Phone Failure

I purchased a Motorola V330 for my son in March. The phone was specifically selected because of the international capabilities. In August it quit charging. I had heard that this was a frequent issue with these phones. He called T-Mobile and they quickly replaced it. After assuring the replacement phone would charge and after purchasing a new battery my son left for Europe for two years. It is now September and the phone is not charging again.

I called Customer Service only to be told that without the phone to "trouble shoot" I was out of luck. I then explained the situation and they said if I would send the phone back they would replace it. Well, it will cost $260 to ship the phone to the States from Europe (the dollar is currently down again - surprise) and another $88 to ship it back to my son. I explained this to them and asked for a credit - the $149.00 I had paid for the upgrade in the first place so that my son could purchase another phone in Europe. T-Mobile is very big in Europe by the way. At any rate, the tech told me he could not help me. I then asked to speak with a supervisor.

After being placed on hold the tech came back and told me that he could give me a one month credit on the account. I explained that this would not help me as the phone (once the current charge runs out) was going to be useless to my son and this was his only way of communicating with me while abroad. I again asked to speak with a supervisor. I was put on hold again. This time the tech came back and wanted to know postal codes for my son's location. After going through the shipping costs with him, which I had previously gotten, and given the fact that my son is changing locations in two days it was not possible nor was it feasible to have this phone shipped back here. Again, I was told I had no options. I once again asked to speak with a supervisor.

I was put on hold one more time and when the tech came back he said he could give me a $100.00 credit to my account for the phone. Tired and frustrated I accepted his offer. After typing into his computer (yes I could hear this while on the phone) he then informed me that in order to get the credit I had to extend the plan three additional months. At this point I got angry. At $39.99 a month plus junk fees the tech was telling me that in order to get the $100.00 credit I had to basically agree to spend $120.00+ more dollars with T-Mobile. I told him this made no sense. This was when he lost it and informed me that my current plan went until May of 2006 and I was "stuck" with T-Mobile until then anyway and what would three more months matter if it got me the $100.00 credit.

I have five phones with T-Mobile. I pay my bills on time which during any given month can be quite considerable and even more now that my son is in Europe. I do not think I was being unreasonable. The tech at this point insisted on saying, "So you are refusing to accept the $100.00 credit." Like he needed to get this recorded for the record. I informed him that I was refusing the credit because essentially it was not a credit at all and that I wanted him to type into the record that the customer refused the credit because in the long run it was going to cost her $120.00+ more.

He said he did this, but I doubt it. I have faxed T-Mobile with my complaint and will also attempt to call the corporate office, but I am sure nothing will come of it. At this point, as far as this account goes, as soon as I am informed that the battery is dead on the cell phone my son has I am going to tell T-Mobile what they can do with their phone and when my last contract is up I am taking the five other phones to any company other than T-Mobile.

Frustrated in Florida

Frustrated,
Perhaps it is the charger that is the problem here....Maybe that is an inexpensive solution to this. Is there anyway your son could take it to a store in Europe? Also maybe Motorola could help out with this one. Try contacting them as well. We definitly don't want you to cancel service with us. I am sure there is a solution out there that doesn't involve hefty shipping fees. Samsung any help on this one?

If it were not the exact same problem we had experienced with the phone before he left I would not be so frustrated, but it is. Originally, we thought that the charger was the problem (when he was still in the States) and since we have two other V330 we tried the other charges and they did not work with the phone. Your suggestions is a valid one, but at this point I really do not want to throw good money after bad just to take a chance that it might work.

I know your frustrated with T-Mobile, but as a service provider we try to help out with the phones as much as possible. Sometimes things like this happen....the people you truly need to be upset with are the manufacturers for turning out their product to quickly without enough testing. I am sorry that this happened to you, but I hope it doesn't have to end with you leaving the #1 rated service provider for customer satisfaction 2 years in a row.

Not the most convenient fix in the world but hopefully would do your son until he gets back: http://cgi.ebay.com/OEM-Motorola-Desktop-Charger-Battery-v60-V330-V400 -v505_W0QQitemZ5806139637QQcategoryZ20352QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

http://direct.motorola.com/ENS/Web_accessories_detail.asp?Country=USA& language=ENS&productid=29544&strPrimaryOption=Acc&lSecondaryOption=13

before buying one of these however I would recommend to your son that he take a cuetip or something similar and SCRUB the connections on the bottom of the phone as this model doesnt come with a dust cap for the charger/phone connection... therefore dirt and other debree gets in there very easily (speaking from personal experience) and can make the phone not charge/say unable to charge.

ALSO... with this style of phone/charger connection there is a known issue with it not taking a charge, the error is human/poor design. Make sure that the charger goes in perfectly strait so that the steel prongs on both ends of the charger SNAP into place.

I will pass along your information to him as soon he is able to get in contact again. Thanks for the information, you have been very helpful

No prob..... good luck and keep us posted (no pun intended) on how it goes.

I received a call from the corporate office this morning (9/9) telling me that they have issued me the $149.00 credit I asked for. A guess faxing them actually accomplished something. They also apologized for the tech and the supervisor. While I am sure the tech was doing his job by running interference between the supervisor and myself, he did get ugly towards the end of the conversation even though I never raised my voice to him. At any rate, the credit and the apology have gone a long way in keeping me a satisfied T-Mobile customer.

FrustratedinFL,
Glad to hear that you got your issue resolved while increasing customer satisfaction. Hope that the replacement phone you receive eliminates this problem you have been having.
Best of luck!

Phone Failure

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