List Price: $479.99
Sale Price: $124.40
Today's Bonus: 74% Off
I can only speak to the version sold by Accessory Distributor (there are 10 or more vendors offering "new" phones) but exactly what flavor of "new" this is I am not sure. It came in a generic Motorola box, no model number or other labels, and contained no warranty, safety, or manual documents, at all. Battery, back cover, and phone all came separately wrapped and "looked" new. But clearly this is some sort of re-packaged or perhaps re-furbished phone. Worse (as I found out when the screen started to time out and not wake up using the power button at all -battery pull and reboot required every time the screen times out for 1st time) Motorola has no intention of honoring a new warranty on these phones. After hassling for 3 days with Motorola tech support via chat messages, phone calls to some Caribbean country, and multiple case numbers, I was finally told that the IMEI for this phone had a warranty which expired in July, 3 months before I bought the phone. No Motorola service even for an out-of-box problem on a "new" phone. Motorola would not honor an Amazon original invoice. Accessory Distributors said they would grant a 30day warranty and repair the phone, with all shipping at my cost. Amazon offered arbitration with the vendor, but ultimately my only recourse was to accept having a non-authorized vendor repair the phone up to 30 days out, then I was on my own. A service plan would have cost $130 a year. OR return the phone. The only good thing about this deal is that the vendor accepted the return (not the shipping, but Amazon picked that up except for the return). My theory (no one said this) is that these are bundled unsold OEM phones from 2011(new or refurbished) bought from either Motorola or ATT, unlocked, and repackaged without an original warranty, and that Motorola has no desire to keep 1-year old models on the market cutting into their new-model Atrix sales. And ATT likely has no interest in doing favors for people who plan to use the phone with service from a competitor provider (as I did). I emailed 6 other vendors in the Amazon list selling them as new and none would include a Motorola warranty. This being advertised as "new" doesn't mean much, and there is no proof they are. So after all was said and done, I was out $6, plus about a week of hassle with Motorola, the vendor, and Amazon (latter was the only easy one to deal with -I am still an Amazon fan). Plus still looking for a non-plan smartphone
My recommendation is to avoid this particular phone deal unless you find a vendor who promises a 12-month Motorola warranty, as all new Motorola cell phones are supposed to have. I am OK with people selling used or refurb items without a warranty, but to bill these as "new" without such a warranty is deceptive consumer advertising and should be an FCC issue. I am surprised Amazon allows it, even on purchases they fulfill. C'mon guys, repair this ad. These are new phones.
Addendum: as also observed in other reviews, the phone also came with a 1500 mAH battery not the stock 1930 mAH one that came with the original phone. Whoever repackaged this shaved about $10 off the cost of the package by cutting this corner on a power-hungry dual-core big-screen smartphone
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