Cell phone warranty programs are set up to steal customers money. I have a cell phone that shuts off for no reason. This problem is a nuisance so my wife took my cell phone to our local AT&T store. This store is located in New Martinsville, WV. We where informed at the store that our phone was not eligable for a return at the store. We where aware of this so my wife inquired about extending our contract length and purchasing a new phone. My wife was informed that they would not extend our contract but we could use the warranty exchange program. The warranty exchange program sends you a replacement phone that is the same make as your current phone and you send back your bad phone. The clerks at the AT&T store had my bad phone and seen what condition it was in. My wife agrees to this so the replacement phone is sent to our home. Upon receipt of the replacement phone I sent back my original phone. The replacement phone that was sent to my home has never worked right. Whenever I make a call I can hear fine but those I am calling have a hard time hearing me. They all say that it sounds like the windows are down in my car or there is a bunch of background noise. A few days later I receive a box in the mail which contains my original phone as well as a bill for $115 for damage to the faceplate. The phone is sent back with a sticker on it pointing to the top right hand corner. After receiving this phone back I now have my original phone, the replacement phone that does not work right, and a $115 charge. I called the number of the warranty program and explained this situation to them. I offered to send back the replacement phone that they sent me and they drop the $115 charges. This would put us back where we started. I even offered to pay the shipping of the phones since I know there is a cost involved it that. I am told that these are the terms that I agreed to and I will have to pay the charge. I was then directed to a supervisor who directed me to a supervisor, who told me the same thing and directed me to his supervisor. The last supervisor never picks up so they take my name and phone number and I am told that they will contact me. I do not receive a call that night from the warranty program so the following day I go to my local AT&T store to see if they can help resolve this situation. At the store an employee there calls the warranty program and his is told to have us wait until the charge posts on our bill and have us come back and they will take care of us. The charge hits our bill and we take the bill to the store to get this resolved. At the store we are told that they can not help us that the warranty program is a separate third party company but we could use there phone to call. I again call the warranty program and I am again told that they can not help me. So I am now stuck paying $115 for absolutely nothing, or for an orange sticker pointing to the chip depending on how you look at it. I feel this needs brought out into the light how wrong these programs are. I know that I am not the only customer that is getting hit with these charges and I can only imagine how this can be a detriment to families that are having a hard time making ends meet.
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