Complaint Review: StraightTalk

Bought a mid-grade refurbished StraightTTalk phone from their web site.. says it comes with a 30 day satisfaction guarantee.. It came with a scratched camera lens, and was obviously used.  I called and told them I wanted to send it back for refund. They said fine.. but it would take 10 business days.   So I sent it back (once I waited 5 days for their mailer) but had to go buy another one at my local WalMart in the meantime since I couldn't be without a phone for 2 weeks ( I have no issue with Walmart!). 

So today I get another refurbished phone in the mail instead of a refund (despite me telling them when I was sending it back I wanted a refund and wrapping a note around the phone itself!!). So I get on the phone with them and tell them, sorry, a mistake, but
I really want a refund.  They say that since they sent a replacement phone out (despite what I asked), their satisfaction guarantee becomes instantly void, no matter how many days it takes to process.

 Of course, no one could show me where on their web site it states this, apparently an internal policy to screw people.  I downloaded and searched the entire 14 pages of small print;  there is nothing on the website about this!  Apparently once THEY are satisfied, YOUR guarantee is over!

Oh, and as far a the return process goes, you can't get a new phone til THEY get your old phone (fair enough), but then they ask you for the original paperwork that came with the prior phone.. one contact there told me that their 30-day time period started the day you bought the phone, not the day it was shipped or received (5 days later in My case). Keep all your paperwork!

Make sure you read the fine print where it says that you can't easily transfer your contact information from one StraightTalk phone to another.. the SIM cards do not transfer and unless your phone can BlueTooth the info over to your computer for holding, you have to manually type every name and number in by hand, one at a time. I knew this going in, so I can't complain about it, but then again, I wasn't expecting a lot for $45 (ok, $48 with tax) bucks a month. 

In a nut shelll, StraightTalk is a decent phone at a decent price IF you already know all there is to know about the phone you are buying (their customer service and manuals are truly abysmal at best), and you have underutilized towers in your area.  Oh, sure, they use Sprint (in case of my Android phone) towers, but they don't tell you that Sprint only sells the excess capacity on the towers to non- Sprint customers. If it is a peak hour, my signal goes to zero..............while my associate with sprint (10 feet away in cube farm) gets 4 bars. I've had TracFone/StraightTalk (same company) phones for 4 years now..

Take it from me...buy the cheap phones and plan on throwing them away if you have a problem.