My teenaged son and I went into the Metro Store in Mt. View, CA, because the $35/mo. unlimited minutes seemed like a good deal! WRONG!! If you need voice mail (which most cos. offer in the package already) it’s an extra $5 and then $5 for insurance (since the new phones are so small, they’re easy to lose of drop) brings the total to $46 per month. When you leave a voice mail message, you have to talk fast, since you only have a minute or so to say your msg. (Sprint has at least twice that long for msg. time). The cost of the phone was $215, so that didn’t help either. While my son was picking out his phone at the store, I was looking at the map displayed in the store which shows their coverage. There was a brochure on the counter which I picked up and read that the return policy for phones is 10 days after purchase with 30 minutes phone time. We purchased the phone.

Several days later after my son returned from his spring break, he determined the coverage was not good and there was some static on the phone even in the areas close to home base. He called Customer Service and was told to bring the phone in to the nearest store. I told him we should go back to Sprint, even though the price wasn’t as low for unlimited minutes, it had a better-quality phone reception, and we didn’t get the run-around w/Sprint. I called to cancel the service, and was told by a voice mail tree to go to the store to cancel - it could not be done over the phone! Another departure from the norm in the cell phone business! When I returned the phone, the staff refused to accept it based on another store policy that stated you only have 7 days to return the phone. I was really upset that they have two different policies, and they expect the customer to try to figure out which refund policy is valid! They said that I signed the statement showing the return policy. I looked at the statement which was not the bill, and it was signed by my son while I was looking at the map away from the cashier. I told them that the salesperson should have had me sign the statement, since I am the adult (my son is a minor) and any agreement signed by a minor is not valid in Calif. They said they were not obligated to return the phone, and I told them they did not understand the laws governing busniness practices in our state. They looked at me as if I had just flown in from Mars. Guess customers and consumers have no rights by Metro’s perspective. The next day I came back to get the address of their corporate headquarters, and they refused to give it to me ...talk about adding to their unprofessionalism. I saw the same brochures which contained a different return policy than the one on their ’statement.’ They had not even bothered to remove it. It would be safe to say that Metro is a company that has no regard for California consumer laws and no regard for their customers once they have paid for their overpriced phones. They don’t need to have contracts -- they make their money by charging higher prices for phones and make it nearly impossible to return them, guaranteeing Metro a big lump sum payment up front, so the consumer has no recourse. Actually, in California, state law identifies a ’’returnable’’ product as one that has been returned within 30 days and is in ’’resellable condition’’, and both criteria were satisfied. I would advise people to stay clear of Metro or any other new company that suddenly pops up on the cell phone horizon to proceed with caution --they are unscrupulous and have no desire to satisfy their customers -- just get their money and run!

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