Horrible experience - Bad phone, worse service.

[Dave_N]

I'm going to keep this as civil as possible considering how repeatedly awful my experience with "Phone Masters" in Winnipeg has been.

My experience started when I entered the Phone Masters store at Kildonan Place mall to replace my wife's broken iPhone. After over an hour in the store ( between waiting for a rep, then computer was down, then not having any phones in stock) I walked out with an Alcatel Pop Icon, far from my first choice. I was assured was a great phone, despite being a non-reputable brand.

No surprise, after sixteen days with the phone, it's wake/power button sporadically wouldn't work. The phone is on, but you cant make the display come on. For two days it didn't work at all, then here and there, then, of course, the day I took it in it worked perfectly.  Living an hour out of the city, we didn't make it back to the store until day 20. And of course, I could not recreate the problem for the sales person, although he had many helpful suggestions of what I was probably doing wrong.

I told him I knew I was a few days past the exchange day, but my wife commutes on the highway, and with winter coming, an unreliable phone is not an option. His reponse: "There's nothing I can do. I can't give you a new phone. It's policy. That was explained to you when you got the phone, see? You signed the contract."

I could tell he thought I was lying about the problem to try to get a different phone. He assured me I was the first person to ever have this problem with that model.  I said, "if you send it in for repairs and they can't recreate the problem they wont fix anything will they?" he said "Probably not."

I understand this is "policy" but this 15 day exchange is ridiculous, and now we're stuck for 2 years with a phone that may or may not work if we need it to. If I went to Best Buy and bought a pay as you go (Which I'm kicking myself for not doing) they would have exchanged it, no questions asked. Now I'm doomed to return to this store with horrible, slow service, and condescending sales people for "repairs" for some junk phone every time it breaks.

I'm not expecting anyone is going to do anything for me at all, I'd just like to state that all this "contract" and "policy" nonsense is incredibly unfair.  Telus puts on this persona of caring with there cutsie baby animal ads, but when you ask them to make one very small, reasonable exception to there policy because it's the decent thing to do, they show how much they really care about there customers.

[Nighthawk]

It's sad you received such horrible service from Phone Masters but it sounds like they were the issue. If the phone was purchased from Telus directly you would have had a 30 day return / warranty window. I'm not sure if Telus allows the authorized dealers to change this return period or not, but if they don't, Phone Masters screwed you.

Telus Warranty info: (not sure if limited to devices purchased direct from Telus or not)

What is the warranty?

Device Warranty Information
All TELUS devices are covered by a manufacturer's warranty, which you can find in the packaging for the device. Each manufacturer has its own warranty terms and conditions, but manufacturers generally cover repairs required to fix defects for up to a year from date of purchase.
How to make a warranty claim
If you are experiencing any problems with your TELUS device, visit your nearest TELUS location. A TELUS representative will troubleshoot the issue and if necessary, help to process a repair or replacement on your behalf. If you cannot return to a TELUS location, please contact the TELUS Customer Care team at 1-866-558-2273.
What will TELUS do?
If we determine that your device is defective in the first 30 days following your purchase, TELUS will replace the device free of charge. After that 30 day period, TELUS will repair, or if repair is not reasonable possible, replace the defective in-warranty device. Replacement parts and/or devices may include new or refurbished parts or products and are warranted for 90 days or until the expiration of the original warranty period, whichever is longer.
For more information on device warranty, visit www.telusmobility.com/repairs

[NFtoBC]

@Nighthawk
The 30 day bit does not yet apply, as when the OP presented the phone, he could not reproduce the problem. Hopefully he can within the 30 day period. Unfortunately, the 15 day return period had expired.

Were I the OP, I'd be busily trying to reproduce the problem and leave it in that state until I could get it to the store.

[Dave_N]

Thanks for the replies.  I wish I had know this before I allowed them to take the phone in for warranty repair.  It will most likely be over 30 days before I get the phone back.  I guess my only hope is that they actually find a problem and fix it. 

[NFtoBC]

You still have the manufacturer's warranty after 30 days.

I'm also curious as to the effort they expended to move you from your original intention to replace the iPhone, with which you had built some familiarity.

[Dave_N]

Yes, this phone has a 2 year warranty, which was the only selling point for it as far as I was concerned.  My concern is more that when something fails after 2 weeks, the likelihood of it failing again is very high, and it could cost me hundreds in time and fuel driving from my home to Phone masters every time this thing breaks, not to mention potentially having no working phone when my wife really needs it. 

She loved her iphone 4, but we got it on a special promotion with a voice plan, and no iphone is available with a voice plan now.  In fact there is only about 4 decent options for us lowly voice plan customers, and the best 2 (Galaxy s3 mini and Nokia Lumia 630) were not in stock at the time we got the Alcatel. Paying $500 to buy an iphone outright is not an option for me at the moment. 

[NFtoBC]

@Dave_N Thanks for sharing.