Warranty Denied by Verizon?

[MacPhobia]

My Droid X stopped working a couple days ago. I posted in my (Incredible vs X) thread about it yesterday. Though, I found out the problem. A faulty battery contact snapped off in the process of a soft reset (it's when you take the battery out) and my phone is now useless. Sadly, a Verizon employee denied a replacement phone by warranty and said I had to pay $79 for insurance fees.

Under warranty conditions, I can get the same phone or a phone of equal or comparable value as a replacement. I wasn't totally satisfied with my Droid X before, and after reading online, I thought the Inc. would fit me better. They had no X's in stock and 2 Incredibles. So, I was glad I could get a different phone under warranty for free.

But since the Verizon employee called the broken contact point "physical damage" and an accident by the owner putting the battery in incorrectly, caused me not to be able to use the warranty. They said I could only make an insurance claim with Asurion and pay fees to get a replacement Droid X, or instead upgrade to a new phone.

I was disappointed that a faulty battery contact would be considered the "physical damage" and not a manufacturing defect, because phone battery contacts aren't meant to break off so easily.

So what should I do? I want an Inc. very badly, but I do not want to pay $200 with an upgrade to get it. I have a friend who is a Verizon employee who is on vacation for another week and a half, so could I talk to him about it? Could he consider the faulty battery contact warranty covered and get me a free replacement Inc?

Or should I just pay fees and get the unactivated insurance X and sell it and buy a new Inc. and activate it?
Are warranty and insurance claims void if I don't announce them within a certain day period from when the device was broken? Is getting a new phone more complicated then I thought?

Sorry, for the long post, I'm just confused today

Mac

 

[tobytl]

...I was disappointed that a faulty battery contact would be considered the "physical damage" and not a manufacturing defect, because phone battery contacts aren't meant to break off so easily.

So what should I do? I want an Inc. very badly, but I do not want to pay $200 with an upgrade to get it. I have a friend who is a Verizon employee who is on vacation for another week and a half, so could I talk to him about it? Could he consider the faulty battery contact warranty covered and get me a free replacement Inc?

No, it will never officially be a warranty issue. Doesn't matter how it was designed, you still broke it. That doesn't mean you can't finagle your way into a warranty replacement anyway...

Now, your friend may be able to help you, it just depends on how big of a limb he's willing to go out on for you. If so, this is your best bet. The fallback on him isn't much (if anything) if this is caught, just make sure he knows. And don't give him guilt or anything, it has to be his call with as few strings as possible. Friendships can be much more valuable than the $200 for a new phone. Depending on his personality, you may not want to even ask, judge for yourself.

Did you go in and tell them what happened? Or did you just play dumb, and try to talk to a sympathetic looking employee (usually the cute, but not outright beautiful girl)?

Key question, did you ever admit guilt? If so, that was a mistake, you gave them the out right away. And during your whole conversation with them, that is what they are looking for, the out they need to deny you.

You either need to play them in such a way that they actually want to help you (this is for us advanced sociopaths). Or never give them the out they need to deny your claim. IE, "it just turned off on me, don't know what happened. I was just typing an email, and bam. Won't turn back on.... Battery? How do you take the battery out?"

So, if you go back to (hopefully a different) store: Either be really, really smart, and fulfill the subconscious social contract they lay out. Or play as dumb as you can possibly play, even past the point of pain.

 

[hookbill]

Thread closed due to cross posting. This is against forum rules, please do not do this again.