How I Got AT&T and Samsung to Show Me the Money!

Let me start with:  Pay the extra $5.00 every month for cell phone insurance; it's cheaper than Xanax!

Well, it's been nearly a year since I have had any major disputes with my wireless carrier (AT&T); pretty amazing, considering my overall experience with them as a longtime customer. 

After months of research, in August 2010, I purchased a Samsung Galaxy S Android Captivate phone.

About two months after purchasing the phone, I noticed what folks are terming "screen burn" or "screen burn-in" on my phone display.  Remnants of my applications, battery indicator, signal strength indicator, time of day (you name it) are forever burned into the display of a phone that I paid nearly $200 for (and retails now for around $450).

I started researching the issue online and found hundreds of reports in the reputable tech forums, such as Android Forums, ADA Developer, etc.  Other folks were experiencing the same problem with the AMOLED or Super AMOLED displays on their cell phone, no matter the carrier.  (Please see references at the very end of my blog for links to the forums and articles with detailed info on this topic.)

At first I thought the screen burn was something that I was responsible for, like charging the phone too long, having the display on a lot (even at dim level), etc.  But when I got anal about unplugging the phone as soon as it was fully charged, reducing my "display time" each day, and double-checking to make sure it was on "auto dim," the problem still became worse each and every month.

A few months back I showed the phone to a rep at an ATT store and she said, "Yeah, that's not right, I'm sure our warranty department will fix it, but you have to go to a special ATT store for same-day exchange, transfer of data from one phone to another," etc.  That "special store" was at least 80 miles away and I didn't care to make a 160-mile round trip.

My friends think I'm kidding when I tell other ATT customers to always take at least one Xanax an hour before calling ATT Customer Service and literally plan to spend one, two, or even up to three hours on the phone with reps, supervisors, or even the Office of the President at ATT.

I called ATT about a month ago regarding my Captivate and was transferred to the Warranty Department and she confirmed the information what was told to me by the ATT store rep. 

I said, "Don't you still drop-ship new phones to customers who have a broken phone under warranty so they aren't stuck without a phone?" 

To my surprise (and dismay) the lady in ATT Warranty said, "We don't do that anymore, sorry."  Silly me, I took her word for it.  Ends up, I find out later, she was wrong.

In addition to the ongoing display problem, the earphone plug started crapping out on me in late May, so I figured I better get the phone exchanged because it will be out of warranty this August. 

Based on previous information given to me, I played it safe and upgraded the second line I have for a colleague and paid cash out of pocket for a new Captivate ($135, including tax).  After I placed that order (on June 7), I called 611 from my phone to make sure I am prepared before my new phone arrives to follow the proper procedures for swapping numbers to different SIM cards because when you upgrade one number and install a SIM from another number, it can create problems.

I forgot to take my own advice (regarding Xanax) before calling 611, but ended up with a very nice and competent rep, which helped.  I told her my saga, and she said, "What Warranty told you a few months ago is not correct.  We still drop-ship phones to customers and then they have 14 days to return the damaged phone to us under warranty." 

She even double-checked on her computer and confirmed that the policy had not changed.  When she connected me with a Warranty rep, she again confirmed with that rep that the policy had not changed.

While the original rep stayed on the line, the Warranty rep asked me to describe the problems with my phone.  She put me on hold, came back on the line and says, "Sorry, that's not covered.  When you go to the Market Place and download apps, things can happen to your phone" blah blah blah. 

I quickly interrupted her and said, "What does the Google Market Place have to do with whether screen burn is covered under warranty," and she gave me another song-and-dance number.

I told her I had seen hundreds of apparently reputable posts on tech and cell phone forums online (including ATT's own forum) and she said, "We don't pay attention to what people post in forums."  "Okay," I thought to myself; whatever.

I told her this was unacceptable, that ATT is basically saying I did something to cause the problem on my phone, which is not the case; that it is clearly a known issue and they (and/or Samsung) should cover the phone under warranty. 

She called Samsung while the original rep and I chatted.  During that hold time, the rep credited my ATT wireless account for $55.00 for the inconvenience of the whole thing and waived the $18.00 upgrade fee I had to shell out for a new phone because of no fault of my own.

The Warranty rep came back on the line and said, "I just spoke to a rep at Samsung Warranty and they say screen burn isn't a known issue and they won't cover the repair or replacement, so there's nothing we can do about it at AT&T."  She sympathized with me and agreed it didn't sound like I damaged the phone in any way, but the warranty language is very clear about all of this stuff.  Yeah, I thought to myself, it's clear if you're an attorney.

I then said, "Well, what about the earphone jack being broken by no fault of my own.  Can I at least get that fixed under warranty?"

She said, "No, you can't.  If we send that phone in for repair under the warranty for the earphone jack and Samsung sees screen burn, which they don't cover, they won't fix the earphone jack."  She said they would also charge me the retail price of the phone if they repair or replace anything that is not covered by the warranty.
I was thinking to myself, but didn't tell the rep, "Is this where I hire a class action attorney?"

So we dumped the Warranty rep from the line and the original rep and I chatted.  I asked her to escalate this higher and a very nice supervisor came on the line.  He also sympathized with my plight, but said I would have to take it up with Samsung directly, there was nothing ATT could really do at this point. 

When I pressed him about me having to shell out money for an upgrade that I really shouldn't have had to do, he gladly credited my wireless account another $50.00, so that plus the other credits nearly covered my out-of-pocket expense for the new Captivate.  I thanked him and told him the original rep went above and beyond the call of duty and to please put a commendation in her file.

I then called Samsung and explained the entire situation to the first rep who answered (he clearly was an outsourced worker in some distant land) and he said, "No problem, we will fix your problems with your phone; I am issuing an RMA number and a free shipping label which will come to you via e-mail."  I told him "thanks" and that I wanted to speak with a supervisor so that hopefully the screen burn issue would be properly handled in the future by ATT Warranty AND Samsung Warranty departments; other consumers shouldn't be put through this nonsense.

He transferred me to a supervisor and that person promised they would make a note, blah blah blah.

About a week after shipping my phone to Samsung, I received it back, expertly repaired with a NEW display, touchscreen and earphone jack.  As such, the phone qualifies as “refurbished by manufacturer,” so I can fetch a decent price for it on eBay; sweet!

Since screen burn is obviously a "known issue" with phones (and even TVs) that have this type of display, I recommend that everyone who invests good money in a smart phone take out the $5.00 monthly insurance plan because then NO MATTER WHAT, even if you drop the phone in a swimming pool or toilet or throw your phone at Donald Trump, you get a replacement phone without dickering around for hours, days, or weeks with ATT and/or Samsung!

I'm not sure it was worth the aggravation, but I did get what was owed to me and then some.  ATT reimbursed most of my new phone replacement expense and Samsung restored my broken phone to original working condition free of charge. 

When a consumer has reasonable issues with a company, it is important to never take "no" for an answer.  Just be patient, keep taking it up the ladder from supervisor to supervisor; threaten to take your business elsewhere; or, if relevant, tell them you are calling the tech journalists at the major newspapers about the problem.

Last June when I had an issue with ATT changing my data plan without proper notification, as soon as Rob Pegoraro, then a tech journalist at the Washington Post, contacted the spokesperson for ATT, I heard right back from the Office of the President at ATT.  I just learned that Pegoraro, a very talented journalist, parted ways with the Post in April of this year and is now with Discovery News.

Quite frankly, I would be happier if ATT wasn't the lowest-rated wireless carrier (per Laptop magazine and J.D. Power and Associates), but if they want to keep putting money in my pocket, I will tolerate when they craptivate on me.

Anyhow, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

REFERENCES:

1) Wikipedia article "Organic light-emitting diode":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_light-emitting_diode
*includes link for "Screen burn-in"; article also refers to Samsung's screen.

2) Wikipedia article, "Active-matrix OLED":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoled

3) Android Forums recent posts regarding screen burn-in:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s2/280935-screen-burn-galaxy-s2.html

4) XDA-Developers forum posts from owners of both the Samsung Captivate and Focus experiencing screen burn:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-937667.html

5) Burn-in on Nexus One Google phone:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?tid=57325a5900f1a491&hl=en

6) Whirlpool forums re Galaxy S, which is the class of phones that Captivate, Fascinate, etc. belong to:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1705139

BuyMyTronics.com is the Real Deal!

I heard about this new venture at the same time that I was contemplating selling two of my high-end smartphones (Nokia 9300 and Cingular 8125)that I recently replaced with other models.

I have had lots of success in the past with eBay for these types of items, and even had a draft ad written for one of the telephones. I decided to check out BuyMyTronics because it appeared to be a good "Plan B" for me to get a fair price for my preowned devices with less effort on my part.

Even though the BuyMyTronics website wasn't officially set up to handle high-end cell devices when I was ready to sell my Nokia 9300, owner Brett promptly responded to my first e-mail and that same evening arrived at a price quote for my phone. I was then able to complete the quick steps on his web site to input my information, and then sent off my phone to him the very next day from California.

He received my phone a few days later in Colorado and I was paid that same day via PayPal. It doesn't get any easier than that.

Now that we had established a good working relationship, I asked him for a price quote on my Cingular 8125, and that transaction went as smoothly as the first.

Yes, if one wants to take the time and effort to put up their small electronic devices for auction or sale on eBay, they will probably get more money for their item that way. However, for those who prefer to sell their devices at a fair price and get paid right away, with little effort, BuyMyTronics.com is the answer.

Tronics the company is currently buying include iPods, iPhones, game consoles, cell phones, PDAs, laptops, digital cameras, and camcorders.

TalkPlus

TalkPlus (manage all your telephone numbers from one phone)

This would be a great service if only it worked. TalkPlus claims to offer all types of really cool features to manage several telephones (cell or land line phones) from one phone number.

In my situation, I have three cell phones. TalkPlus was supposed to make it convenient and possible for me to receive and make calls from one number, and program their system so that my call could be "mirrored" from either my business line or personal line. The outgoing call features appear to work; however, their incoming call features have failed repeatedly!

From the very start, it is extremely complicated to program the features the consumer or business owner wants to use with TalkPlus. Worse yet, once everything is programmed properly, the features do not work as advertised. Since the entire reason for paying for their service is to make telecommuting easier for business owners and consumers, that is what I expect TalkPlus to deliver. Unfortunately, they have failed miserably in that regard.

I have been paying about $30.00 per month for two "mirrored numbers" and two "virtual numbers" with 200 minutes. The minutes are only used when I accept a call on my "native phone" that is forwarded by TalkPlus OR when I make a call from my "native phone" (in this case, my private cell phone) and route it through TalkPlus to make it look like the call is coming from my personal OR business line. An application from TalkPlus needs to be installed on the "native phone" to use the outgoing call features.

After using the service for about five weeks, every time I attempt to add a telephone number to the Call Screening feature (which programs a call from a specific number to go directly to voice mail or replicate a busy signal), I receive an error message that I must input a valid numeric telephone number.

Other issues involve the fact that even though I have programmed the TalkPlus service to send all UNKNOWN callers directly to voice mail, that feature usually does not work, and the calls are routed to what TalkPlus calls my "native phone," the one

I am supposed to be able to manage all my phone numbers from. Anotherfeature that does not work consistently is when I have programmed a number in my Call Screening profile to replicate a busy signal, those calls sometimes come through on my main number, which isn't supposed to happen.

Finally, repeated phone calls and e-mails to TalkPlus about their glitches remain unanswered. In fact, I notice that during the past several days, it is impossible to reach a live person at their customer service number.

If TalkPlus expects to be a serious contender in their field, they need to fix their glitches and provide improved customer service, which right now is a big fat zero!

Note: Just a little update that on Tuesday, November 26, a live person finally called me from TalkPlus after my 10+ business days of trying to reach them via e-mail, online feedback forms, and telephone. They promised to cancel my account and refund me the equivalent of one month's service. I gave the employee and earful about their customer disservice AND technical problems, which they were happy to hear about. For now, I recommend that people pass on TalkPlus and RingCentral.com (still hasn't returned my inquiry after FIVE business days), and try out GrandCentral.com, a free service that actually WORKS!