Phone Crisis!

Let me preface this story by saying the Julia Sugarbaker lives inside me and when the need arises, she is called upon to take care of business.......okay, on to the story!

I think that most people would agree that the cell phone industry is full of itself and they get you with contracts and certain phones for certain carriers. CRAP! That is what I say. I say, buy whatever phone you want, then shop for the best deal for cell service, no contracts, no crap! Which leads me into a little story about our current crap phones that were not cheap.

So, Glenn and I had Palm Treos from Sprint before we left for Korea. It worked great. PDA and phone, all of my information. Had to turn them off, because we couldn't use them in Korea. Okay, no problem. So, we get back last summer and go to Sprint and it was like I had walked into Macy's with last season's shoes! So basically, we had an "old" model and it really wasn't going to work like it should, because we had to get new batteries, etc., the cost just wouldn't justify and the rep wasn't sure how long the phone would work, because we were having some issues with it. Great. They were expensive. So, now they collect dust in a drawer.

We decided to go to Verizon and get phones there. Got a phone that seemed like it would be good. They were expensive, $250 and they were not PDAs! AND the whole internet plan was outrageous, so we didn't get that. Glenn started having problems with his and the touch screen and that is where the problems began....................


The phone is a piece of crap, hate it, but we are locked in until next summer, because of contracts. We only have one Verizon store in our town with technicians that can work on the phones. We went into the store in the spring, explained the problem and received a software update, didn't work. Kept trying over the summer to go in, but since it is the only store, it is ALWAYS busy. I cannot wait 2 hours to be seen. I won't. So yesterday we went in and it wasn't too busy. I explained the problem to the tech and she knew exactly what I was talking about, because the phone has problems. A new phone was created to fix the problem. Awesome, right?NO! My warranty expired 3 weeks ago. Sorry, we can't help you. Although you can pay $50 to get the new phone that was created to fix the problem. Not only no, but hell no!

Went home and stewed about it. I decided that I WAS NOT going to take that for an answer. So we were at the store this morning when they opened. I wasn't going to leave without the new phone and I wasn't going to pay for it. If the phone has problems, then that should trump the warranty I wasn't asking for an upgrade or discount, just the phone that is supposed to replace mine.

I got the technician that helped me the night before, which is great, because I didn't have to explain the whole story again. She looked something up and then left the area for a few minutes and came back with the manager. And she came out with an attitude. Mistake. Hence Julia Sugarbaker.

I began slowly and calming explaining the history of the phone, etc. All she kept doing was touching the screen and saying, "well, it is working now." My response in a slightly more loud, and more aggressive tone, "yeah, kind of like when you take your car in because it is making a funny noise and then it doesn't make that noise for the technician. Hmmm." I think I heard some customers laugh! After more attitude from the Barbara, the manager, I said, "Fine. Give me my piece of crap phone back and your district manager's name and phone number, because, obviously YOU cannot fix this problem, or you have chosen NOT to fix this problem. Your mind was made up before you and I spoke. This store will not be out any money, Samsung will not be out any money."

I left with the district manager's number, went out to my car to call her only to get a recording of "this is a non-working number." Oh no she didn't! I went back into the store, spoke to the original technician, who was VERY surprised that the number didn't work and was very helpful in giving me an additional number. She could see the frustration on my face. The number was h was to a district store in Austin. I talked to a very nice man, who actually was the manager who opened my store. I explain the problem start to finish very calmly and he said, "No problem, I will send you the updated phone and you will receive it via Fed EX on Wed."

I was so thankful. I asked him, "I explained this whole story to my store and they told me that they couldn't help; why was I able to explain it to you and you, with no hesitation, just are sending the new phone." He said "Barbara should have given you the new phone I will be talking to Barbara." Well now! I promptly went back into the store, walking very proud, with a shit-eat grin on my face and walked right up to Barbara and said, "I just talked to Todd and he didn't have a problem sending me the new phone and he also said that YOU should have been able to to to that." All I got was attitude. Regardless, I have the new phone....free.

So, if anyone needs assistance with an issue, please feel free to call upon myself and Julia at any time. I know that some of my Ya-Ya's have witnessed this first hand and I can provide references if needed!