Normally I don’t write about what happens between me and a company. There will be a bunch of social media posts, but never a whole article. But I wanted to write about this today because of how much it affected the company. First, I want to say that I love Motorola products. I’ve been using their products for more than ten years, and I honestly prefer them. I’ve even worked with them in the past and have reviewed their stuff before.
The time came where I needed to get a new phone. The Motorola phone I’ve been using for the past four years was still good, but has slowed down to the point where research and writing was significantly slowed down. That’s a huge problem for a magazine. I estimate that 85% of our writing and publishing is done on the phone. Only bigger projects or stuff that hasn’t been completed by the time I’m home are completed using a computer.
So I decided to buy a new phone, and the results were pretty obvious. Not having access to a phone that’s at its best has significantly decreased how many articles can be published. Look at our list of articles. More than 50 articles in June, less in July, and then nothing for a month. Hell, when I went to ANIMENYC, I had reviews of Denshattack, Teeto, Daemons of the Shadow Realm, and My Awkward Senpai ready to go. That was a month ago, and three of the reviews still haven’t gone up yet.
The obvious answer is to get a new phone, and I tried. But that’s part of the reason why things have been taking so long. I bought the Motorola Edge, and it was my first time buying directly from the Motorola website. In the past, I’ve bought stuff directly from a local store like Best Buy or had stuff sent to me to review. But buying directly from their website was a huge mistake.
The reason I bought from their website was because they had a bunch of deals going on. First, the phone was on sale for $400, which was the sale that other stores were having. But they were also offering $105 back for trading in my current phone. But what I was most excited for was that they were tossing in a pair of Moto Buds 2 Plus for free. I was really excited for the ear buds and was going to review them.
The phone was supposed to be delivered at the start of September, but things didn’t go as planned. I was sitting at home waiting for it to be delivered and I got a notification from UPS saying that because Motorola requires a signature confirmation, UPS can’t deliver to my building type. I immediately called UPS and they were very helpful and said that they have some department that works with Motorola. All I had to do was call Motorola and ask them to contact UPS to remove the restriction.
When I called Motorola, the person who answered was no help. They said the only thing they could do was wait a few weeks and then ship the phone again. But what good would that do if UPS wasn’t going to deliver it to begin with? I didn’t know what to do, so I paid UPS $11.99 to try to deliver it again five days later. That day comes and UPS pulls up for a second time, with myself and one of my roommates both there. But the guy still wasn’t able to actually deliver it.
So I had enough, and told UPS to send it back to Motorola. The next four hours were a nightmare. I had to run to the Post Office because I had already mailed in my old phone that I was trading in. I had to pay a fee for them to track down the package, stop it from being delivered, and return it. Then I contacted Motorola so many times. I tried calling, I tried social media, I tried their account on Facebook three times. I’ve been contacting so many times that at one point their AI told me they simply won’t connect me to a person.
By this point, I was already waiting for the phone for more than two weeks even though it was two day shipping. I filed a dispute and kept contacting Motorola. Another five days passed and UPS sent me a notification saying that they had completed the return. They even told me the name of the person who took the package. Again, UPS was very helpful this whole time. But that whole day, Motorola never told me that they received it or anything about a refund.
The next day I tried contacting them again multiple times and there was just silence the whole day. During the month that I’ve been waiting for the phone, I must have contacted Motorola more than twenty times in total. The closest I ever got was someone creating a ticket for me and escalating it before ghosting me and closing it for no reason. This was the most painful customer service experience I’ve ever had, production on the site dropped by 90% for nearly two months, I still don’t have a good phone, and I don’t know when or if Motorola will ever give me my money back.
So I just wanted to let you guys know everything that was going on. Until recently, you’ve been accustomed to seeing between three and five articles every week plus a ton of social media activity. But now there’s only been three articles over the course of seven weeks with no end in sight. Obviously it’s not all Motorola’s fault because I did wait three weeks to decide to get a new phone, but the last four weeks were a nightmare because of the worst customer service I’ve ever seen.
Just for fun, here’s a list of reviews that have been delayed indefinitely. Many of these have handwritten notes and paragraphs, finished reviews that just can’t be edited and published, or can’t be transferred off one device to another.
Teeto (Switch 2)
My Awkward Senpai (Manga)
Daemons of the Shadow Realm (Anime)
Go-Go Town (Switch 2)
Kusan City of Wolves (Switch 2)
Lou’s Lagoon (Switch 2)
Marriagetoxin (Anime)
Blue Reflection Quartet (Switch 2)
Pokemon Adventures (Manga)
Future Knight (Switch 2)
Isle of Reveries (Switch 2)
Looking for Fael (Switch 2)
My Hero Academia Art Book
Farlands (Switch 2)
Fragrant Story (Switch 2)
The Marshal King (Manga)