Resolved: Straight Talk Wireless - Worst Wireless If You Get A Lemon Phone
Straight Talk wireless is the WORST wireless company to deal with. DO NOT buy their products or use their service. Their phones are junk. Unless you buy the phone from them online, they WILL NOT REFUND YOUR MONEY.
If the original phone is less than 30 days old, they will send a new phone, if it is 31 days old, you get a refurbished phone.
They will ONLY replace a defective phone with the exact same brand and model that broke. If the replacement breaks in the same way as the original phone, it is irrelevant, they will only replace it with the same brand and model again, and again it will be a refurbished phone.
I bought the Straight Talk ALCATEL A846C, it was a $150 phone. It is so bad, it isn't even on the Walmart website anymore, but it is still in their stores. Walmart sells Straight Talk phones and activates the service. If you make the mistake of buying the phone there, it will only be replaced or refunded if it is within 14 days of activation.
The first phone - the original purchase - lasted 2 1/2 months before it quit sending or receiving phone calls. They sent a new sim card, which did nothing. Straight Talk processed an email return shipping label, which I was supposed to get from FedEx. It never came. I contacted them again, they wanted to process another email return shipping label, I said no because I never got the 1st one. I suggested doing that AND sending a return label by USPS. That one I got, but the second email return label was never received.
I was told that if I called them with the return tracking number that they would release the replacement to be shipped. I did and was told it was being released to be shipped. I did not get a shipping notice so I called them back. I was told that the replacement would be shipped when they received the defective phone. At that time I knew I had been lied to by the person who said the replacement phone was released to be shipped.
It took 20 days to get a refurbished replacement phone and that phone worked for only 29 days before it quit sending or receiving calls.
They wanted to go through the replacing the sim card again, I refused because I'd been through that before. I was told that the replacement phone would be received between 3-5 days. Then they told me that the ALCATEL A846C was on back order, but they kept telling me I'd receive it between 3-5 business days. I kept asking how they could say that when they'd just told me it was on back order, they just kept repeating themselves. They may not be able to go off script, but I can and did. I requested an escalation because of the second defective phone.
The person I was "escalated" to told me that it was standard practice (a lie) to send a different brand of phone when it was a 2nd replacement and that I would be sent a Samsung phone (a lie). I was satisfied and thanked Julie and ended the call. I had spent almost 3 full hours on the phone with them. That same 2/18/16, Thursday evening, I received a shipping notice from Straight talk saying they had shipped an ALCATEL A846C, refurbished.
I called them back Friday, 2/19, to find out what happened. I was told that they could only send a different brand if the defective brand and model were no longer available. I mentioned that I'd been told that the phone was on backorder and that I wanted to know how they shipped one if it was on backorder (another lie?). All they could say was that I'd have it in 3-5 business days and that they could only send the same brand and model. Again, a broken record incapable of comprehending or communicating anything off script. I asked for an escalation. I got transferred to someone in the refund department.
There, in the refund department, they kept telling me the same thing but couldn't tell me how they could have shipped something that was on backorder. While I was on hold with him, I went online to FedEx with the tracking number and refused the shipment, having them send it back to Straight Talk. When the Straight Talk guy came back on the phone, he was back to the 3-5 days, same model script. I told him I would not be receiving it because I had FedEx turn the shipment around and it was back on its way to them. He said he would have it escalated to Corporate. I told him I didn't want to spend hours on the phone with them again (this call had already been an hour and 15 minutes) so he gave me a new pin number to take me straight to their department.
Called them back today to find out the status. The pin number taking me directly to their department was another lie. I got sent to the other department after complaining. I told the new person that my case was supposed to be have been escalated to corporate and he said he was corporate. So I asked if he was in the Miami office, he said no. So I pointed out to him that since he was not in the Miami office he wasn't in the corporate office, right? He said right. So I pointed out that his telling that he was the corporate person was not true. He said the Miami office would only communicate by email.
I finally told him to send me the freaking defective, refurbished phone because if I couldn't get my money back, I didn't want them to have the money either. I told him that I will be buying a different phone and that it will be from a different wireless service, that I just want Straight Talk OUT OF MY LIFE!
Reason of review: Bad quality.
Monetary Loss: $92.
Preferred solution: Full refund.
Straight Talk Wireless Cons: Quality of replacement, Poor service quality.
Location: Rio Rancho, New Mexico
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Hi. Iโm Maria from Straight Talk Wireless.
We're sorry for the trouble.
To resolve the problem, please send us an email with your account information to ST.CorpResolutionTeam@straighttalk.com.
Typical canned answer. You obviously didn't even read the post. But, why would I expect anything else from Straight Talk?