Vicious Refurb Cycles
So after working for a cingular authorized agent for the last 3 months i have noticed a sad and vicious cycle in the way our warranty services work. I have had a number of customers dredge their way through phone after refurbished phone in the attempt to get the working product they had originally paid for. What is worse is that since they are on a two year contract they are SOL if they continue to have issues with said phones after their first year as the warranty then expires.
Further more, insurance then being one of their few options offers to sell them a refurbished phone for 50bucks. why would one want to buy a refurb when all they have had is heartache over the last year in dealing with these devices. is there no way out of this ...
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Further more, insurance then being one of their few options offers to sell them a refurbished phone for 50bucks. why would one want to buy a refurb when all they have had is heartache over the last year in dealing with these devices. is there no way out of this ...
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The default on insurance is a new phone. They say refurb to cover their ass just in case. XBM after a three exchanges they offer the customer a new phone.
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I thought they just offered a new model of phone, do the offer them a new in box phone? I have a friend who works for cingular as well, for him they gave him a new model of phone however it was still a refurbished product. He is now sending this phone back in due to constant static in the speaker.
I think i am a little confused as to wether cingular is offering this warranty or if it is the manufacturer. I hear the comment "well doesn't cingular stand behind their product!" from old men with even older products all the time and am now curious as to whether it is manufacturer or cingular that has this refurb policy.
I think i am a little confused as to wether cingular is offering this warranty or if it is the manufacturer. I hear the comment "well doesn't cingular stand behind their product!" from old men with even older products all the time and am now curious as to whether it is manufacturer or cingular that has this refurb policy.
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The warranty is through the manufacterer, Cingular simply plays the middle man, its the manufacterer who determines the warranty process, refurbs , etc.
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Great, i had hoped it would have been so. It seems rediculous for a service provider to be expected to stand behind a product that they don't produce! I don't as my cable company for a new free tv every two years although i wish sometimes i could. 😉
Is there any logic behind cingulars handling these warranty claims rather than letting the manufacturer handle their own claims? perhaps then cingular could avoid alot of this refurb heat!
Is there any logic behind cingulars handling these warranty claims rather than letting the manufacturer handle their own claims? perhaps then cingular could avoid alot of this refurb heat!
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They do it as a "courtesy" for customers, b/c from what i've heard , if you do the warranty straight through the manufacterer it takes 1-2 weeks at least, our XBM process, you get the phone in a couple of days. I wish we would just stop doing it, people assume since we handle it through XBM, the warranty goes through us, and get mad b/c we cant do this and cant do that, when really, we dont have much control over it 😕
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agreed, i just had a magic broke itself screen in here today and the customer of course couldn't understand why it is warrantyable. funny thing is the customer behind them congratulated me after they left on how i handled it. apparently he handles boat warranty claims.
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1-2 weeks... last time i delt with motorola or samsung they said 4-6 weeks. and that's what i tell customers. and the refurb thing makes sence. if they sent their phone in they would fix it, not give a new phone. so, they shouldn't expect a new phone... the quality assurance from the manufactures is pathetic though... but honestly, i try and only buy refurb phones becasue of the deal and i never have any problems.
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>>>The warranty is through the manufacterer, Cingular simply plays the middle man, its the manufacterer who determines the warranty process, refurbs , etc.
Not entirely true.. Yes, it is a manufactures one year warranty but it is completely handled, managed, administered by Cingular. A customer does have the option to send in their handset to the OEM and have it fixed. Yes, it can take weeks.
COR stores and some agents used to have what was called a 'like for like unit' or 'Field Replacement Unit' These were the same referbs that XBM uses now. One of the reasons for going with XBM is that it centralizes all the inventory. Rather then taking 800 referbs and giving 1 to each store, you can service 800 customers regardless of where they...
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Not entirely true.. Yes, it is a manufactures one year warranty but it is completely handled, managed, administered by Cingular. A customer does have the option to send in their handset to the OEM and have it fixed. Yes, it can take weeks.
COR stores and some agents used to have what was called a 'like for like unit' or 'Field Replacement Unit' These were the same referbs that XBM uses now. One of the reasons for going with XBM is that it centralizes all the inventory. Rather then taking 800 referbs and giving 1 to each store, you can service 800 customers regardless of where they...
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the CU500 looks awesome. I'm considering it after I get to play with it.
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