Whose to blame?...Wireless Advocates/Costco or myself

[Delray]

Anyone who has purchased from Costco probably knows about the extras they give you including a holster. They include it in the bonus with a screen protector. My salesman (who was great BTW) mention this pack as one of the "extras" to make the Costco purchase more attractive. This and the 90 day Costco warranty they include if there is a defect.

Well, the holster seems kind of goofy to me...but I went ahead and used it the other night because I was sitting in a home theater for several hours and wanted to know when my daughter needed to be picked up from a party. I did not want the phone lights, notifications, etc. interrupting the movie experience. Reaching into your pocket, reclined - in jeans is kind of difficult, so what the heck. This is probably the only situation I would have ever considered using this holster.

My first observation was the holster was tight for this phone. My guess is they have a one size fits all (or many models) approach. It does fit though - so I closed the velcro top and watched the movie. I went to check for my phone after the movie and my holster was empty.

My first thought was it had slid down into the side of the chair. I lifted open the leg support on the chair and looked in and saw the flashing green light. When I reached in there, my heart dropped. I could feel the rough broken glass and the end of the phone was distorted and chewed up. I guess when I had pushed the chair back from reclined into regular position the metal arms/spring tentioned mechanism chomped down on it.

I examined the holster and noticed one of the stretchy fabric bands at the bottom had broken away from the enclosure. This made an opening plenty large enough for the phone to pop out of...which it did.

I took the phone to Costco as soon as I could yesterday. The lady at te Wireless Advocates kiosk was really nice and understanding. I had brought everything back except I forgot the wall charger, so I asked if I could just give her the one with a replacement phone since I did not really want to run back home. She said they are pretty strict on that, but I would have to ask the service desk. They said it was fine, but when I got back she said she had some bad news. Her manager (who was not there) said it was unfortunate event, but not something they are liable for...she said she was surprised they were not taking care of it, but I could try the Costco manager. I did. The Costco manager is this mystery person who lives in a box above the store...you cannot actually speak to him...kind of like the great "Oz". The supervisors go back and forth speaking with him. Anyway, I was there probably 30 minutes just waiting. The supervisor went back and even talked to the Wireless Advocates rep. I eventually was left alone long enough I went to check with the Wireless Advocates lady and she said he was only there 30 seconds and asked her the story, which she repeated. I went back and waited again and finally the supervisor appeared. He said sorry, no dice. It was an unfortunate event.

I held up the case again and said "really?! this is your product isn't it? It failed didn't it?". I was pretty unhappy and frankly in disbelief. This is Costco after all. I have seen people hauling in used soiled mattresses that look a century old and trees a full season after they had failed them. This had been a month and it was there product that they had used to sell a phone that clearly failed...yet it was now some unfortunate accident of mine?

I went back to the kiosk and the lady said I can try the WA Manager again tomorrow. Another trip after an hour + wasted in the store, so I will be doing that today.

Holster Strap that failedhttp://dl.dropbox.com/u/2609259/IMG_7412.jpg
View attachment 46971

Mechanism that chomped my phone
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2609259/IMG_7393.jpgView attachment 46970



Results
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2609259/IMG_7397.jpgView attachment 46972

 

[rubiksc00p]

That's terrible! I'd see if VZ can do anything. I doubt it, but it's worth a try. You can also try Moto, since it's new enough it may still be under some sort of manufactures warranty.

Sent from the best phone on Verizon!

 

[droidbionicmaster]

Moto wont replace it warranty only covers hardware or software issue's. Unless that case was made by them.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums

 

[syndicate0017]

Next thing I'd do is contact the manufacturer of the holster. That's just absolutely terrible.

 

[CTownDroid]

Did you have the insurance? These situations are what it's for. Well good luck to you.

 

[Delray]

Thanks for the responses. I am on my way to Costco again to try this over with the Wireless Advocates manager. the Holster is made for Wireless Advocates for Costco from what I understand.

 

[Beka27]

I would just keep working your way up the ladder. You have pictures of the damage and if the store managers won't help, contact the regional/district manager, and so on...

 

[dezymond]

Holy crap! Looks like the jaws of life got your phone.:frown:

I'm not familiar with Costco and how they handle their phone department, but considering one needs a membership to purchase from Costco it's a bit surprising they denied you a replacement. My guess is they're saying you "abused the case" by probably "pushing your phone too far" into the holster. That's the only way I can think of them saying their product didn't fail and that it was "user error". I believe you got a faulty holster and I've seen multiple instances where those "one size fits all" holsters fail. They're made with cheap materials and put together in cost cutting ways. I hope you get a new phone through Costco, but if they give you the runaround again I'd contact Motorola. After that I'd contact the manufacturer of the case, see if they'll do anything about it.

 

[Delray]

I don't have much good to say about Wireless Advocates. They just refused to do anything. The Manager of the WA store in Lehi UT (Chris) questioned my story, like I made it up. He slid his phone into my broken holster to show me how great his fits (I guess?)...problem is, his phone was much, much smaller. He could barely fit mine in even though the package says "Custom fit for your phone". Then he looked at the broken strap and said "this has never happened, if I had heard of this happening before then..." So I am the first ever. Wonderful.

So is this holster to be used, or just tossed? Probably they would admit the latter if pressed on it. Somehow that does not seem like it should be the customer's fault/liability? I am embarrassed I used it, but this was probably the one scenario where I would have (if was dark in the theater

I thought I would make a last try with the Costco manager again. I got to speak to the mystery manager "Allan" after another in-between customer rep spoke to me.
Thru Allan's approval, Costco paid for a new phone. It cost Costco, not Wireless Advocates. Allan went and spoke with WA to see if they could work something out. No one looked very happy after that, so I am guessing WA was not responsive.

He said he would do it this once (Costco) and it would be on their dime. He said buy a better holster, and use Costco American Express. This latter point was brilliant, as he said they will replace electronics - including broken cell phones without any question or issue. Good to know. Thank you Costco.

 

[macpro88]

Glad to hear you got it resolved, sounds like you went through a lot. At least Costco was somewhat willing to help out and came out on top.

 

[JRParsons]

Gotta love Costco, no other retailer would have done that.
Almost all manufacturers have a policy that if their product fails, they will replace the product but not any damage caused by its failure, especially since it wasn't the holster that crushed the phone.
Glad you got it worked out, I think you owe Costco a good Yelp review or something like that.

Sent from my Illudium PU - 36 Explosive Space Modulator.

 

[t35rk]

Good for you and good tip about using Costco American Express.

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[Laur3nNewm4n]

First of all, I'm happy that you got your phone replaced. It's very disappointing when an accident happens to a new phone. I think your issue may have been resolved because of your persistence. I can't see where normally they would have replaced your phone due to an accident as a result of a faulty product that they did not manufacture. I could see them maybe replacing the case, because that's actually what failed, but the phone was kind of an innocent bystander turned casualty. It's kind of like if you drop your phone with a case on it and the case pops off, I doubt the case maker would replace your phone for you. But regardless, I'm glad you got your phone.

 

[Delray]

...the phone was kind of an innocent bystander turned casualty. It's kind of like if you drop your phone with a case on it and the case pops off, I doubt the case maker would replace your phone for you. But regardless, I'm glad you got your phone.

Thanks. I do understand that, but since the case is actually part of the phone package - I saw it just like if your phone came with a defective Motorola USB charger that toasted the electronics in your phone. I doubt you would go back and ask for a new USB charger? The cheapest component fried a very expensive investment and they came together in the package! Maybe a stretch...but it was not in my mind at least. All's well that ends well I guess.

 

[dezymond]

Awesome. Good to hear you got it replaced

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