Can You Hear Me Now?

I completely hate my cell phone company. Well, maybe I don't hate them but I am extremely frustrated by them. Not even 2 years ago I renewed my 2-year contract with a very well known cell phone company. I have done business with this company for a good decade now and other than a few minor issues, I've had no problems with them. They are usually very prompt at correcting mistakes and fixing any problems that arise.

That was until I bought an LG Chocolate phone. I had never had a "fancy" phone and I was distracted by all the shiny, flashy options the phone offered. Little did I know that the phone is defective. Before a year was up, the phone broke. I called Verizon to get a replacement phone since the warranty wasn't up. I wish that when you speak to people they tell you everything you need to know. I didn't know I had to return the old phone before 30 days by mail in the same packaging they sent the new phone in. I figured since I had to take the new phone into the Verizon store to be activated that I would just give them the old one since it was not working. Nope! They don't take the returns I was told. I had to ship it back to the company in the box they sent I was told. I was never told I only had 30 days from the original ship date and I had to use their enclosed labels.

Anyways long story short...I missed the return date and had to pay over $100 for a phone that should have been free. Now I'm stuck with two defective LG Chocolate phones that I have paid for. Last week the second phone I received malfunctioned. The speaker part of the phone quit working. So now I can receive calls and make calls but I can't hear any part of the conversation. When I took the phone into the store to complain, the sales person told me to use my bluetooth or the speaker phone function in order to use my phone until my contract is up next month. Then I can get a $50 upgrade or I could pay $50 right now and have my existing phone fixed. So my only options are....pay money to have my POS phone fixed, wait a month using my broken POS phone just to get a $50 upgrade on a new POS phone that will probably break on me in six months, or pay a few hundred to buy a brand new phone right now.

AAHH! I feel like standing outside of the corporate office, flipping them the bird, shouting "Can you hear me now?!"