Janet Macari is enjoying her new flip phone, but it took months to get it.
"My flip phone that I had for years broke into two pieces, so it was Memorial Day weekend, and I thought it was a good weekend to go shopping for a new flip phone," Macari explained.
She headed to the store and bought the only flip phone in stock, a $300 Rugged model that was waterproof and good for outdoor use.
"It had features that I really didn't need," Macari said.
She decided to exchange the phone for a more basic model a week later, but said she ran into some problems.
Macari was out of town when her old phone broke and she ended up buying a new one in Leominster, at what she thought was a Verizon Wireless store. It wasn't.
Macari was in a Wireless Zone store. The company is a Verizon Wireless authorized retailer with hundreds of independently owned and operated franchises. When she tried to exchange the phone at a Wireless Zone near her home in Dudley, Macari said they told her she had to return it to the store where she bought it, in Leominster.
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"I said, so you're telling me if I lived in Florida and was vacationing in Massachusetts and my Verizon flip phone broke, that I would have to fly back to go to the Leominster store, to the Wireless Zone store," Macari recalled. "He said, yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you."
Macari returned to the Leominster store to exchange the phone there, but said she experienced poor customer service and couldn't get anywhere. She said she called Wireless Zone corporate but never heard back.
"That's why I contacted Leslie Gaydos, because I needed some help," Macari said.
NBC10 Boston Responds reached out to Wireless Zone in July and they offered to exchange Macari's current phone with the one she preferred. She said they told her they would ship her the phone, but after two months, she never received it. This month, we arranged for Macari to meet with a Wireless Zone store manager to finally make the exchange.
The company tells us: "Wireless Zone sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience and is happy to have resolved this to the customer's satisfaction."
