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Report: #324847

Complaint Review: Cricket Wireless, The Signal Insurance - Internet

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  • Reported By: Denver Colorado
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  • Cricket Wireless, The Signal Insurance http://www.mycricket.com/ Internet U.S.A.

Cricket Wireless, The Signal Insurance Sent 2 broken replacement phones, charged me for 2 months that phone didn't work Internet

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: That's horrible....

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I've been using Cricket's services for over two years and had been very happy with them. In February my phone, which had no problems for two years, stopped working. The problem was that it would not hold charge. I tried buying a new battery and a new charger but the problem remained. So in February I brought my phone it to the main office. The representative there told me the only thing I could do was to send it in and get a replacement phone. I did so and was charged $50.00 even though I had been paying $5.00 per month for the two years I owned the phone for insurance. I was told I would receive a new phone, however, the phone I received was refurbished and did not work.

I called Cricket and was instructed to contact The Signal insurance company. I did so and they said they would send me a new phone for free. However they required me to send in the broken phone first and the replacement they sent out was delivered to the wrong address and I did not receive it until over three weeks after I had sent mine in. Therefore I had a broken phone for one month and no phone for one month, but I was still charged by cricket for both of these months. The second replacement phone I received was again refurbished, was a cheaper model, and still did not work.

I use my phone for business and have been severely inconvenienced by not having a working phone for two months. I believe it would be appropriate at this point for Cricket to give me a working phone as well as to reimburse me for the two months, or to give me two months free. Until there was a problem I was very happy with the company and would like to remain a Cricket customer.

Nicole
Denver, Colorado
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 04/09/2008 01:25 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/cricket-wireless-the-signal-insurance/internet/cricket-wireless-the-signal-insurance-sent-2-broken-replacement-phones-charged-me-for-2-324847. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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#1 UPDATE EX-employee responds

That's horrible....

AUTHOR: M - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, April 10, 2008

I'm not at all surprised anymore with the service you've been getting. Cricket has just gotten worse and worse in the last 3-4 years.

As for the insurance issue with your phone, I'll point out a few things you should know:
1) When you agreed to the insurance plan, you should have been told about how the plan works. Basically, you pay $5.00 per month to have "insurance", and if the phone is ever lost, broken, or stolen, you pay a $50.00 deductible to replace the phone. This should have been disclosed to you. It's actually on Cricket's website under "Support"...search for "handset replacement plan". I will take you to "The Signal" website which discloses the following information:

How much does the Handset Protection Program cost per month?
The Handset Protection Program costs $4.95 per month and is conveniently billed to your account.

What is the deductible if a claim is filed and approved?
$35.00 deductible on economy phones
$50.00 deductible on standard phones
$85.00 maximum deductible on premium phones

I don't have a Cricket phone since I live outside the Cricket calling area...my wife and I use Verizon, but the SAME policy still applies. We've replaced my wife's phone twice already (due to the kids "cleaning" the phone in the bathtub...LOL!), and we had to pay $50.00 each time. So, there's NOTHING WRONG with that. You should have understood what the Handset Replacement Plan was and how it worked.

2) As for the service, the Cricket reps SHOULD have offered to temporarily suspend your service while a replacement phone was being sent to you. This can be done up to 14 days...and they would have credited those prorated days back to your account. It sounds like they didn't offer this to you. HOWEVER, when I worked for Cricket, MANY customers did NOT want to suspend their service because they would NOT be able to even get voicemails during that time. So, if you turned down the offer because of that, that's not Cricket's fault either.

3) As for the "refurbished" phones, that's what they do when they replace your phone. As it says on The Signal website:

Will the replacement equipment be exactly the same as the original?
We will make every effort to find the exact modeleither new or reconditionedof your original handset. If one isn't available, we will replace your handset with a model of similar like, kind and quality.

Usually, what happens is that they replace your phone with a reconditioned/refurbished phone. All "refurbished" means is that it has been re-run through the factory process again. It's "like new"...most of the time. With ANYTHING electronic, there can be some DOAs (dead on arrivals). Those can't be 100% controlled. Sorry, but remember, electronics are created by humans...and humans are not perfect. It's common practice for them to request you to send back the phone that doesn't work in order to get another replacement phone.

However, what MOST handset replacement plans do (at least Asurion does) is send you the replacement FIRST, and they provide a package for you to send back your defective phone. I would talk to a supervisor at The Signal about that. THAT is how it's supposed to work. That allows you to replace your phone and have MINIMAL time lost of not having a working phone. If they're not doing that, then something is wrong...or their customer service reps are NOT trained properly.

I'm sorry to hear that it hurt your business. I know how you feel because I kind of run my own business as well...repairing computers. What MANY Cricket customers do is get an old used Cricket phone that is still in good condition, and they transfer their service to it when their "new" phone goes bad. You can get used phones from Cricket Authorized Dealers. Bottom line...that whole process should have gone MUCH smoother for you. I haven't had a problem with replacing phones before. Of course, I don't have Cricket service either though (don't know how much that has to do with it).

Hope that helps explain some things....

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