Bought a BlackBerry via Amazon Wireless because it was much less expensive than buying the upgrade through AT&T. The device arrived. Worked great. I threw out the packaging. And then a week or two later, the phone started malfunctioning, randomly turning on and off. This was definitely a hardware problem. I called AT&T to see if they could resolve the issue. The said that I could return it within the 30 day "buyers remorse" period but ... oops! ... I'd thrown out the packaging so no, I couldn't. I'd have to wait until the thirty day period was up and then go through the warranty services department. And in order to extract all this information from them and tell me that they couldn't help me, I had had to first go through a song and dance, giving them the IMEI number from the phone (twice) and going through the various procedures they wanted to go through with me to verify that I knew what I was talking about.
If Amazon is in the loop, always call them first.
I called Amazon second. What a different customer support team! No questions asked. Didn't need the IMEI number. Didn't question whether I knew what I was talking about. Happy to exchange the phone. Yes, it would be ideal if I had the original packaging but they could make an exception. What a joy to deal with Amazon (as usual) and what a pain to deal with AT&T (as usual). Amazon trusts their staff, doesn't require that they go by the book. AT&T requires its staff to follow a script in everything, from the way they say hello to the way they say good bye. Painful, painful.
Only challenge is that the BlackBerry model is out of stock at Amazon, so it will be a week. But with such good customer support, I'll forgive them that.
