AT&T warranty not honored

I had a Samsung phone under warranty. About 6 weeks ago the screen started to show large white blocks, and eventually it went all white, so that the phone was no longer usable. I called CS and obtained a replacement phone under the warranty agreement.

Now I found on my bill a charge of $115 for physical damage. Apparently, the technician determined that the phone malfunctioned because it had been dropped or physically abused, not because of a manufacturer's defect.

I have two questions/concerns, which a CS representative I talked to was unable to address:

1. How was that determination made? I witnessed the phone going dead over a period of several days and I know that it was not the result of physical abuse or dropping the phone.

2. The policy that Cingular has in place leaves no option to the customer to decide if he/she wants to pay for a new phone (should the first one end up not being covered by the warranty terms). The new phone is shipped immediately, but a determination on whether it is covered by warranty replacement is not made for weeks. At this point, it is too late for me to send the replacement phone back. This seems really unfair, especially in consideration that the determination is made unilaterally by the company, with no possibility of appeal. I would not have opted for a replacement phone if I had known that I would end up being charged. They did tell me that there was that possibility, but since I was - and still am - convinced that the phone was malfunctioning, not damaged, I accepted those terms. Also, I was not given any other option.

Has anybody had a similar experience with warranty replacement? Does anyone know of any remedy at this point to recover the $150 charge?

Thank you,

Gianfranco

actually when you talk to a warranty rep you are advised and must agree to the out of warranty cost of the replacement b4 its shipped

when you ship it back it is then determined by the manufacturer weather the issue was due to physical damage or due to defect. Cingular plays no part in determining the cause, you always have the option of mailing you phone direct to the manufacture to have repaired and be w/o a phone for up to 14 days not counting shipping

Interesting, because that option was not offered to me. The ONLY option offered was to ship the phone back to Cingular and accept a warranty replacement, with the understanding that if the phone was found damaged I would be charged for the replacement. In fact, I had no idea that Cingular sends the phone to the manufacturer until now.

The other problem I am having is that in essence, if the technician says that there was "damage" I have no recourse or appeal. I do not believe that it was, but all he/she has to say is that it was damaged -- that's it, no further explanation or burden of proof. And, since the technician works for the manufacturer, and the manufacturer would have to pay for a warranty replacement, I see a big conflict of interest there that leaves the customer with no recourse or defense.

What it boils down to is that my phone broke, it was under warranty and the manufacturer refuses to honor the warranty because they claim that I damaged the phone, but they provide no further details of what exactly the damage is, how it would have happened, etc.

I have had a similar experience recently. My daughter had a nokia for only about 3 months and some of the buttons started falling off.

Sent the phone back but they ended up charging me $115 but what really irritated me was that the phone is going for $29 or less on the website & I believe it was "free" when I got it. Doesn't seem fair to me to charge $115.

Last year she had an LG that stopped charging and it was replaced last fall with no problem so I was rather surprised when they charged me for this phone.

I really don't think the Nokia model she got is a quality product or it wouldn't have fallen apart so quickly but they didn't see it that way. It should at least be able to survive your contract. My husband has had the same Nokia for about 3 years and it has been horribly abused (no on purpose) but his phone still works just fine.

Yes- I had an experience where the call center rep asked the standard questions to qualify it as defective. He asked if had been dropped, adn I said yes, what phone hasn't. It kept working fine afterwards. Then it slowly began to white out, until one time I powered it on, and it was a white screen with a black blobby line in the corner. I have not heard back whether it will be "voided" for some unkown reason, but after reading these posts, I am betting it will. If that is the case, I will continue to argue, and continue to state that I answered all the screening questions honestly and it still "qualified". Has anyone had a similar experience where they have been "baited" to send in the phone?

If all else fails you CAN send the phone directly to the manufacturer.I don't know how that goes, but it is an option.

I repair phones and the easiest way to tell if it has been abused is just opening it up and checking for damage from misuse.

They really should TELL you what was wrong and why, I always fill out a long description of any issue like that.

Most of the issues in this thread sound like manufacturers defects though.

If there is a chance to send directly to the manufacturer, how do you get the phone sent back to you? The rep did not mention that as a possible option? There seems to be a lot of confusion around this whole "warranty" so that the company that claims whether its valid or not has several loopholes to jump through. i am sure the answer from at&t will be its not our answer, we use a third party for deciding on the warranty.

Has anyone had the warranty denied? What else did you try to get the "ridiculous" fee waived.

The processing fee is not up to ATT, the manufacturers are the ones who set it, at least thats what we were told.

If your keypad was falling off, did you really not even stop to think that 'hey. thats damaged I might get charged since they said ANY physical or liquid dam will be a processing fee of."

Also, its expected that if you are calling in to use the ATT warranty, you've actually read your warranty agreement. It's right there in your user manual and it says that you have the option to send the phone to the OEM for repair. It also says that you may recieve a remanufactured phone from ATT's warranty department so you're given the choise right there which option you'd prefer. Be without a phone for 2 weeks and get charged 1-200 bucks, or have a replacement remanufactured sent to you immediately with the possibility of damage. So yeah, you were given the information you just didnt bother reading it.

Also, gianfri, call warranty 800 801 1101 and ask them to look into it. Be nice, and you might get a courtesy credit. Be mean and bitch and you'll get told that you agreed to the terms and conditions and theres nothing else the agent can do for you. Also, did you have any third party programs on the phone? A virus does void the warranty, so that might also have been it.

A manager friend of mine put it best when he said " We should have 1 (ONE, UNO) free phone , it will look like a Nokia 5165,
have no camera
no games
no text abilities,
it will have a black and white screen
look like a disposable camera,

if you want s "nice" phone you go buy one , if you loose it and want a free phone you’ll get the free phone , that way no one can blame att for equipment issues you will buy phone directly from the manufacture, the warranty will be thru the manufacturer, insurance will be paid for separately

AT&T warranty not honored

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