I-Cell Wireless Services

 

0

2

Spread O.

San Francisco, CA

HERE'S THE INSIDE SCOOP ON HOW I-CELL OPERATES.

HOURS OF OPERATION
They're supposedly open from 11am until 9pm everyday. It's actually whenever the manager, Ki, decides he wants to come into work. He opens up roughly around 2pm at best and sometimes not at all. He says that it's because there are other locations and things he has to take care of, which is true but isn't the reason why he's not in. He's not in because he sleeps in, disregarding customers. There are many occasions where the store is closed for days without prior notice.

PHONES
The selection is okay but most need to be ordered because they're not in stock. This takes anywhere from one day to a couple weeks (they say one week), depending on when the order is placed. If something is wrong with the phone, you're out of luck because they're imported from China and their supposed warranties are invalid in the USA. You won't be able to return them because their policy is all sales final. You're told that everything is ready and will work, but that isn't always the case. Just watch out, you're spending hundreds on a phone that is non-returnable and not covered by warranty unless it's a phone that comes in the carrier's box.

UPGRADING
Many people like to upgrade and renew their contracts. For the most part, I-Cell does not do this even though they say they do. What they do is activate a new plan and contract for you so that they get to make a commission. Put it this way, if you're given a temporary number and are promised that your old one will take its place in a couple days, they are doing this to you. It may not be a big issue to you, but service providers make notes in your record that you're canceling your service, activating new numbers, and are porting numbers in and out when you're legally not supposed to in that manner. Don't be surprised if during this time, you have a Pre-Paid service at another provider you have nothing to do with. This is because I-Cell pretends they are you and they call carriers this way so they get a commission on your "new" activation. If what your customer service tells you about upgrading is different from what I-Cell says, it's illegal.

UNLOCKING PHONES
I-Cell is quite efficient at this. Guess what? You can unlock your phone by yourself. Just call customer service with your provider and tell them you would like to do that and it'll save you $20-$50 that I-Cell charges you for that. What they do is they use another customer's personal information (including Social Security Number) and pretend they are them and call the service provider. If you signed up for a plan there, your personal info may be used. If it has, your service provider probably thinks you are using a different phone (whichever they needed to unlock) and you may not be able to do certain things with your account because to them, you've already done it.

NEW PLANS
I-Cell pushes T-Mobile the most but they also do AT&T and Verizon. The selection of Verizon phones are extremely limited and they don't offer the same ones as Verizon themselves. For instance, their free phones are older and more undesirable than going someplace else. For T-Mobile, they don't do MyFaves and they'll tell you some random reason even though they are capable of doing it on MyFaves-enabled phones. I-Cell isn't technically an official AT&T authorized dealer although they say they are. This is why the cost of their phones with AT&T are more expensive. If you sign up with AT&T through I-Cell and get an unlocked phone, chances are that they put an order for a free phone that you could've gotten and had it shipped to their store for another sale, but it's in your name. This is because they're not an AT&T authorized dealer.

CUSTOMER SERVICE
Don't expect much. If you have a recent purchase from them that is not working properly or that needs attention, they won't do anything about it. Why? Because there is no warranty even though they told you there was one, so they can't take it back. Instead, they'll pass the loss onto you. If you want to return something that hasn't been used, the employees will tell you that they're not allowed to and only the manager, Ki, can do that. Why? Who knows. The problem is that he is often not in and cannot be reached. One employee even said he told them not to call him if they needed help. Who knows what to believe, but from a customer's standpoint, that is poor customer service and a terrible way to run a business. If you try calling the store, you'll rarely get through; they don't answer the phone much. If you decide to head down there in person, the store may be closed because you never know when the manager will decide to open it up. It just sucks if you're waiting on something that you need because you won't know ahead of time about not being able to get it.

BASICALLY, STAY AWAY IF YOU VALUE YOUR PERSONAL INFO AND DON'T WANT TO BE INVOLVED WITH ILLEGAL BUSINESS AND POOR WORK ETHIC.

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1

33

lulu s.

San Jose, CA

i got my phone yesterday...i got a pretty good deal. buy a sony ericsson W850i (over sea) phone for $300 but i have $250 credit back.
Alice served me. she is pretty nice and smart. I still don't know the phone works well or not. but So far So good.

UPDATE: well...my W850 die after i got it from i-cell 3 months....and everytime i ask them how to fix it, they only tell me that it is not their responsibilities, all i can do is call sony ericsson -_-" sigh....
watch out guys!

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83

201

Lelaina Pierce i.

San Francisco, CA

07/20/07
UPDATE
Arghh!!! This place reached my fuckin boiling points except I don't get the fuckin $100 bill. After I'd waited for 3 fuckin weeks, they called me on Wednesday that my phone finally came. I decided to pick it up today and they told me they accidentaly gave it to someone else!!! FUCKING UNBELIEVEABLE!!!! What the fuck is wrong with these people? I'd waited for 3 weeks and you gave my phone to someone else?!!! Don't you have a system where you know where all the orders are? Obviously not. You just have computer for fun. Don't you know a little invention called post-it where you can write a little message "This phone belongs to customer number _____" Well obviously you haven't fucking heard of it. Don't you know something call common sense where you can tape my receipt so other co-workers know that phone belongs to someone else? Of course not! Cause all of you are fuckin incompetent fuckheads. Never in my life, I'm so fuckin angry.

Stay away from this store. No seriously. Stay the fuck away!!
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Okay, this place actually sucks cause I ordered my phone on Sunday and they promised I would get my phone on Tuesday. Today is Thursday, I'm still phone-less. I know the delay shipping is not their fault but just the way they handle things was just very unprofessional.

I came on Tuesday to pick up my phone. The girl, Elsa, told me the shipping was a tad slow so expect my phone to get there at night or tomorrow morning. I asked her if she's open tomorrow, due to the fact it was 4th of July. She told me they're open everyday. Okay, so I called them twice on Wednesday and nobody picked up the phone. Figured. I called them today in the afternoon, she told me the shipment just arrived so give her about half an hour. I called almost an hour later and this guy picked up the phone. I asked him about my order if they have finished unpacking the shipment. Apparently not. He told me he would call me later today.

Out of curiousity I asked if he had my number and he said no. WTF? How the hell  you're gonna call me if you don't have my number? This is not Blind Date. They just seem very unorganized cause they have to ask my order so many times and when they told me it's because they have a lot of orders, doesn't it more make sense to ask my order number and look up your computer? Instead of putting me on hold while I could hear some rustling papers and you're mumbling to yourself on the phone?

This place doesn't care shit about customer service. I would wait but the service I got there just put me off, so I cancelled my order. The girl who helped me on Sunday was actually really nice and it seemed she knows what she's doing. So one star for her.

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0

7

Ashley O.

San Francisco, CA

I would give it zero stars but that isn't an option on yelp!

Please I beg of you not to come to this store. They are scam artists, trust me I know someone who used to work here. The things they do: use your Social Security Number for other customers, never get your phone (that you got from them) back if it was broken, bootleg bluetooth headsets (most of them don't work or they'll die on you eventually). You'll most likely get disconnected a day after you got your new service because they took your T-Mobile number to CIngular so you'll temporarily have Cingular service then transferred back to T-Mobile, but somehow still get charged for it on your bill (this is all so they get the commission). Trying to contact the manager/boss will be impossible. He's either hiding behind the wall or out of the store which he is often; Leaves the store to employees who do not know how to deal with his mess that he started with in the 1st place. Last but not least, they open at 2 pm, sometimes even a little later. WTF? Great scammers. PLEASE BEAWARE!

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3

5

June H.

San Francisco, CA

bad bad experiences with this store.  I opened new Verizon account here with a new phone.  at the same night, I found out that sliding function of my phone did not seem to be right after comparing same model other new phones.  so I went to the store next day and asked exchange, but there was a girl saying only the owner can do that and she does not know when he comes and how to contact him!!  does it make sense??  finally I could talk to him (after several several try) but he refused exchange and told me that I have to send it to a manufacturer which takes 2-3 weeks to get a new phone.  after talking with Verizon people I called him.  again!  I had to call several times to get him on the phone.  this time  he said he would exchange only after they check whether any part of the phone is missing.  so I have to wait.  what?? is he suspecting me a parts thief now??  mostly the owner is not in the store and nobody can do anything without his 'permission' according to a store keeper.

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