Earlier this week, my 1.5 year old phone decided to give up the ghost. Because I had six months to go on a 2 year contract, my options were pretty limited as to what I could do and afford.
so I called my service provider and explained the situation. They were very accommodating and worked out a deal where I could get a new phone for no money down, waive the activation fee and instead of $100 to buy out the rest of my contract, they would only charge $40. So I accepted the deal because as I said, my old phone died.
They gave me an option of either having the phone shipped (which could take up to 10 days) or going into a dealer and picking it up. I chose the dealer route, selected my phone online, Customer service gave me a reference # and off I went over my lunch hour to a local dealer.
This is where things get shady. I went into the store and explained my situation twice. The sales lady was confused about the reference number or something, I'm not sure. She called the service provider with my reference # and got the info about my deal. She said to the person on the phone "I'll have to see if we have this phone in stock"
she told me the same thing and went into the back for about 10 seconds and came out. She said "Sorry, we don't have that phone in stock but have you seen the Galaxy s3? I love it"
I said "Can I get it for zero dollars?"
she said "No, there's a fee with it"
"how much?"
"well its $400 with the activation and 2 year contract"
I said "not a chance, I came in here for a zero dollar phone not to be upselled to a $400 phone"
so she says to me "Just so you know sir, we are a dealer store. and because we are a dealer store, any hardware upgrade you do through us, you have to purchase the mandatory extended warranty for $80"
I said "since when are extended warranties mandatory?"
"with all dealer stores, they are mandatory"
I said forget it, and walked out. I called my service provider and explained what had happened. They told me that it sounded like a load and there should be no mandatory fees with their phones. but because its an outlet store, they are free to set their own policies which includes setting mandatory esps and there isn't much my service provider can do about it.
So after my essay, this store seems to push expensive phones on you and force you to buy extended warranties. after some investigation, it seems like a store policy probably in place to grab extra cash and isn't standard.
I ended up going to a different mall and getting my phone there.
so I called my service provider and explained the situation. They were very accommodating and worked out a deal where I could get a new phone for no money down, waive the activation fee and instead of $100 to buy out the rest of my contract, they would only charge $40. So I accepted the deal because as I said, my old phone died.
They gave me an option of either having the phone shipped (which could take up to 10 days) or going into a dealer and picking it up. I chose the dealer route, selected my phone online, Customer service gave me a reference # and off I went over my lunch hour to a local dealer.
This is where things get shady. I went into the store and explained my situation twice. The sales lady was confused about the reference number or something, I'm not sure. She called the service provider with my reference # and got the info about my deal. She said to the person on the phone "I'll have to see if we have this phone in stock"
she told me the same thing and went into the back for about 10 seconds and came out. She said "Sorry, we don't have that phone in stock but have you seen the Galaxy s3? I love it"
I said "Can I get it for zero dollars?"
she said "No, there's a fee with it"
"how much?"
"well its $400 with the activation and 2 year contract"
I said "not a chance, I came in here for a zero dollar phone not to be upselled to a $400 phone"
so she says to me "Just so you know sir, we are a dealer store. and because we are a dealer store, any hardware upgrade you do through us, you have to purchase the mandatory extended warranty for $80"
I said "since when are extended warranties mandatory?"
"with all dealer stores, they are mandatory"
I said forget it, and walked out. I called my service provider and explained what had happened. They told me that it sounded like a load and there should be no mandatory fees with their phones. but because its an outlet store, they are free to set their own policies which includes setting mandatory esps and there isn't much my service provider can do about it.
So after my essay, this store seems to push expensive phones on you and force you to buy extended warranties. after some investigation, it seems like a store policy probably in place to grab extra cash and isn't standard.
I ended up going to a different mall and getting my phone there.
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