Tuesday, January 29, 2008

More Cell Phone Woes

After getting a new cell phone and switching to T-Mobile, I thought my cell phone woes were over.

No such luck.

Induced by the sleek Motorola RAZR phone and the promise of rebates (which would more than offset T-Mobile's set-up fees...), I placed my order with Wirefly.com. Big mistake. My $50 T-Mobile/Motorola rebate was rejected by T-Mobile, because my phone had already received the rebate. Huh? I'm a new T-Mobile customer, it's a brand new (or so I was told) phone. How could it have already received the rebate?

After being shunted from one department to another when I called Wirefly to see what was up, I finally got someone from the Office of the President who told me to fax my info and he would get my rebate processed. So I did that. Waited a month and called back for a status report. "Oh, we sent that out a month ago." Um, no--you didn't. They checked again. It's been approved but all rebates are on hold right now. That was two months ago. Called again recently and was curtly told that all rebate payments are on hold with no estimate for when I could expect my check.

So I google "wirefly rebate scam" and come up with thousands of hits. Seems I'm one of many, many, many people who have been screwed over by this company. Wirefly aka In-phonics appears to be the Enron of the rebate world. I'm not pleased with T-Mobile either for associating with such a shady organization.

So buyer beware--do NOT buy from Wirefly!

2 comments:

  1. ack! Sorry for your cel woes. I'm on a strict "no rebate" diet and so far all is well. I'm also sticking with a "no no-name brand electronics if it matters" kick. Geeks.com has a $140 GPS and MP3 player, which sounds... weird. It turns out the co makes *terrible* stuff.

    My buddy switched cel phone carriers recently and got an Edge or Swirl or something. It's like a Pearl but 1cm wider, which makes a difference.

    I'm considering getting a new phone, but mine is so old it looks quite distinctive and insouciant. It's also quite useful around the house. I can chip ice with it, or hang picture frames, or fix furniture. So nice!

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  2. I got the blackjack by samsung.. worst smartphone from ATT there is-because it's DUMB and hard to use
    I hate it because it's also not deleting messages either.
    sigh.
    so I try to upgrade. ATT won't let me (6 phone calls, over 5 hours of MY time)..
    finally after xmas dithering around.. looking at whether to break contract to switch carriers because I need a specific phone.. I find that phone that I want is really heavy, thick and as big as my sunglass case. (uh no. that's not going to fit in my pocket.)
    went to iPhone. NOTHING works with it that you have-- so plan on spending a LOT of money- bluetooth, books, cases so that it doesn't break.. etc.
    ATT doesn't deal in the tech support. strictly apple
    Stevie

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