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:
| Refurbished Magnet | New Magnet | |
|---|---|---|
| Age | Der, it’s used | Shiny!! |
| Price | $9.99 | $0.00 |
| Warranty | 90 days | 365 days |
| Contract required? | Yes | Yes |
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.
up early for test and soup-bowl latte
I feel like the walking dead but will be heading to a coffee shop for studying this morning since I have a test in my Linux kernel class. I did this last week in preparation for my requirements engineering test and it went pretty well. They gave me a latte in what looked like a soup bowl with a handle, and I snuggled into a loveseat in the back corner that was mostly quiet.
I’m so tired because I have the worst time falling asleep, so I stay up late and then of course end up waking up late which repeats the whole cycle. I got up last night after I’d been lying down a bit and just wandered around the apartment, stretching and doing yoga. Everyone loves lights-out, 1-AM yoga! I ended up stretching out on my rug in the living room and almost fell asleep there before panic about not hearing the alarm the next morning woke me, so up I got, surprisingly stiff after that brief time on the floor. I’m going to the gym after I get out of class today and will hopefully be so exercised and exhausted tonight that I’ll fall asleep at the ripe old time of 11 o’clock.
In web site news, I recently adjusted my .htaccess file, using this guy’s tutorial, to redirect all non-Feedburner traffic that goes to my posts RSS feed to the Feedburner one. If you’ve had any trouble with my RSS feed recently, it may be due to that, so please let me know. I was also amused that a friend called me “a one-woman consumerist.com” after all the cell phone and PS3 posts here. I can’t help having trouble with these online purchases!