I purchased a Thunderbolt phone from GoWireless in Georgetown the afternoon of May 1st, 2011. There is a 14 day return policy. I paid full price, $630. Within a couple days, it started rebooting without cause. It also started dropping 3g randomly throughout the day requiring a reboot to fix (turning on/ off airplane mode wouldn't fix it).
I waited for 9-10 days for an announced upcoming software update to see if that would fix the problem. It did not. I waited a couple days to ensure I was still seeing the same problem. I returned on May 15th to return the phone for a refund. I figure that's 14 days.
I got nothing but hassle when I came into the store. They told me that I was actually at 15 days. I am not sure exactly how that math works, but the paperwork said ""14 days from the time of purchase"". Sunday right at closing (after 5pm) purchase, Sunday at approximately 2pm to return. 15-1=14. So it wasn't 16 days, or 3 weeks. There was no paperwork anywhere saying an end date. None. But they told me flat out I was wrong and there was no recourse. They made me feel as if I couldn't do math.
I asked if there was anything I could do- I spent over $600 for a phone that reboots randomly throughout the day. The guy who sold me the phone was there and said he would do what he could- he would have to do me favors and try to word it so that the director/ area supervisor person for GoWireless would be more likely to approve of the return. A typical unprofessional us vs them. They were the same company, but I had to understand that he was going way out of his way to try to help me. He pretty much guaranteed that things would be ok, but it wouldn't be the next day before he knew anything. That's fine. I wait until Monday. Nothing. Tueday. Nothing. Finally Wednesday after calling a 3rd time I am told by a completely helpless manager that there was nothing she could do to help me and hoped that I would consider purchasing from there in the future. Uh, what? Why in the world would I do that?
This whole transaction was completely unprofessional. The decision they made was incorrect. I called Verizon and they told me that if it was a regular Verizon store they would have taken it back. They asked me the store name/ location so they could chastise the store for its unprofessional treatment.
Don't get me wrong, I love Verizon. Their Customer Service is great. GoWireless is a piss-poor representation of a great company. I highly advise anyone thinking of doing any business with them to walk over to Best Buy instead.
more