Complaint Review: A T & T Wireless Phone - Orange Park Florida

On April 30, 2009, I went in to the location on Blanding Blvd to report my current phone lost or stolen. I had insurance on the phone so I was able to receive the same phone for free. I asked the salesman if there were any other phones that I was able to get for free with my insurance coverage and he said he would look to see if I was eligible to receive an upgrade on my phone which allows you to choose another phone at a discounted price. He then said that I was eligible to get an upgrade at the discounted price and he proceeded to show me some phones. He asked me what I primarily use my phone for and I told him that I use it primarily for the texting, camera, and video camera. I emphasized that these were very important features that I must have. I also expressed my interest in watching TV/movies and having the GPS but these features were not as important as the other three that I mentioned.

I used my previous phone features very often to take pictures/videos of my babies and texting them to family and friends. He showed me several phones that interested me. I asked him if he would suggest which of the phones that he showed me would best suit my needs and he suggested the Apple iphone. He said that this phone would be the best phone to meet my needs. After testing the phone for a bit, I noticed that this did not have the video camera and I expressed to him that I needed a phone that had a video camera included.

He then informed me that Apple was coming out with a new iphone that would have all of the features that I was looking for. I then told him that I would go ahead and call the insurance company and have a free phone sent to me until the new iphone was available. He then tried to convince me to buy the current iphone that I was looking at and I told him that I really needed the features that were going to be available on the new iphone. I asked him how much the new phone would cost and he said that it would cost the same as the current iphone. I told him that I was definitely going to wait since it was going to be the same price and I would be stupid to buy the current iphone since they were going to have a new iphone with the same price but would have all of the important features that I needed.

He then proceeded to tell me that they started making allowances for customers who buy the phone when a newer one was coming out soon because they had a lot of complaints from customers that purchased the phone only to have them come out with a newer/better phone soon after they purchased one. Another salesman was standing next to him the entire time and I would think that if that were not the case, he would have corrected him. So I told him that since I would be able to come in and trade my current iphone in for the new iphone then I would go ahead and purchase this phone. We proceeded with the purchase and I was given my new phone.

I then wanted to confirm with him before I left all of the information that he just gave me and made sure that the new phone would have the features that I needed and that I would have no problems switching out my phone for the new iphone and he said yes that is correct. I then asked him how I would know that the new phone was available and he told me that they would notify me. I said okay and I left. I came back in three times since I purchased the phone to ask if the new phone was in yet and each time I was told that it was not out yet but it would be out sometime in June and they assured me that I would be notified.

After some time, I called in to the service center because I had some charges on my bill that I did not recognize and the gentleman helped me to credit back the charges and after that was taken care of, I decided to go ahead and ask him if he knew when the new iphone would be out and he told me that it had already been out for a while and that I was no longer eligible to receive it because I was required to come in within 30 days of the release of the new phone and trade my phone. The salesman that sold me this phone certainly did not inform me of this. I then told him that the store assured me that I would be notified as soon as the new phone was available and I was not notified and he told me that he was sorry but there was nothing he could do for me. I am very upset regarding this situation and I feel like I was taken advantage of. When I purchased this phone, I expressed my need for certain features and I was promised that I would get these features when the new iphone was available and that I would have no problem trading my phone in for the new iphone.

My previous phone allowed me to send and receive pictures (which are extremely important to me); it allowed me to send video via texting. I could have gotten a replacement phone for free. Now I have a phone that will not send or receive pictures via texting and does not have video. I even called in regarding pictures that were sent to me that sends me to a website to view them (which is very inconvenient) and for some reason I cannot ever open the pictures at the website and I have had several techs try and find out why I cannot view pictures and they cannot even figure it out.

My husband has been stationed overseas and he is coming back in the middle of the month and he was going to be added to my plan and he was planning on purchasing an iphone also but I assure you that if this does not get resolved, he will not be added and when my time is up, you will lose me as a customer.

I got a response from Mr. Phelps at the Office of the President regarding this letter and he basically accused me of lying. He told me that the employee who sold me the iphone on May 30, did not know that the new 3GS was coming out the following month (it was released June 8) and if he told me that it was being released then it was just speculation and that he could do nothing for me. He said that he did not have the authority to honor the agreement that the salesman informed me of. I then asked him who had the authority to honor the agreement and he said that I could try and get the store to honor it. If this does not get resolved then I am going to pursue this in court. I dont think that the employee would lie to the court.

Mr. Phelps main argument is that no employees knew that the new iphone was going to be released and I have done several searches and I see where there were several articles dated in May talking about the new 3GS iphone. I wish that I did a search regarding A T & T and there customer service because I would have just let my contract run out. Apparantly A T & T is not concerned with satisfying customers. There are numerous complaints regarding similar issues.

Kim s.

Orange Park, Florida

U.S.A.

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