Think twice before ordering anything from cells4u. I placed order#1131 on 11/22/2011 through www.cells4u.com for SGH-8700-BK SamsungI8700Omnia7 Unlocked Smartphone $289.99 (FreeShipping7-daysground). I needed the phone when traveling overseas first week of Dec2011. I was to receive it in 7-10 business days from order date. They were unable to complete the order in time & agreed to cancel my order. Dec19,2011 Cells4U sent email stating that money will be credited into my account that day. Jan6,2012, I wrote to Cells4U stating that refund has not yet been credited. Cells4U never responded. On return to USA from my oversees trip, I sent Cells4U emails on Apr9,19,30,2012 reminding them to credit $289.99. A short acknowledgement on May 9 told me to wait for response. May10 I wrote that I had waited for over five months & nothing had been done. They said they were waiting for details from their billing department. May16,21 emails to them got a response that their billing department will call me. May30, someone from billing department called my phone number from a blocked caller id & left a sketchy half-minute incomprehensible message. Jun6, I requested Cells4U to ask billing department to call again. Jun19, I sent them my bank statement showing that $289.99 was removed on Nov23,2011 but never refunded. Jun26, Cells4U wrote back saying that my refund had been honored, processed & case was closed by their billing department. I wrote back reiterating that money had not yet been received. Jun30, Cells4U wrote back saying that a certified check was sent to my address via USPS regular mail. Jul17, I asked them to send me details of the certified check which they did not give. Jul19,23,25,26,27&Aug1 emails to Cells4U telling them that I have still not received the check went unanswered. Aug28, I wrote to Cells4U that I needed name of owner/partner of Cells4U LLC & name of person who corresponded with me. Aug29@10:22am, I got a call from a person who said her name was Jenny from Cells4U. She claimed that check no 001004 was sent to my address on 6/30/2012. She tried to convince me that someone else could have cashed it. Then she said that she was prepared to make a new check no. 001006. She insisted that I should go & cash the new check. When I said that I would deposit it into my account, she seemed not too pleased, & told me that she was only trying to help me get cash quickly. When I insisted that the check be sent by certified mail, she told me that she did not know how that works & wondered whether I would be able to track it. When I told her that the moment post office scans the letter, I would be able to track it, she seemed to be at a loss for words because she knew there would be nothing in the mail for me to track as it was a fictitious tracking number that was being given to me. Sept10, I wrote to Cells4U that the refund check had not reached me. USPS indicated that no certified mail was ever sent to me with tracking number given by Cells4U. In response, Cells4U said that the person who was handling my account was on vacation, but it looked like that the refund was sent completely and that it should take a few days, no more than 7-10 days to get it. However, no refund was received by me. Sept14,18,28 emails reminders got no response. At this point, I lodged a complaint with Better Business Bureau (BBB) through their website, & officially registered complaint 9519189 with BBB on Apr25,2013. BBB made Cells4U aware of the complaint and asked them to respond. May4,2013, Cells4U wrote back stating that this transaction did not exist in their database, and were not unable to locate this customer. They wanted the customer i.e. me to send the document that states that Cells4U had debited $289.99. May7,2013, I sent pdf document that had all screenshots of my purchase process with Cells4U. I also sent pdf of my Bank statement showing debit of $289.99 drawn by Cells4U on Nov25,2011. Cells4U wrote back to BBB on May20,2013 that they did not see any statement that showed that they debited customer's account, and would like to get this information faxed to them. They stated that the refund process takes up to 30 days as per their refund policy, but if the customer wishes to purchase any product they will be able to send it immediately. They further added that they will issue a full credit in the amount of $289.99 & send check number 1057 issued on May17,2013 to my address. On May22, 2013, I wrote back to BBB saying that I do not wish to get any product from them & do not wish to fax any more information to them since my bank statement clearly shows that Cells4U had withdrawn the money. I also stated that I was willing to wait for 30 days. The check finally arrived on Jun18,2013. Thus, after almost 18 months & great deal of persistence & patience, I could recover my money. Time & energy that went into recovering $289.99 was certainly disproportionate, but I did not want the company to get free money and get away with it. read more
