[G2 and Desire Z General] rommy0515:
Lol, I feel ya brother.

So here's where things stand as far as I understand your situation. (And bear in mind, Tmo policies may have changed since I left there, my info is close to a year old. The buyer's remorse policy as far as I know has stayed pretty constant though, as it's mostly dictated by applicable state law.)

Basically the way the policy is written is that you can't do a warranty exchange while you're within the "buyer's remorse period" that period is set by state law. Most states give you 14 days, CA gives you thirty. Lol, which normally would be cool, but kind of sucks for your situation :)

Like I said in my earlier post, assuming the phone really was brand new (and be aware, just because it had pull off stickers doesn't mean it's brand new, they put those on reconditioned phones as well) it should show up in the TMO "device model warranty tool" as a brand new device with a 1 year warranty on the equipment and a 90 day warranty on accessories. (A reconditioned device will either appear as "warranty not verified" or with a 90 day equipment warranty) The warranty should show up with the first day being the first day you made a phone call with the device.

Now, if you call and tell them you want a new phone, there's a couple of things to bear in mind. First, you need to give them a good story about why the phone is jacked up and can't be fixed through troubleshooting. Intermittent freezing is always a good one for that. Be sure to tell them you already tried a factory reset so that they don't make you do that and call back in three days or some such bull****. (Don't worry about what you tell them here, when the phone arrives at the repair center, nobody goes in to verify your story, sometimes reps will tell you that, but they're full of it. All they do is check for liquid damage and physical damage.)

Second, you may have to explain how you acquired the phone. (Whether or not you'll have to explain this is dependent on a bunch of factors and would take way too much time to explain. Suffice to say, be prepared to have an explanation.) DO NOT SAY YOU GOT IT ON CRAIGSLIST!!! (Lol) This will cause the rep to tell you that the warranty is not valid. (Technically the warranty may still be valid if you have insurance, which I'll explain later, but this is knowledge that the rep you're talking to probably doesn't have, and believe me, you don't want to spend half an hour trying to convince the rep and his supervisor to look closely into policy.)

The best story would go something like this: "Me and the Mrs. were on a trip to Vegas, and my phone started messing up so I stopped in at a store, I really can't remember the name, I think it was a Tmobile Store, but I'm not sure, it might have been called "Bob's Cell Phone Emporium" or "Jack of All Phones" or something like that. Honestly, the trip was so crazy, I can't even find the receipt now, but they told me the phone was brand new!" As long as the phone shows up with a warranty in the Device Model Warranty Tool, the rep isn't going to go investigating your story. (And if for some bizarre reason they try to, just hang up, call back and try again with a different rep)

I'm getting a little ahead of myself though. Before you do any of that, you need to do the following: Call TMO, and ask them what kind of warranty your G2 has. Ask them for dates. Tell them you just want the info for your records. (Again, if they ask where you got the phone, use some variation of the storyline I provided above) If they tell you, your G2 warranty expires on June 18, 2012, or whatever, you're golden. (Again, if the device was reconditioned, it might only have a 90 day warranty, still no problem) If they tell you that they don't have any warranty info, or if it's "warranty not verified" then don't argue with them, just hang up and call back and do the following:

(There are a myriad number of reasons the phone might show up as "warranty not verified" again, way too complicated to explain and not really relevant to what we're talking about anyway.)

Insurance time! Okay, so here's the deal with Asurion. Regardless of whether you feel their prices are highway robbery, (and they are, the price just went up too to 7.99 :(

sometimes their service is useful. This would be one of those times. The rules for insurance (and please bear in mind that my info may be out of date, however I'm pretty sure this hasn't changed, but don't string me up if it has! lol) are that you can add it within 14 days of getting a new phone. It doesn't matter where you got the phone. (This came directly from an Asurion executive who once visited the call center I worked at) What Asurion looks at is whether you changed IMEI's within 14 days prior to adding their insurance. So, if you get the "warranty not verified" line, just call back, and tell the next rep that you want to add insurance. If they ask you if you just got a phone, the answer is yes. If they give you a hard time, don't argue, just hang up and try again. You'll find a rep who will add the insurance. Once you have the insurance, wait a day, then call back and tell them the phone is frozen. The PHP insurance will get you a replacement, and the TMO rep can put the exchange through without transferring you to anyone. (Sometimes the reps don't know that they can put exchanges through on "warranty not verified" equipment, so if they tell you they can't, just ask for a supervisor or threaten to cancel and get transferred to the save team)

You don't have to keep the insurance either if you think it's a waste of money. Just wait until you get the replacement device, make sure it works, then cancel the coverage if you don't want it.

Lol, okay that was a mouthful. Last point: buyer's remorse. What I was just telling you about checking the warranty status and adding insurance if necessary you need to do right now, because the clock is ticking on that. (14 days to add insurance from the first date of usage) Getting the actual exchange done may require waiting. (If it's a warranty not verified situation, you can probably just get it done now after adding insurance)

Now, one way to get around the thirty day wait may be to do the following. If you have a friend who lives out of state and who you trust, change your billing address to their house, hang up, call back and do an exchange and have the phone sent there, and from there they can send it to you. (Also remember if asked to tell them that you got the phone in a state other then CA, and you'll still have to wait until 14 days from the date of first usage has elapsed. Also, TMO won't let you change your billing address back to your house until 30 days have gone by from the date of change)

Lol, anyway, if you're confused by any of this, reply to this thread or PM me and I'll try to clarify whatever I said as best I can. Also, as a disclaimer, I'm not an insurance agent, so any discussion here about the ins and outs of Asurion's coverage is purely for educational purposes and shouldn't be taken as a promise of coverage :)