First there was Toys R Us and a PS3, now there’s AT&T and my refurbished phone purchase. I blogged just this morning about buying a refurbished Samsung Magnet to replace my dying Sony Ericsson Z750, but I had some hassle today when I checked the AT&T web site and saw that I could’ve gotten a new Magnet for less than what I paid for the used one. How that slipped past the marketing department is beyond me, and it wasn’t just the price that differed:

When I saw that I was pretty much getting the short end of the stick in every way, I tried to cancel my order online. Couldn’t do it, so I called AT&T. I spoke to one guy for a few minutes before he told me I’m a Premium customer, whatever that means, and transferred my call. I then spoke to another guy who said he couldn’t cancel my order and he couldn’t refund any money, so I asked to speak to his manager. I was then put on hold for the longest time ever, around fifty minutes according to my call timer. I was at work so I went back to my desk and continued working, letting the happy hold music play while the phone sat on my desk.

Finally some lady picked up and I explained what happened and that I either wanted to cancel the refurb order or get $9.99 credited back to my credit card. Neither could happen, apparently, because the order was already processed. She told me what I could do was wait until Fedex had a tracking number for my package, then call Fedex and refuse the package, causing them to send it back to AT&T. She checked AT&T’s site and confirmed the new Magnet’s price. She explained AT&T would then exchange my refurbished phone for a new phone, give me a refund, and I would get the new phone for free. I asked if there would be any kind of restocking fee or any fees at all: yep, a $9.95 “Buyer’s Remorse” shipping fee. Well, of course I had buyer’s remorse when I saw AT&T’s web site sold me an inferior product at a higher cost without so much as a peep that I could save some money by buying a new phone instead! I confirmed that there would be no other fees and that, essentially, I was going to get a $0.04 discount. Yep, pretty much. I get the $9.99 back for the refurbished phone but have to pay $9.95 in Buyer’s Remorse fees.

I went ahead and okay-ed this plan of action because of the extended warranty I would get with a new phone, plus it’ll be new and I can hope it will be in better condition than a used version. The delay is a bit annoying: when I called Fedex, they said it would have to reach its destination center before it would be turned around and sent back to AT&T. They estimate that will happen on Friday, so then its status should be updated to “return to sender” and I can call AT&T and have them send me a new Magnet. I confirmed with the AT&T manager that this was all being noted on my file so that I would get the right phone for free and there wouldn’t be any confusion, and I wouldn’t have to reiterate my story. I also asked the manager if she had any sway over prices of refurbished phones versus new ones, and why it was that a used phone could ever be sold for more than the same model new. Nope, she said, these are just every-other-day deals that change and so sometimes this happens. Still seems to me like a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing.

When I told the story to a friend at work, she hoped that AT&T would send my $0.04 refund to me in a check. If they did, I would totally try to take it to a supermarket and see if they would cash my third-party check. I’d probably get some runaround about how they couldn’t go out on a limb in case the check was no good, haha. Nah, I figure I’ll get the four cents credited back to my credit card, which will be a fun line item in my next statement.