AVOID CELLULAR PLANET AT ALL COSTS:…read more
I placed an order worth approximately $300 on Cellular Planet's website on a Friday morning. At checkout, I was charged nearly $15 for delivery, explicitly labelled "express shipping." Based on that description and the amount charged, it was entirely reasonable to expect the cellphone to arrive either on Saturday or, at the absolute latest, Monday.
Instead, Cellular Planet chose to ship the phone through a company called UniUni. A quick look at the experiences reported online reveals an alarming and consistent pattern: packages marked as "out for delivery" for several days despite apparently never being placed on a delivery vehicle, packages supposedly delivered and then reported as "stolen" even though customers maintain they were never delivered at all, and customer service that is effectively nonexistent. That is precisely what is happening with my order. My package has remained marked as out for delivery for days, yet nothing has arrived.
Trying to contact UniUni has been equally absurd. Their website directs customers to what may be one of the most poorly trained and useless chatbots imaginable, while their call centre appears to be closed even during ordinary business days and business hours. They are, for all practical purposes, unreachable.
I contacted Cellular Planet on Monday to report the problem. Their response was simply to "give it one more day" and then they would do something. I contacted them again today, and they gave me exactly the same answer: give them another day. At this point, they are not resolving the situation. They are merely postponing it one day at a time.
Even more unbelievable was their attempt to distance themselves from the problem by claiming that, because this is a courier issue, it is not their responsibility and they are not obligated to do anything. That is completely unacceptable. I did not choose UniUni. Cellular Planet selected the courier, accepted my payment, charged me for "express shipping," and remains responsible for ensuring that the product I purchased is actually delivered. A retailer cannot collect a customer's money, hand the order to an unreliable courier of its own choosing, and then pretend the matter no longer concerns them.
This was not even the first issue with the order. After I had already completed the purchase, Cellular Planet informed me that they did not have the cellphone in the colour I had selected and paid for. They proceeded to substitute it with another colour that sells for considerably less. I allowed the substitution because they offered a screen protector and a case as compensation, but those accessories do not make up for the actual price difference between the two versions of the phone.
Unless this matter is genuinely resolved tomorrow, I will proceed with disputing the entire transaction. I am no longer prepared to accept another vague request to "wait one more day" while a $300 order remains trapped in an endless and apparently fictitious delivery process.
Based on this experience, I would not recommend Cellular Planet to anybody. Their handling of the order, their choice of courier, their refusal to accept responsibility, the repeated delays, and the substitution of a cheaper colour after the purchase make the entire transaction feel deeply untrustworthy. At this stage, both UniUni and Cellular Planet are behaving in ways that look disturbingly similar to the scam complaints already described by other customers online.
You would be far better off purchasing a refurbished device from an established seller or an official refurbisher through Amazon, eBay, or Walmart. That was what I was originally considering, but I chose Cellular Planet because they supposedly offered the fastest delivery. That was a terrible mistake in judgment.
Do yourself a favour: do NOT order from Cellular Planet, and do NOT buy from them.