Hiro_86
Independence,#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Mon, April 27, 2009
While I am not sure exactly what happened in your case as with Cricket there are many different companies selling for them, be it online, over the phone, or with local chains. So I am not sure what you where told or not told. I was part of the sales team for the website. Whenever a customer approached me and spoke of flashing a phone I was required to say this "While some of our local dealers will flash phones over to cricket service, we do not recommend it. You lose any warranty that you have on your existing phone, and it is not guaranteed that your phone will function properly after the flash. You may lose the ability to send and receive text, get voicemail, etc. Additionally, when flashing a phone the charge varies from $35-$70 which is non-refundable. You will still need to pay a non-refundable activation fee on top of that varying from $15-$25. Even if the flash doesn't work you are out $50-$95 just to try it. Lastly, you do not get your first month of service free when flashing an existing phone. That is only available when you purchase a new phone and new plan." Which to me sounds like exactly what happened to you. Now, what this means is Cricket Wireless does not flash phones. Where you took the phones to be flashed even if it said Cricket on the building was not a 100% Cricket store, as if it was, they would not be allowed to perform the service. At which time you really cant be upset with Cricket directly for the service provided by your local store you visited for not telling you this, as those stores are independently owned and run. Cricket is not responsible for what they do. Most of them know good and well that flashing a phone is a sure fire way to get a brick phone. But they know that by the time it happens they don't have to care. Cricket knows this happens and that is why we simply did not flash phones period, so we cant be blamed when it happens. Now when a customer comes to me and says my flashed phone does not work, I really dont have sympathy, because lets face it, cricket only wants you to use our phones as we know they work and we make a profit (the point of any business), and you still went around the system so you could use something not approved and cut out the part where Cricket makes money. If you put nitrous system on a honda and your engine explodes, you dont blame honda... its not hondas fault. But to summarize, this is my side of this kind of situation, you might be been told something different, when this happened and then sure you could be upset for being lied to and should seek reciprocation from the store the preformed the service(but its not really Cricket). I never tell people it will work 100%, so when they do it anyway and it does not work, I don't care when they come back upset... because lets face it "I told you so..." And at that point your only option is back to beginning, buy a new cricket phone (now without the new account discount) or try and flash another phone. Hope this helps.