Call Kurtis: T-Mobile Keeps Sending Me Broken Phones
CITRUS HEIGHTS (CBS13) -- Maddie Kessler doesn't mince words. She's tired of her HTC Amaze smartphone suddenly turning off.
She's been through three of them since July, and each one powers down without any notice, she said.
"Nothing really happened to show any signs," she said of her latest phone to experience the problem. "It just died."
Kessler wanted a phone that works, but was nervous when T-Mobile only offered to send a fourth Amaze instead.
It was time to Call Kurtis.
Each time T-Mobile replaced Kessler's phone, she said she's had to go days without a phone in the interim.
"It sounds silly but I'm afraid to travel," she said. "If my phone goes out, I'm not gonna have any kind of communication with anybody."
Kessler wanted a different, comparable model instead of the Amaze that kept giving her trouble, but T-Mobile claimed it had never heard of the problem she was having and wanted to send the same model, she said.
But CBS13 found people complaining about the same problem on T-Mobile's very website, including a post that reported, "my HTC Amaze shuts off very often out of the blue."
"It's degrading that such a large company is making me feel like just another number," she said.
Carriers usually aren't required to replace broken phones, but they do anyway, the Better Business Bureau's Gary Almond said.
He said he thinks T-Mobile should consider the number of times it has replaced Kessler's phone.
"If the model is obviously problematic, continuing on with the same model does not promote good customer service," he said.
In California the Song Beverly Consumer Warranty Act covers cell phones as well as other consumer goods. Because T-Mobile sent Kessler a new phone, however, instead of trying to fix it, the law doesn't apply to her situation.
T-Mobile would not explain what happened, but after we got involved agreed to give Kessler a different model phone.
"T-Mobile has resolved this issue with our customer," said a company spokesperson who wished not to be named. "We have provided her with a Samsung Galaxy S II and her [current] agreement is still in place."
Kessler's glad to now have a phone that works, she said, but told CBS13 when her contract ends she plans to switch carriers.
"It's just really unfortunate that it had to come to this," she said.
