AT&T Sent Me a Refurbished G4

[initiateofgol]

My recently purchase LG G4 was diagnosed with a defective charging port at an AT & T device support center. They arranged to ship me a new phone, at which point I would send them my defective device. What arrived was, surprisingly to me, a refurbished G4.

I'm not obsessive about material things and am not fundamentally opposed to having a refurbished device. My problem is in principle: I paid a substantial down payment and am now going to be paying paying however many dollars per month (I financed the phone over 24 nonths) for a used device. This, to me, seems wrong in principle. My phone was very new and became defective through no fault of mine. I think I should have been given an AT & T credit for the amount of my down payment and the choice of any new AT & T phone, and that the remaining monthly payments should have been cancelled. Or, I should have been sent a new phone, to replace my faulty new phone.

Is this the customary system with other cellular providers, when invoking a warrantied phone?

I'm going to write to AT & T customer service but don't expect them to see my point.

I am unfortunately limited in choice of carriers because I need to own a GSM SIM card phone.

Does anyone agree with me in principle?

Can anyone think of any other way that I can get out of my contract with AT & T, which charged me $584.99 for the LG G4?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[hallux]

How long ago did you get your phone? Over a month and you will get a refurbished phone. It's part of the warranty on most electronics that replacement of the device is at the discretion of the manufacturer (with AT&T acting as an agent for the manufacturer in this case) and that replacement may be a refurbished unit.

Here's the pertinent section directly from an AT&T LG G4 owner's manual.

3. WHAT LG WILL DO:
LG will, at its sole option, either repair, replace or refund the purchase price of any unit that is
covered under this limited warranty. LG may choose at its option to use functionally equivalent
re-conditioned, refurbished or new units or parts or any units. In addition, LG will not re-install
or back-up any data, applications or software that you have added to your phone. It is therefore
recommended that you back-up any such data or information prior to sending the unit to LG to
avoid the permanent loss of such information

I bolded the section that covers this.

Sure, it stinks, but if they didn't fix, recertify and re-use devices that were sent in as non-working imagine the cost it incurs on them and on landfills for disposal of the non-working devices.

 

[KPMcClave]

Except that initiateofgol is still making payments on the new phone. That's the issue.

It's one I also raised with Verizon when my original G4 bit the big bootloop. My point was exactly the same as the OP's. No fault of my own...and through fault of the manufacturer, in fact, I was expected to continue paying installments on a new phone while they gave me one only "like new" (it had a small scuff on the power button and the lifetime call timer had a lot of prior call time still on it...I only point that out to say it wasn't really "like new."

I don't have an issue with a refurb as a warranty replacement generally. I think it's lame to not replace with a new phone when someone is paying for a new phone. Under these specific circumstances anyway.

I got Verizon to give me two months worth of installments account credit. It may not be perfect, but it was an acknowledgement, and I can live with it. It took me a while on the phone, and being transferred to a manager, but I wasn't really going to take no for an answer. Apparently they believed me.

 

[kraze4u]

Buy unlocked international next time, I paid $400 for my G4 in December.

 

[Mooncatt]

Re: AT&T Sent Me a Refurbished G4

Welcome to the world of refurbish roulette. All the U.S. carriers do this (not sure about unlocked phones from LG directly), and it sucks. To add insult to injury, the carriers have started getting more strict about it. Used to, after a few refurbs, they would let you move to another model. They don't really do that anymore as long as there are refurbs or new models of your phone available.

They call it "certified like new." I call it certified used with all the issues I've had with refurbs.

 

[hallux]

Except that initiateofgol is still making payments on the new phone. That's the issue.

It's one I also raised with Verizon when my original G4 bit the big bootloop. My point was exactly the same as the OP's. No fault of my own...and through fault of the manufacturer, in fact, I was expected to continue paying installments on a new phone while they gave me one only "like new" (it had a small scuff on the power button and the lifetime call timer had a lot of prior call time still on it...I only point that out to say it wasn't really "like new."

I don't have an issue with a refurb as a warranty replacement generally. I think it's lame to not replace with a new phone when someone is paying for a new phone. Under these specific circumstances anyway.

I got Verizon to give me two months worth of installments account credit. It may not be perfect, but it was an acknowledgement, and I can live with it. It took me a while on the phone, and being transferred to a manager, but I wasn't really going to take no for an answer. Apparently they believed me.

Except, until recently, it was pretty rare for people to buy phones outright. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but it was more the exception than the rule. You realize that when you got phones under contract previously you were essentially making monthly payments, it was just built into the contract. Was it a problem THEN when you got a refurb for a replacement? In fact, you would often be making "payments" for a year after the warranty had expired and you could no longer even get a free replacement phone if the one you were "making payments" on failed to work.

Look at it this way - when they replace your phone you're giving them one that's used, you get the same in return. That's why I asked how long the OP had the device before the failure as often they will do new replacements within the first month or so.

 

[Mooncatt]

Look at it this way - when they replace your phone you're giving them one that's used, you get the same in return. That's why I asked how long the OP had the device before the failure as often they will do new replacements within the first month or so.

This would be more acceptable if the "like new" replacements they send us actually were. At least in my case, more often than not, the refurbs are plagued with problems. If not from right out of the box, then soon after. Even back when I was under a traditional subsidized contract, I remember a period where I went through about 4 phones a year because of the refurbs they sent kept going bad.

My refurb G4 I'm using now has a screen touch issue right out of the box. The only reason I'm not exchanging it for that is because I don't want to do so and chance getting another with a worse problem. It sucks, but customers are pretty much forced to with live with a defect, which is bs, or risk the hassle of constant exchanges, also bs.

 

[initiateofgol]

I'm interested in all of the replies to my original post.

My phone is over a month old so I would be unlikely to be offered a new device. What I want in principle is to released from almost 2 more years of new phone payments, when I now have a used phone.

Buying and financing a phone from any carrier was my big mistake. My situation is complicated by the fact that I now know that I am going if overseas for work on 1 June, leaving me with the prospect of having to have the phone unlocked, and buying another SIM card from someone, while continuing to pay for it from Europe, or simply paying it off in full and getting rid of it, despite my objections to essentially losing $500.

Would a "certified refurbished" G4 even have any eBay sale value, at all?
Thanks for the opinions -- and validation.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Mooncatt]

I wouldn't buy a used G4 period, and that also goes for most any phone. They are too unreliable nowadays for me to not have a warranty. Many products don't allow warranty transfer to secondary owners.

 

[initiateofgol]

I may simply be stuck with this device, unless I pay off my balance and accept the loss.

As frustrating as it is to be paying for a Refurbished device when I just bought a new one, it might be a better scenario than if I had purchased an unlocked international version elsewhere? What kinds of warrantied and replacement plans do you get from Amazon, Best Buy, or B & H Photo and Electronics, for an unlocked phone? Or if you order direct from, say, Huawei?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[hallux]

I'm interested in all of the replies to my original post.

My phone is over a month old so I would be unlikely to be offered a new device. What I want in principle is to released from almost 2 more years of new phone payments, when I now have a used phone.

By the time your device is a month old, that device can also be considered "used" but you're still paying it off, aren't you? Sure, you know how it was used because it was you using it but it's still used. I understand the frustration, but they can't give out all new devices on warranty replacement and hope people buy the refurbished ones on the secondary market.

Someone has to get them, sorry that you got one but that's the way the system is.. It doesn't matter if you're on a payment plan, they see you as another customer with a device covered by the standard warranty. If you had gone to LG rather than your carrier you would have also ended up with a refurbished phone.

Look, I do warranty repairs on computers. I could order any component for a laptop that's only a month or 2 old and receive a refurbished part to install. It happens ALL the time. It's not that they don't care, it's their right based on the words in the warranty.

If you don't like those terms, start your own company that only uses new devices to replace ones that fail while under warranty. Let me know how long that works financially and ecologically.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[rdt595]

Hallux is right. How do you expect to get a new device every time you turn in a used one? There is the same chance that a brand new one has defects just as a refurb will, maybe even more. The carriers only responsibility is to put you back where you were before the problem, not refresh you every time!

LG NitroHD G2 G3 G4

 

[Mooncatt]

The carriers only responsibility is to put you back where you were before the problem, not refresh you every time!

I guess that makes sense. I send them a defective device, they send me a defective one back.

 

[KPMcClave]

Hallux is right. How do you expect to get a new device every time you turn in a used one? There is the same chance that a brand new one has defects just as a refurb will, maybe even more. The carriers only responsibility is to put you back where you were before the problem, not refresh you every time!

LG NitroHD G2 G3 G4

I don't expect to get a new device back generally, but in this particular case (a clear manufacturer's defect) and in my (and the OP's) particular case (still paying on a new G4), I don't expect a used phone. As hallux said, my original phone may also be used, but I know how. In this case specifically (again) that matters.

 

[initiateofgol]

Having thought much more about this:

I understand the environmental argument against sending new devices as replacements on all cases. But when a contract is in place whereby I am to pay a given amount for a particular device, in a certain number of installments, and that device fails, through a manufacturing defect, the contract should be terminated. The logic is unassailable. I'm content to receive a credit for the deposit I made, and I'm fine with having made the payments I have so far while using the original device. But I should not be expected to make 22 more payments on an unknown, used commodity. AT & T should, and will, give me a credit for my deposit, cancel all remaining payments for the failed device, and take back their certified refurbished G4. If it's such a great "like new" phone they should have no difficulty selling it. I know I was probably stupid to buy and finance a G4 from them for what would be a total of $584.99, but I expected to have that device work for more than 6 weeks. I'm not paying $540+ more over 22 months. This will be a battle.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[hallux]

So, you want LG or AT&T to fail financially? You're basically asking them to give you a free phone because the first one failed. If EVERYONE that financed a device expected to then not continue paying for said device after it was replaced once, it's almost certain failure financially. You have a phone, right? That phone was provided to you by AT&T through your agreement with them, right? You're "whole" as far as paying for a device that you possess. I encourage you to look over the agreement you signed (even digitally) when you got the phone, there is likely language in there to cover AT&T in these situations.

BTW, AT&T replacing the device is acting on behalf of the manufacturer and has to follow their guidelines for warranty coverage. AT&T knows full well that you've financed your phone and how much longer you have to pay. What do you plan to do when the 1 year LG warranty is up? Do you have AT&T's insurance or are you betting that your device will go a year after the warranty is up? By the way, by the terms on THAT coverage you will get a refurbished device (while still paying for the one you got new) or possibly even a different model.

It's a losing battle, is the amount of time you're going to spend fighting this worth that $540 that you're not really owed anyway? You won't get full release on what you still owe, and what you may get in compensation likely won't be equal to the value of the time you spent getting any kind of compensation.

If you had paid outright for the device, what would you do if you had the same problem and got the same resolution from LG? They certainly won't be open to giving you a refund of any kind. You'd be bound by the terms of the warranty, which is where you are now.

Think of it like a car purchase. The dealer (in this case AT&T) gets a check from a bank to cover the cost of the car. Your payments then go to the bank. In this case AT&T self-financed the phone so that's where your payments go and they then pay down the balance owed on the device. The dealer (in this case AT&T) then acts as an agent for the manufacturer for covering warranty issues. If an engine or transmission fails, guess what, you likely get a remanufactured unit installed in your vehicle that's still under warranty.

Bottom line, you got what you were owed. You have a functioning device, and if it isn't functioning you can get it replaced again under the terms of the warranty. If you start on the refurb roulette and it feels like it won't stop, MAYBE start seeking a brand new device or even a completely different model.