VERIZON RIP OFF PROJECT!!! BEWARE

I purchased a smart phone in November of last year. My bill remained constant for two months, then at the beginning of the year it doubled...and has been constantly over $230.00 per billing cycle this year....
I was puzzled as to why, my phone habits hadn't changed...the only thing I had done was buy the "smart" phone. I began to look a little further...and did not have to go far...
Have you noticed that the "smart" phone will let you switch between calls? Where is the disconnect button for the call that you briefly switch to? There is none!! So when you switch to the incoming call however brief, the minutes keep rolling until you hang up both calls completely!!!
They have made a phone that is "smart" for their pockets, while cleaning yours out unbeknownst to you.
I called Verizon and asked for a complete audit of my account...so I could prove what they were doing, while bringing it to their attention. I was told "how do we know when you disconnected the call?"....WOW That response lead me to believe that they know what is going on...and the fact that the audit was not conducted.
If you are having the same issues....respond to this blog and maybe we can get them to listen and fix this problem...or we can get the FCC involved, and start some class action movement!!!

SusieQ72064 wrote:
tOTAL ALL TOGETHER , VERIZON OWES ME $300.00. This all started December 2010 when i purchased a piece of equipment from the Verizon store that was suppose to work with the Xbox so i could get it set up so my son could play the Xbox on line. Well, i purchased it for $99.00. in the mean time they told me it would have to have its own phone line, but that if the product did not work on the xbox to bring it back withing 30 days and i could get my refund for the product plus the early termination fee which was $75.00. well, within 2 days i brought it back because it did not work like they said it would, All i got credit for was the charge i paid for the equipment. I still have not yet got my $75.00 early termination fee which i paid in December. Then I called them and they said that it would come off the next month bill. well guess what, it didn't. Then the next month I took Januarys bill into the store, they loked at it and said that it had never been billed to me in the first place and that was why it didnt come off. REALLY? DO YOU THINK i bought that story, i had it all in writing where it was charged to me. More fussing and nothing happened. Then February bill it was charged on there again. I decided i would pay my bill but i deducted the 150.00 that they owed me before i paid it. Well, guess waht, they shut my phone off for not paying that 150.00. so in order for me to get my phones turned back on, i had to pay the 150.00 that i deducted plus and extra $15.00 a line reconnect fee. Well, i called them and told them i was filing a complaint with the company and asked them to send me a form. They told me i had to do it online. Ok, i was willing to do that, but when you bring the form up that they told me to fill out, you cant fill it out on line. So i printed it out and was going to mail it but guess what no address to mail it to them anywhere on the form so i called AGAIN, they didn't know where to mail a complaint form too. REALLY ? but after 20 minutes of being on the phone with them, they finally came up with an addresss, which i think was bogus cause i still have not heard a word from them. They messed me over good this time, but it WILL NOT happen again. But just to let all you people know, DO NOT buy anything from VERIZON again ! they will lie and lie and lie. And the sad thing is, I took Dec 2010- thru March 2011 bills into a verizon store and we went over the bills with a fine tooh comb and they agreeded with me, they have never given me the ct=redit and also they have charged me 2 times for it. But customer service says that is not how the bill reads. I guess they have a different bill them the one that i get every month.... They are a RIP OFF !!!!!!! I hate that they bought out ALLTEL because i had ALLTEL for 12 years and never had a problem one with them plus they were alot cheaper too !
Not sure what you are talking about, but an ETF is a one time charge. If you got charged $75 for each of the last 2 months, it seems as if you still have a line with service active. It sounds as if you returned the device, got credit for it and had to pay a $75 restocking fee. Not sure what the $75 charge is/was for the 2nd month.

Similar Messages

Another Verizon rip-off

Please tell me WHY my bill this month is $139.00
When last month was $121.28
This is the latest jump in costs and the worst
I'm warning people NOT to use Verizon for anything.

ktm250 wrote:
Dueceko131 don’t pay attention to those two clowns. Just because the $30 dollar plan works for them doesn’t mean it works for everyone. To make a statement that if you want a 150mb plan then you don’t need a smartphone just goes to show how little common sense they have. Must be they haven’t heard of WiFi. If the unlimited works for you great, but there are a lot of other people out there that will just be wasting money. Looks like verizon has a couple of fanboys here.
KUDOS to ktm250.... I am sick of the fanboys!! They are getting old and annoying !!!!!
I for one know I only need 150mb and want the iphone because of the great screen and its functions. I own a itouch and a ipad and manage them greatly with only wifi. I just always wished my itouch would be able to make a call so I don't have to carry both the itouch and a cell phone. Well here is my chance.. A iphone. But I an not able to pay extra for a $30 data package.

Verizon rip off

I have been with Verizon for 15 years. Att comes up with a great plan 160 per month. Verizon wants you to purchase all new phones at retail price to get this type of offer. do you not think this is a total let down to its current customers. Its bad enough we have to have a 2 year plan..Thats about 2500 worth of phones over 2 year plan. I think Verizon needs to offer a comparable plan to att. Saving 100 per month sure would be a starter. Verizon needs the loyalty that we have given them all these years.

Duplicate post - please see:
https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/1078434#1078434

Feeling Ripped Off By VW AGAIN!!!!!

My daughter and I had two horrible Samsung phones with QWRTY boards, the only reason we chose them in the first place. Over the 2 years we had them we replaced both of the original phones and one additional phone in less than 1.5 years. The original phones were replaced by rebuilt phones within 5 months of their activation. Since my daughter's second phone went bad after the 1yr warranty, we wound up borrowing a phone from a friend to get her through the 2 year contract.
When it came time to finally upgrade the pieces of garbage we had we didn't have many choices. The same phone or a basic phones with no features which would have cost about $50. Red flags flying already. I caved and upgraded to 2 smart phones which joined my husband's basic phone. The salesperson said we needed 2 gb of data. The guy said I'd be saving money and that it wasn't going to cost me that much more.
Got my first bill and freaked out. My bill more than doubled!!!!!!!!
I hate Verizon! I hate Verizon! I hate Verizon! Did I mention that I hate Verizon!
Oh, and yeah, here's an interesting tidbit. I tried to pay my Verizon bill at the Verizon store with cash and they told me that there would be a $3.00 service charge for me to make the payment. SERIOUSLY VERIZON???????? Charging to pay cash???????
Maybe it's time for all of us to speak out loudly against the Verizon Rip Off.

AntonioC
Seriously...... a $3 convenience fee to pay cash for your bill at a Verizon store? Going to the store is not a convenience. It's just another way VW is ripping off the customer.
By the way, another rip off was the $27 case I bought for my daughter's phone at the Verizon store that broke within a week because she had to keep taking the case off the phone in order to get the adapter cord to work properly so her phone would charge. Going to the store is not a "convenience" but now I have to make another trip back there to get this resolved. Nothing is ever easy with VW.
And yeah, my phone still drops calls, a lot.
I don't believe for a minute that Verizon loves its customers. They just love the money they keep squeezing out of us.
Sorry Antonio, nothing against you personally, I know you are just towing the corporate line.

I think i got ripped off by this verizon store , I got the 4 line $140.00 edge plan, which I had to pay for the phone in monthly payment, i did the math it was 268.00 total.. At check out this guy charge me $50.00 care package for each phone and sim card

I think i got ripped off by this verizon store , I got the 4 line $140.00 edge plan, which I had to pay for the phone in monthly payment, i did the math it was 268.00 total.. At check out this guy charge me $50.00 care package for each phone and sim card which was $10.00 , $25.00 set up with TCP and he said the rest was tax. I had to pay $474.36.. my brother went to costco and did the same verizon deal he didn't have to pay anything...

Welcome to this forum.
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Another Verizon (Iphone) Data Plan Rip off!

Once again Verizon is trying to rip off their customers by giving them no choice when it comes to data plans if you want an Iphone. Just like they tried to force data plans on Feature Phones last year,now if you want an Iphone you must spend $29.99 a month. Thats great if you spend all day on your phone,but some of us don't want unlimited data. We do want an Iphone though. That's the way to take care of your customers VERIZON!!!!

ktm250 wrote:
Dueceko131 don’t pay attention to those two clowns. Just because the $30 dollar plan works for them doesn’t mean it works for everyone. To make a statement that if you want a 150mb plan then you don’t need a smartphone just goes to show how little common sense they have. Must be they haven’t heard of WiFi. If the unlimited works for you great, but there are a lot of other people out there that will just be wasting money. Looks like verizon has a couple of fanboys here.
KUDOS to ktm250.... I am sick of the fanboys!! They are getting old and annoying !!!!!
I for one know I only need 150mb and want the iphone because of the great screen and its functions. I own a itouch and a ipad and manage them greatly with only wifi. I just always wished my itouch would be able to make a call so I don't have to carry both the itouch and a cell phone. Well here is my chance.. A iphone. But I an not able to pay extra for a $30 data package.

Beware BT continuing to rip off!!

My goodness! Really frustrated here. I tried to tell BT that I'm moving house and wouldn't be taking the services across. I spoke to one of their team who tried to pursuade me to stay. I said no, lets proceed with notice. I get told I have unlimited broadband! But I keep getting an email saying I've gone over my limit and BT are charging me £5 extra and I can change my plan. A second time I say let me give notice. Third, Fourth time.. Then I get told I need to pay BT £30 for an engineer to switch off the broadband at the exchange WHAT!?!! As if broadband is a pixie dust travelling along the line. Its just a signal! BT totally trying to rip me off. Beware.

bluejet wrote:
My goodness! Really frustrated here. I tried to tell BT that I'm moving house and wouldn't be taking the services across. I spoke to one of their team who tried to pursuade me to stay. I said no, lets proceed with notice. I get told I have unlimited broadband! But I keep getting an email saying I've gone over my limit and BT are charging me £5 extra and I can change my plan. A second time I say let me give notice. Third, Fourth time.. Then I get told I need to pay BT £30 for an engineer to switch off the broadband at the exchange WHAT!?!! As if broadband is a pixie dust travelling along the line. Its just a signal! BT totally trying to rip me off. Beware.
Its a charge made by Openreach when you cease the broadband. It applies to all ISP's apart from VM. BT are not ripping you off. If you had read the terms and conditions you would have been fully aware of it. If you couldn't be BOTHERED to read them then that is your problem.
toekneem
http://www.no2nuisancecalls.net
(EASBF)

I was ripped off with a bill for data calls,

Price Total
5 01/27 11:07 A Q2 PREM_SMS 40339 Low1Wins 0 9.99 9.99
6 01/27 11:08 A Q2 PREM_SMS 28664 PROTXT ( 0 9.99 9.99
7 01/27 11:10 A Q2 PREM_SMS 63556 Love Mat 0 9.99 9.99
8 01/27 11:10 A Q2 PREM_SMS 69999 Flycell 0 9.99 9.99
9 01/27 11:12 A Q2 PREM_SMS 25098 Alerts 0 9.99 9.99
10 01/27 11:13 A Q2 PREM_SMS 83669 Horoscop 0 9.99 9.99
OK so on Jan 27th I receive a text that I won a prize. I responded not knowing that it would cost me almost $60. When I questioned the charge with Verizon Wireless they said I had to pay it. When I called the numbers listed to cancel this FRAUD I reached CHINA and INDIA. Nice. So I have no recourse but to pay for something I never really wanted because I entered an authorize code. Once you enter they pass your cell # to other rip off artists and it you respond it will cost you $9.99 per text response. So beware. It sucks but it can happen so don't respond to any such texts.

Call Customer service and ask then to BLOCK Premium SMS services; that will prevent any future charges. And call again to see if you can get a more sympathetic rep that may credit you half the charges. Since you said you did enter an authorization code, though, that may not be a solution.

4G Wireless....what a rip off!!!

What a rip off!!! I was mislead by Verizon that I would have unlimited internet access for $50 a month. What I wasnt told, was that if you use more than 5GB then you are automatically charged another $50 to raise the storage to 10GB. What happened to unlimited useage??? I thought this would save me money and I was told that it would save me money from my previous DSL. Whereas, it has cost me more money! I will be paying the $175 fee to disconnect from this service.

This is the plans that are offered by the company.... So if you are getting 10GB for 50.00 you appear to be getting a discount, are you sure you did not misunderstand the information you received?
When you have unlimited the plan would be unlimited and wouldn't change on your use, if you was told if you go over 5GB it would change to unlimited that isn't how the plan works so maybe it was just a misunderstanding..
Data for Mobile Broadband Devices
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/plans/?page=mobileBroadband
2GB – $30/Month
5GB – $50/Month
10GB – $80/Month

The data usage alerts seem to be a rip off!

So, on the 13th I got text messages saying that we used up all data in our plan and that we either sign up for an increased allowance for $10 / month or pay $15 for an additional GB for that period. I almost was tempted to sign up, but then didn't.
Well, we got the bill and turns out we were actually still UNDER our allowance by several hundred MB by the 16th, so on the 13th it would have been even lower.
I think it's a rip off if you send people a note that they used up all their data telling them to reply now to increase their allowance if in reality they're still well below.

I use this app. It does measure all data in and out, and because of that you will see its totals higher than the phone or Verizons data widget count since MMS is data, but doesnt count towards data allotment. It keeps me on track. It has plan and alarm settings to cut off your data when you reach certain thresholds versus Verizon just sending out a text alert, but not disabling data.My Data Manager - Data Usage - Android Apps on Google Play
I typically set 3 alarms: 1 for a daily (Data amount divided by 31 days)
1 for 50% and
1 for 85-90%.
You can always re-enable mobile data if it cuts you off and it will continue to monitor your usage.

Trade-In iPhone 4s - Ripped Off

This is the email I received from Verizon. It makes no sense. The phone was valued at $100 and I was given $12.60. Have a read. It says the phone turns on and the reason for the problem is that, "The device in all appearances is an "NO Power On" at inspection." Don't worry, I left in the typo. I believe I am getting ripped off here. The email blatantly says that the phone turns on and then that they can't turn it on. What? The phone worked absolutely fine as it was sent back. What is the course of action here? Someone please help! See full email here:
Good afternoon,
The phone would not power on during inspection. It was not a power supply issue, nor an issue with information transfer that resulted in an adjustment to the original quote because before a device begins the inspection process it is hooked up to a charger as soon as it is received by our device recycling warehouse. The phone does power on and power off, but it automatically turns itself back on after being powered off.
We charge the unit, power it off and send it down the roller. The inspection process can take 1-3 days for unit to complete process, so a phone that powers itself back on while on the roller will drain the battery. When the Inspection operator obtains unit from the roller and attempts to power unit on (which should have been charged) it won't power on because the battery is now dead.
Even sending for a second attempt at charging gave the same result once it reached inspection again. The device in all appearances is an "NO Power On" at inspection.
Unfortunately, per the terms and conditions of the Verizon device recycling program and agreed to by you when you submitted and mailed your device for trade-in, no devices can be returned.
We are sorry for any inconvenience.
Thank you for your patience.
Regards,
Verizon Device Recycle Team

Similar story here. Sent my 4s for trade-in, got $15.30 GC, appraised value was $85. I did some homework on this before I submitted and almost convinced myself that this was going to happen......here's my story.
The power button on my 4s didn't function. I used the accessibility feature to power down the phone. To turn it on, it needs to be plugged in by the power cord. I "chatted" with a Verizon rep to see if it would still qualify for the full appraisal value. Their response was "As long as it's still functional, you should get $200 trade in towards the new iPhone". I wasn't trading in for a new Iphone, however, this was all I needed as proof. Low and behold, when I sent my 4s in, I get an email 2 weeks later for a gift card in the amount of $15.30. When I checked the reason for the dimished value, it states "Device does not power on". Trying to drum up some complaints because I saw this coming. I offered to send in pictures of my working phone and other documents. Not sure if I'm gonna get the $69.70 I'm owed, but I'm certainly gonna try! All this aggravation for a 10+ year customer. Thanks, VZW! If I don't get any satisfactory results, going to the attorney general. Might be years before I get a satisfactory result. Any VZW moderators on here have any suggestions on how to resolve these issues??? It's obviously a widespread problem. Just trying to get what we are owed!

HELP RIP OFF N CHARGES ARE NOT MINE ON WIRELESS HOTSPOT N I AM ONLY ONE ON AS OWNER NO OTHERS ON THIS ACCOUNT BUT SHOWS THERE IS

I have the same plan and somehow someone has cracked into it and I go over each month It shows other managers onmy account and there are none,,,,,I can not pay 2 $500 BILLS THEY ARE CHARGING ALL KINDS OF STUFF TO MY ACCT ALL DATING SITES, ALL NORTONS AND MCAFEES TO MY BANK AND IT GOES ON N ON AND ON,,,iTS A RIP OFF AND i NEED SOME HELP WITH THIS AND i HAD NEVER HAD A PROBLEM TIL SOMEONE HACKED INTO FACEBOOK,,,,,wHAT DO i DO????? THESE ARE NOT MY CHARGES AT ALL EVEN PRESCRIPTIONS HAVE BEEN ORDERED CHARGED AND GOT ME AND DR IN TROUBLE PLEASE HELP
<< Personal information removed to comply with Verizon Community ToS >>
Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

Call Verizon about the verIzon stuff. You can remove the account manager from your screen name but before call to tell them these people aren't allowed so it is notated then delete. They might be skeptical of you if you have them deleted before. If there are things done to the account the over the phone people will know hopefully what happened. If there unauthorized and customer service can't do anything go above them. And go to financial services and put yourself in a payment arrangement to keep your service from being worse then it seems.
I had someone steal 3 lines of service by upgrading the lines with 3 blackberrys bold the new one. It stunk because we tried to cancell it many times and they still let it go through. Yes they charged us $850 and then upgrades and it was billed to account etc. took weeks and we were in an arrangement untill it was taken care because it was sent to a different state then my family. They were saying my dad ordered then when I know he would never get one with a keyboard. He was at work anyways. Anyways sometimes if you get the right person they care about you. At times it might not seem like it when they have this attitude like your guilty of it all.
We have been through it all with thieves of cards etc and you have to stand up for yourself. Be nice though.

Xperia Play R800x RIP off!!! DO NOT BUY THIS!!!

what a RIP off this Phone have been i will nevere buy a other Xperia Play R800x nevere all so i hop i get the android 2.3.4 or at lest android 4.0 in MAR or i be mader then all get out my next phone when i renew my contrack in 1year will not be have a sony Xperia Play R800x no sir it i wont and i will tell evere one i no not too get it
how dear they keep us R800x ueser waiting like this WE WANT A UPGRADE TOO ANDROID 4.0 FOR R800X

Did you just update the firmware of the router? Did you have the same issue before updating the firmware? Is the firmware now on version 2.1.39.144146? Try to reset and reconfigure the router again. Aside from that, try another phone that you can try for wifi calling and see if you get the same problem even though you have tried another router already.

I have been completely Ripped off by these People

I have been completely Ripped off by these People and they do not care. None of them. I have spoke to multiple customer service reps on the phone. None of them gave a toss about me. They don't care. Spent hours on the phone to them being passed around and told the same lines over and over again which they are clearly reading from a script. Very annoyed.
Basically I moved house in december 2013 and arranged a move house package. was meant to be adtivated jan 6 2014. waited in all day and no one showed up. not even a phone call or anything. turned out the bt engineer didnt bother coming as the cables werent even laid yet by my house. (brand new housing estate). yet they never bothered to tell me this, they just let me wait inside like a complete idiot all day long. by now we have been without internet/phone since december 19th 2013. we were then told the cables were being laid the next wednesday.
when wednesday came they sent an email saying they had arranged our engineer visit and that we had to wait 7 days or something stupid as thats the time it takes when initiating a new order. even though our order was cancelled so i would have thought they'd have not made us wait the 7 days again. of course our internet did not arrive 7 days later as it turned out the engineer hadnt even put in a mastersocket or anything. NOTHING. no engineer came to our house at all at any time. we had no service until Jan 22nd the day they activated it at the exchange or whatever. Thats an entire MONTH with no service. oh and we still couldnt use it as none of the sockets had been wired to the master socket. it just had a plain blank socket on it. but hey it was active. so I rang up to order an infinity package (upgrade) and was promised the engineer would come and install our sockets and stuff. he finally arrived on Feb 11th.
Hurray we had service. Only about 7 weeks we waited. But then I rang up to ask about a refund on the bill since we had not used anything as it wasn't there AND it wasn't OUR fault. But this is when I was passed around like a parcel in a childrens game. No one cared. So I ended up paying £51 for NOTHING. Oh btw our bill is SUPPOSED to be £42 so I was charged extra actually. They refunded me the £10 extra and thought I should be grateful or something.
Would you like to pay £42 for nothinG? NO. Who would? Well I DID! But then the real joke arrived a few hours ago. I receive my next bill. £74. They are now toying with me. I have become a complete joke to them or something. It is absolutely pathetic. An extra £34. Why? I have no idea?????? I wish I knew why they were torturing me like this. Upon inspection of the bill it looks as though they have charged me for two packages in one month. the original broadband package AND the upgraded infinity package. (now the reason i started off with a lesser package was because it took a while for my brand new address to be recognised as available for infinity).
Anyway also on the bill they have added the £10 that I was supposedly REFUNDED last bill. NOPE. not refunded at all. instead they have carried it forward. here is the pasted quote:
"You haven't fully paid your previous bill
Your previous bill
£51.36
Your payment
6 Feb 14
We take this amount off what you owe"
Oh my God. I am.. just... what ... the??? I don't even know why they have done this to me.
Broadband and Calls
5 Feb - 27 Feb 14 £19.29
This is the cost of your Package up to 27 Feb 2014 at £26.00 a month.
Broadband and Calls
28 Feb - 27 Mar 14 £26.00
This is the cost of your Package at £26.00 a month, charged in advance from
28 Feb 2014 to 27 Mar 2014. This gives you:
Calling Plan Unlimited Weekend Calls
Broadband Unlimited BT Infinity 2
Broadband and Calls
28 Feb - 27 Mar 14 £28.15
This is the cost of your Package at £28.15 a month, charged in advance from
28 Feb 2014 to 27 Mar 2014. This gives you:
Calling Plan Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan
Broadband BT Infinity Option 2
I am being charged for 2 and a half packages or something.
My package should be £42. I am having a nightmare with this company. They don't care about me, they don't care at all. First charge me money for nothing, no apologies either, just backchat on the phone. And now they charge me £31 extra again for nothing. I am going to be BROKE when my next bill comes as thats probably going to be even bigger. They probably will double it or something just to be even more spiteful.
Yours sincerely. Very sad customer.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Welcome to this forum.
This is a customer to customer forum only, where forum members, who are only BT customers, can help each other with BT Retail products and services.
Anything you post here does not go to BT. Although the forum is moderated by BT, not all posts are read.
I have asked a moderator to provide assistance, they will post an invite on this thread.
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For your own security, do not post any personal details, on this forum. That includes any tracking number you are give.
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Please use the tracked e-mail, to reply, not via the forum. Thanks
This is the form you should see when you click on the link. If you do not see this form, then you have selected the wrong link.
When you submit the form, you will receive an enquiry number, so please keep a note of it
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

I am a recent Apple convert and feel like I have been ripped off

I purchased a 13inch MacBook since I was getting a little bit tired of having to constantly reboot my PC. Bought a 13 inch MacBook in Nov 2008. Since this was my first Mac and did not have any other accessories/sofware etc from the pc world, I invested in buying all the accessories - duplicate power cords, apple care, more memory etc... all original ones from Apple (read expensive). I did not mind it since I was thinking that I will be using the MacBook for a long time. I recently found that my battery was not holding the charge and so I scheduled an appointment at the Genius bar at a local Apple store. I was told by my die hard Apple fans that enter all the details in and since you have Apple care, they will have a new battery waiting for you. I arrive at the designated time and (the person who was helping me had not even bothered to find out why I was there for - ok, granted he must have been busy). He sticks a usb drive and runs some program which tells him that the battery needs to be replaced. He then continues to tell me that the battery needs to be replaced and that I have an option to buy it at the store. I obviously asked him why I needed to buy when Applecare should have covered it. He rattled off some technical balther and finally it amounted to that the program he was running said that my battery had failed and Apple considers anything over 300 recharge cycles as having 'failed'. How in the world a common user like myself supposed to know this? When I challenged him to show where in Applecare this was stated...he pretended to look on the web and turned to a colleague of his for support and all they ended up doing was point me to the description for battery coverage for batteries under Applecare, which is quite vague. Here is my question - I have taken good care of my Macbook. I have seldom used it solely running on battery. I have always had the Macbook plugged in. Is'nt this unusual for my battery to fail this early and not being covered by Applecare?
I would have gladly purchased, had I known in advance what constituted failure- ie over 300 cycles etc..(though I would have questioned that this could be attributed to some manufacturing defect for it to fail so early). Why does not Apple state it as such as a part of the warranty description? This in my mind is a rip off.
I was planning a trip and did not want to be left without a battery so I was forced to buy one at $129. The gentlemen at the genius bar spoke to his manager and cut a deal for half the price. The whole incident has left a very sour taste for Apple's products and service - not sure if there are other similar surprises lurking in fine print in Applecare land.

bgrad wrote:
duplicate power cords, apple care, more memory etc... all original ones from Apple (read expensive).
In the future, ask about that stuff here first. Mac accessories (such as memory) are often different, but they shouldn't be any more money than the PC versions.
I was told by my die hard Apple fans that enter all the details in and since you have Apple care, they will have a new battery waiting for you.
It is not that automatic, but not far from it either.
I arrive at the designated time and (the person who was helping me had not even bothered to find out why I was there for - ok, granted he must have been busy). He sticks a usb drive and runs some program which tells him that the battery needs to be replaced. He then continues to tell me that the battery needs to be replaced and that I have an option to buy it at the store. I obviously asked him why I needed to buy when Applecare should have covered it. He rattled off some technical balther and finally it amounted to that the program he was running said that my battery had failed and Apple considers anything over 300 recharge cycles as having 'failed'. How in the world a common user like myself supposed to know this?
It sounds like you just had a loser. Complain about them and go to a different store. If you don't have another store handy, talk to the manager.
I would have gladly purchased, had I known in advance what constituted failure- ie over 300 cycles etc..(though I would have questioned that this could be attributed to some manufacturing defect for it to fail so early). Why does not Apple state it as such as a part of the warranty description? This in my mind is a rip off.
I was planning a trip and did not want to be left without a battery so I was forced to buy one at $129. The gentlemen at the genius bar spoke to his manager and cut a deal for half the price.
A spare battery is a good thing to have.
The whole incident has left a very sour taste for Apple's products and service - not sure if there are other similar surprises lurking in fine print in Applecare land.
Just avoid that store in the future. Most places are much better than that.
The real question here, the one that the "genius" didn't ask, is why you have a cycle count > 300. I have a 2006 Macbook, a 2007 Macbook, and one spare battery I bought sometime in 2006. The two batteries I have installed have cycle counts of 245 and 222, respectively. How can your 2008 Macbook have cycle count greater than 300? You should keep an eye on that.

VERIZON RIP OFF PROJECT!!! BEWARE

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