Complaint Review: LetsTalk.com - San Francisco California

This letter was faxed to their CEO this morning, detailing the issue.  This was the final episode in a long string of offenses, and has led me to contact the Federal authorities after making a formal request that Verizon Wireless revoke this company's distributorship license.
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Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to you regarding a formal complaint I have made against your company with Verizon Wireless; this complaint concerns your fraudulent, misleading and deceptive business practices while acting
as an agent of Verizon Wireless.

I recently purchased a phone from your company, changed my existing Verizon cellular plan from an individual plan to a shared plan, and added this new phone to the plan as a second line. This phone proved
to be defective.

I attempted to avail myself of your company's warranty return policy.  I was told that I was required to ship the defective phone back to you at my own expense and, once the defective phone was received and
processed by your company, a replacement would then and only then be shipped out to me. When I explained to your company's representative that this phone was for my disabled domestic partner
and that she could not safely be left without a phone for a week or more, I was told that there was another option.

I was told that I would be charged the full retail (non-contract) price of the warranty replacement phone, plus the amount that I had originally paid your company for the defective phone. Once that charge a total of $629.99 had been cleared by my debit card, a new phone would be shipped out to me to replace the defective phone. I was told that once the defective phone had been received and processed by your company, this charge would be returned and that this could take from 2 to 4 weeks to happen. I am sorry, but I am not in the habit of allowing a company such as yours to extort money from me simply to obtain warranty performance on a defective product.

After consultation with Verizon Wireless regarding the defective phone and your company's refusal to honor the warranty properly, Verizon Wireless was kind enough to ship me a replacement phone under their
own factory warranty program; I received this phone yesterday and placed it in service immediately. The defective phone your company sold me, and then refused to exchange in a lawful, timely and proper
manner, has been returned to Verizon Wireless for return to Motorola.

I feel that your company has cost me a few hundred dollars, though, by forcing me to accept a factory second replacement phone from Verizon when I purchased a brand new phone from your company and
should have received a brand new phone in return for the defective phone from your company. Verizon Wireless should have never been placed in the position of having to honor the product warranty because your company would not consequently, I have no problem with them. It was your company's refusal to properly
honor the warranty which has cost me at least half of the value of the phone I purchased. And I am very unhappy with that.

By placing the sort of conditions and obstacles in the way of a customer being able to obtain warranty service your company is legally bound to perform, your company has tacitly refused to honor the warranty
stated at the time of sale; this is a violation of the Magnuson-Moss Act, as well as of Section 2-313 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Due to this refusal, I was forced to obtain a lower level of warranty performance from Verizon Wireless the cellular carrier who did not actually have an obligation to do so under State and Federal law, as your company did.

This is not the first bad experience I have had with your company, and I chose to purchase this phone from your company against my better judgment. This is a mistake that I will never repeat and I will do my utmost to make sure that none of my friends, family or acquaintances ever make this mistake, either.

I have filed a formal complaint with Verizon Wireless which seeks to have your distributorship revoked, based upon your demonstrated fraudulent sales practices, your refusal to honor product warranties, and your attempt to extort funds from customers in order to obtain warranty performance as required under both State and Federal statute.

I am also turning this matter over to the United States Federal Trade Commission and the United States Attorney General for investigation into your violations of the Magnuson-Moss Act; since these violations are well documented, it is likely that your company will be prosecuted in Federal Court.

Should you have any further questions, or wish to discuss the matter of reimbursement for the value I have lost on the purchase of this phone, feel free to contact me at the telephone number listed in the above letterhead.
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