Cliff Notes:
-I buy a Moto X in late 2013 directly from Motorola.com via their Moto Maker app. My decision is influenced by positive reviews, and also by the fact that Google owns the company, which I associate with fast software updates and good customer service.
-Google sells Motorola to Lenovo in early 2014. Some alarm bells go off in the back of my mind, but I keep an open mind.
-After just over a year of ownership, the phone falls out of my hand while I am leaving the gym and the screen is cracked. The phone is still functional; its just a cracked screen.
-I try to initiate a repair via the Motorola website, and get an error message asking me to call customer service. I call, and after being put on hold several times, I am told that they will not repair my device. I ask to speak to a manager on the phone, and am told Every manager in the building will tell you the same thing.
-I contact customer service by email and formally ask to have my case reviewed by a supervisor or manager. They basically say, Get lost. We are not going to fix your phone, but you are welcome to buy a new one from us at full price.
Heres the full story:
I purchased a Moto X during the shopping season of 2013. There were lots of reasons that I decided to go with the underdog Motorola and their Moto X at the time, including a great form factor, innovative software features such as Active Notifications , always on voice commands, not to mention the ability to customize the appearance of your phone with Moto-maker on the Motorola website. At the time Motorola was also owned by Google, and I have always heard that Google is consistently rated as one of the best companies to work for, and its also a company that is known for great customer support.
After reading positive reviews such as these .
http://www.droid-life.com/2013/12/24/top-5-android-phones-of-2013
http://www.computerworld.com/articl...es-you-can-buy-right-now--december-2013-.html
..I purchased a 32gb Moto X and was happy with the phone right from the start. Everything seemed great for a while. I was delighted when my phone received a very timely update to the newest version of Android (KitKat, at the time), and in general I was really enjoying the phone.
In early 2014 when I read that Google had sold Motorola to Lenovo for roughly 3 billion dollars, Ill admit that initially a few alarm bells went off in the back of my mind. In truth, one of the reasons I had purchased a Motorola phone was because of the reputation enjoyed by parent company Google, and although I had heard of the China based company Lenovo, I didnt have any personal experience with them. For a time though, everything seemed to be going great. I even read that Motorola was offering free screen repairs to some of its customers as a perk, and with that my customer service concerns seemed to fade away as unfounded.
sources:
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/8...screen-you-can-get-a-replacement-for-free.htm
http://www.androidauthority.com/moto-screen-fix-393278/
Fast forward a year later. The 2014 shopping season tempted me with lots of shiny new smartphones, among them the 2nd generation Moto X and the Nexus 6 (also made by Motorola), but since I was still quite satisfied with my device, I decided to stick it out for another year before upgrading in order to get the best value out of my dollar. At least that was my plan. However, one day while walking out of the gym the phone slipped out of my hands and fell unto the pavement. I did have a protective case on my phone, and the fall wasnt from that great of a height, but I guess it was just one of those things in which the phone happened to land in a particularly vulnerable spot, on particularly hard pavement, and poof!; just like that I had a cracked screen on my hands.
No big deal I thought, I will just get it repaired. At first I tried the repair process on Motorolas website, but it gave me an error message (100-14) and advised me to call customer service. I called, was put on hold several times, and eventually was told that they would be unable to repair my screen for any price (even though I had read articles that Motorola sometimes offered free repairs, I never asked to have my phone repaired for free). Taken by surprise, I ask to speak to a manager, and was told Im sorry, but every manager in the building will tell you the same thing. Our policy will not allow us to repair this phone. At that point I asked what alternatives I had, and they offered to sell me a new phone at full price. Really??? Basically Motorola is unwilling to repair the screen on my phone. I proceeded to contact customer support via email and formally asked to have my situation reviewed by a manager or supervisor. This is the response I received:
Dear Jose,
I regret to inform you that after further review of your case, I have determined that due to your device being out of warranty and having physical damage, We will be unable to process a replacement at this time, Our policy will not allow us too process your device, Not even for a fee. I hope this clarifies why the agent was unable to process your device. Thank you for choosing Motorola, Please have a nice day!
Mariano N
Motorola Mobility (Incident #150106-021395)
This on a phone that is last years flagship model. So this would be equivalent of Apple refusing to repair an iPhone 5s screen or Samsung refusing to repair a Galaxy S4.
Could the same thing happen to you if you purchased a Moto X 2nd Gen or a Nexus 6? Remember that I purchased the flagship Motorola phone directly from the Motorola website just a year ago.
With the hindsight of my experience, I have to recommend that you consider alternatives to Motorola when buying a smartphone. Admittedly their phones do have a nice design and clever software features, but their support and service after the fact really left a bad taste in my mouth. If I had this kind of trouble with a 1 year old device, what happens if you ever decide to contact Motorola 2 or 3 years down the road?
I left the incident case number up in case anyone here is associated with Motorola and wants to look it up and verify that my story is legitimate. Ok, youve been warned. Hopefully this will help some of you avoid some of the headaches that I had to go through.
So where do I go from here? Well, Ive decided to post my story to as my tech forums and websites as I can, and will make a video showing some screen captures from my back and forth emails with Motorola. Thanks for reading.
-I buy a Moto X in late 2013 directly from Motorola.com via their Moto Maker app. My decision is influenced by positive reviews, and also by the fact that Google owns the company, which I associate with fast software updates and good customer service.
-Google sells Motorola to Lenovo in early 2014. Some alarm bells go off in the back of my mind, but I keep an open mind.
-After just over a year of ownership, the phone falls out of my hand while I am leaving the gym and the screen is cracked. The phone is still functional; its just a cracked screen.
-I try to initiate a repair via the Motorola website, and get an error message asking me to call customer service. I call, and after being put on hold several times, I am told that they will not repair my device. I ask to speak to a manager on the phone, and am told Every manager in the building will tell you the same thing.
-I contact customer service by email and formally ask to have my case reviewed by a supervisor or manager. They basically say, Get lost. We are not going to fix your phone, but you are welcome to buy a new one from us at full price.
Heres the full story:
I purchased a Moto X during the shopping season of 2013. There were lots of reasons that I decided to go with the underdog Motorola and their Moto X at the time, including a great form factor, innovative software features such as Active Notifications , always on voice commands, not to mention the ability to customize the appearance of your phone with Moto-maker on the Motorola website. At the time Motorola was also owned by Google, and I have always heard that Google is consistently rated as one of the best companies to work for, and its also a company that is known for great customer support.
After reading positive reviews such as these .
http://www.droid-life.com/2013/12/24/top-5-android-phones-of-2013
http://www.computerworld.com/articl...es-you-can-buy-right-now--december-2013-.html
..I purchased a 32gb Moto X and was happy with the phone right from the start. Everything seemed great for a while. I was delighted when my phone received a very timely update to the newest version of Android (KitKat, at the time), and in general I was really enjoying the phone.
In early 2014 when I read that Google had sold Motorola to Lenovo for roughly 3 billion dollars, Ill admit that initially a few alarm bells went off in the back of my mind. In truth, one of the reasons I had purchased a Motorola phone was because of the reputation enjoyed by parent company Google, and although I had heard of the China based company Lenovo, I didnt have any personal experience with them. For a time though, everything seemed to be going great. I even read that Motorola was offering free screen repairs to some of its customers as a perk, and with that my customer service concerns seemed to fade away as unfounded.
sources:
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/8...screen-you-can-get-a-replacement-for-free.htm
http://www.androidauthority.com/moto-screen-fix-393278/
Fast forward a year later. The 2014 shopping season tempted me with lots of shiny new smartphones, among them the 2nd generation Moto X and the Nexus 6 (also made by Motorola), but since I was still quite satisfied with my device, I decided to stick it out for another year before upgrading in order to get the best value out of my dollar. At least that was my plan. However, one day while walking out of the gym the phone slipped out of my hands and fell unto the pavement. I did have a protective case on my phone, and the fall wasnt from that great of a height, but I guess it was just one of those things in which the phone happened to land in a particularly vulnerable spot, on particularly hard pavement, and poof!; just like that I had a cracked screen on my hands.
No big deal I thought, I will just get it repaired. At first I tried the repair process on Motorolas website, but it gave me an error message (100-14) and advised me to call customer service. I called, was put on hold several times, and eventually was told that they would be unable to repair my screen for any price (even though I had read articles that Motorola sometimes offered free repairs, I never asked to have my phone repaired for free). Taken by surprise, I ask to speak to a manager, and was told Im sorry, but every manager in the building will tell you the same thing. Our policy will not allow us to repair this phone. At that point I asked what alternatives I had, and they offered to sell me a new phone at full price. Really??? Basically Motorola is unwilling to repair the screen on my phone. I proceeded to contact customer support via email and formally asked to have my situation reviewed by a manager or supervisor. This is the response I received:
Dear Jose,
I regret to inform you that after further review of your case, I have determined that due to your device being out of warranty and having physical damage, We will be unable to process a replacement at this time, Our policy will not allow us too process your device, Not even for a fee. I hope this clarifies why the agent was unable to process your device. Thank you for choosing Motorola, Please have a nice day!
Mariano N
Motorola Mobility (Incident #150106-021395)
This on a phone that is last years flagship model. So this would be equivalent of Apple refusing to repair an iPhone 5s screen or Samsung refusing to repair a Galaxy S4.
Could the same thing happen to you if you purchased a Moto X 2nd Gen or a Nexus 6? Remember that I purchased the flagship Motorola phone directly from the Motorola website just a year ago.
With the hindsight of my experience, I have to recommend that you consider alternatives to Motorola when buying a smartphone. Admittedly their phones do have a nice design and clever software features, but their support and service after the fact really left a bad taste in my mouth. If I had this kind of trouble with a 1 year old device, what happens if you ever decide to contact Motorola 2 or 3 years down the road?
I left the incident case number up in case anyone here is associated with Motorola and wants to look it up and verify that my story is legitimate. Ok, youve been warned. Hopefully this will help some of you avoid some of the headaches that I had to go through.
So where do I go from here? Well, Ive decided to post my story to as my tech forums and websites as I can, and will make a video showing some screen captures from my back and forth emails with Motorola. Thanks for reading.
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