a few weeks ago. Just for fun, I asked an employee if the Lumia 920 is pentaband. The employee couldn't answer so he ran off to ask another employee. He started a chain reaction. Pretty soon, 5 or 6 employees tried to answer my question. Eventually they just gave up and said that they didn't know.
This past week at the Bellevue Microsoft Store, I saw a couple looking to buy an unlocked Lumia 920. Needless to say, they had a long discussion with the MS Store employee and weren't really making any progress. Eventually I interrupted and showed the couple my unlocked Lumia 920. I gave them a few options (Negri, GSM Nation, etc.). I also told them that they can go up to a Rogers Store in Vancouver to buy one and have it unlocked for $50.
Moral of the story is to take everything you hear at a U.S. tech store with a grain of salt. Most of the time, they don't know anything. Occasionally, you'll find one who actually knows the stuff, but that's extremely rare.
If you need advice on the phones to buy, you'll have to take your time to do research on the internet and ask people on forums. Most of us know a lot more than retail employees.
I hope your situation works out though. I would continue to talk to Microsoft since they were the ones with misleading information. I don't think AT&T and Nokia can help you, since they're not the ones who sold the phone to you.
This is what I have heard....>The phone would work overseas. As long as you are on AT&T (or their partner).
try this
You can try calling up AT&T, explain what happened and get the unlock code. If you browse wpcentral forums you can find folks got the code.
hawc1506, I completely agree about the research part but simply after reading a few times that people did get unlocked devices from some stores, and the fact I actually took out my overseas SIM and "waved" it a couple of times, I was a bit too much of a "sucker" and believed what I'd heard.
After I responded to the MS rep via mail they just started ignoring my email, and when I spoke with AT&T (via Skype) they basically said that only if I join them I'll have some hope.
Someone sent me an IM saying I should try post a YouTube video of the story and as much as I'm really against that kind of "child play" I don't think that any other common-sense will work with these companies and every time I fiddle with my shinny micro-pod it annoys me more.
Thanks for you comments everyone , I do hope at some point we all find some reasonable way of unlocking these devices (better sooner than later )
Well in desperation (+ 2 recommendations by people) I decided to YouTube my story both to share and maybe that'll be the miracle that will cause MS/Nokia to actually pay attention to a customer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdRMQ4pC884
Please excuse the poor experience, it's my first ever video and Powerpoint doesn't seem to convert the audio
P.S. I reviewed the forum rules and didn't see anything against my video so I hope it won't be a problem.
As was mentioned, this was a misunderstanding on the part of the store and I'm sorry you had to go through it. Unfortunately, as was also mentioned, it is not common for Americans to purchase devices SIM free/unlocked. As such, most places have no idea what that even means. I ended up in a similar misunderstanding once in Italy several years ago where I'd spent €450 to buy a Samsung Android phone, only to discover that there was a common defect with the screen. I wanted to get my money back, but the common policy in Italy is that one can only exchange for other goods. As such, I was pretty much forced to find €450 of electronics on which to spend the credit. Lesson learnt.
Hopefully you'll be able to get it unlocked or re-sell it on eBay.
A major mess (in my opinion) on the way Nokia handles warranties and repairs/replacements makes all Lumias a no buy for me now.
I bought a Lumia 920 (an amazing black device) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia while working there. The 920 model wasn’t available in Athens yet and getting it through my MO wouldn’t offer something special in price. After exactly 5 days of the best experience I had with a smartphone, things turned bad. But I wasn’t there. I was already in Peru and starting my 3 weeks in Latin America. A typical life for a modern nomad. Mobility is what keeps us connected to work and family… Right? Nokia has another idea of mobility.
The details of the problem can be the content of another post, a problem that has hit (as far as I understand from the fora) A LOT of users of 920. But this problem made the device unusable: overheating and an empty battery in a couple of hours, a camera that is actually destroyed. I contacted Nokia support online to check how I can visit a Nokia service center in Greece, the country that is my base for most of the time and the only place I can drop a device and pick up a repaired or replaced one after a couple of weeks. The “online” response was that my lumia was not covered by warranty in Greece because it was bought outside EU! Wow! I thought duty free shops at airports all over the world try to sell you something that can only be fixed in their country. You have to go back there. And not just at the airport (airport shops will not accept a device to fix) but outside in the city to find a Nokia service center…
I’m not talking about a TV or something for home use. I’m talking about MOBILE DEVICES. Smartphones that we buy somewhere to use somewhere else in the world. Some of us even spend most of the time outside the country which may be our home country and the country that we bought the device. I didn’t contact Greece because I’m Greek. I contacted Greece because this is the place I can drop the device for a fix. If I was planning to stay for a month in Malaysia, I would be contacting their service center because I would expect my smartphone to be fixed there. I need my smartphone. It’s part of my life. Isn’t it true?
I know another friend (he’s or was an MVP too) who had the same problem but buying a device in Europe and travelling to North America. If Nokia insists on this warranty policy, a “non-mobility warranty” that will make their power users, the ones who travel a lot and truly rely on these devices, switch to other manufacturers not because of Windows Phone 8 which is amazing, not because of the smartphone itself which has technology that really surpasses everything else, but just because of a silly decision of someone in customer services…
Nokia, I’m waiting. Till then, Lumias are perfect but their warranty works only where you bought it. Let’s say the Guadalahara airport while on honeymoon…
PS1: I don’t know how HTC or Samsung handle such a situation. I hope they treat their customers in a better way.
PS2: The criticism above is about a smartphone that costs more than a base salary in my country. I wouldn’t expect Nokia or anybody else to provide the same support for eg. Nokia 100 which sells for €27. I would just throw it to the bin…PS3: I accept that a Lumia sold outside EU is covered by 12 months while in EU by 24 months. I believe this is also reflected in the price difference.
HTC and Samsung are the same way. Pretty much any mobile device is required to be serviced in it's country of origin. One reason is ROHS compliance or also known as lead free compliance. While one country might allow items made with lead, other will not. Same goes for the manufacturing. If the device is made in a lead free country then it is fine for both countries. But if it is made in a country that does not enforce lead free than there is a chance that the service companies equipment can can contaminated by the lead in the device.
Other issues in provider exclusivity and other such things. The bottom line is that most mobile devices must be serviced in the country of origin.
Now you could of course just take it to a branch of your provider you bought it from in another country and just exchange it if such an option exist. If not then you will just have to get it serviced in the country you bought it from. That's just they way things are now.
Most of us don't bother with the service. We just take it to our providers and have it exchanged. Let them worry about how to get it serviced.
Unfortunately, that is quite common practice. Mobile phone is no exception. Here in US, most phones are sold by carrier and serviced by carrier for warranty as well. But there are a few internet shops sell mobile phones imported from Europe. If you buy these phones and need warranty service, you will have to send the phone back to the shop and they in turn send back to Europe for warranty service.
Some companies let you pay extra to have a international warranty (but still have limitations). Some like Pioneer, won't even give you any warranty if you didn't purchase their product from authorized dealers even if you bought in the US.
Warranty is cost and any large corporation will try their best to minimize that cost. Why Nokia should be different?
Solarenemy68 said:
HTC and Samsung are the same way. Pretty much any mobile device is required to be serviced in it's country of origin. One reason is ROHS compliance or also known as lead free compliance. While one country might allow items made with lead, other will not. Same goes for the manufacturing. If the device is made in a lead free country then it is fine for both countries. But if it is made in a country that does not enforce lead free than there is a chance that the service companies equipment can can contaminated by the lead in the device.
Other issues in provider exclusivity and other such things. The bottom line is that most mobile devices must be serviced in the country of origin.
Now you could of course just take it to a branch of your provider you bought it from in another country and just exchange it if such an option exist. If not then you will just have to get it serviced in the country you bought it from. That's just they way things are now.
Most of us don't bother with the service. We just take it to our providers and have it exchanged. Let them worry about how to get it serviced.
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Phones should become international warranty based. I had same problem with my HTC while in China. Managed to get to HK to a service centre and got reply that it would cost 300 to fix because it was US phone. I feel your pain. Try to buy phone closest to your home country that is easy to ship to.
foxbat121 said:
Warranty is cost and any large corporation will try their best to minimize that cost. Why Nokia should be different?
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Because Nokia is a European company and laws in Europe are a bit different... Philips was one of the first companies in the world that supported their products with worldwide warranties.
And all my Thinkpads are covered by worldwide warranty (and service). Because they are business tools for a mobile worker that lives somewhere else every week. I expected the same for business smartphones, especially when some of them cost more than a low-end Thinkpad... And travel more... I'm not complaining about TVs and entertainment systems, washing machines or even cars (although I had a BMW serviced in Switzerland under warranty...)
Well as much as you would like it to be that way, that is just not the way the mobile market works. They, the mobile manufacturers also do not care how much you spent on their device and they don't care that you feel that cost justifies service globally. They have their money from you buying the device. That is all they care about. If they have to service it, it will cost them money so they are going to make it as hard as possible and as less desirable for you as possible to service it. That is why you exchange it and let the companies duke it out. If you did not buy it from a provider that is global and offers exchanges then this is pretty much your fault and something that you will just have to deal with. That is just the way the mobile market operates. It sees it's products and it's customers as disposable and a dime a dozen. Loose one and another drops right in as this market will always be here.
Solarenemy68 said:
Well as much as you would like it to be that way, that is just not the way the mobile market works.
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I know exactly how the market operated and how it operates now. I was for 8 years a Microsoft MVP for Mobile Deevices, founded the largest mobility club in my country 12 years ago, worked directly with operators and OEMs to launch new devices and services, have friends in the R&D of all major companies. Working in US and being a customer of Verizon or AT&T is completely different than our case over there. We travel and work A LOT outside one country and the operators are all operating as a different entity in each country. Nokia was ALWAYS the company that you could rely for total support. That''s why they used to be the leader (by far). Things have changed...
There are only a few companies that offer you worldwide warranty and with a lot of those you have to pay extra for it. From what it looks like you won't be able to buy any mobile phones and have worldwide warranty at the moment. So if that is your reason to not go with another Lumia it comes by extension down to not being able to buy any smartphone (as the situation is the same).
I understand that this sucks but it doesn't help to single out Nokia here given that they are pretty much doing the same as everyone else in the industry. Also the title is somewhat misleading given that you DO have warranty for your Lumia phone just that in your situation it's rather difficult to get it to the service center.
StevieBallz said:
Also the title is somewhat misleading given that you DO have warranty for your Lumia phone just that in your situation it's rather difficult to get it to the service center.
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I agree with the rest of what you are saying but regarding the warranty issue (which is what I'm complaining about - the device is amazing) my case is not a special case. What I say is that all sales on airports and places where travellers are attracted to buy phones should state CLEARLY that the warranty is only valid in the specific country and service has to be done in a city of that country. A duty free shop doesn't get back a phone so even if you are transit through the same airport again, it's not enough. If this is everybody's policy, then I raise a flag saying that this has to change. We managed to change the charging connector for all companies, we can do this too...
atsouch said:
I agree with the rest of what you are saying but regarding the warranty issue (which is what I'm complaining about - the device is amazing) my case is not a special case. What I say is that all sales on airports and places where travellers are attracted to buy phones should state CLEARLY that the warranty is only valid in the specific country and service has to be done in a city of that country. A duty free shop doesn't get back a phone so even if you are transit through the same airport again, it's not enough. If this is everybody's policy, then I raise a flag saying that this has to change. We managed to change the charging connector for all companies, we can do this too...
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Same thing with apple. All products have international warranty EXCEPT mobile phones. I do hope they will be the first one to implement this international warranty with mobile phones.
They are doing this to discourage grey market, so what, importer bought it from e.g. NOKIA also, so it's the same sh**.