Help Being sold defective devices?

[essannekay]

Okay, so every phone I've gotten from Metro PCS has had some sort of issue. Lately it's been that they won't turn on. I took it into the store and they told me that they don't even sell the product any more and haven't for a while, and it was DISCONTINUED. Why on earth am I being sold products they're not supposed to sell? Anyways, the one I'm stuck with now is an Alcatel One Touch and it recently started acting up, doing the exact same things my last phones did.

 

[essannekay]

The lights on the bottom with the home button and whatnot light up, but that's the only response I'm getting with it.

 

[solaris9123]

If you have money tied up in this service provider and they're refusing to do anything then contact the better business bureau.
Otherwise I'd just switch carriers. There's tons of prepaid carriers out there that have great phones just as cheap, and far more reliable.
They use T-Mobile signal anyway. So go T-Mobile prepaid

 

[mikedt]

How long did you have the phone, maybe it wasn't discontinued at the time of sale. Although Alcatel, a TCL phone, well some Chinese phones can be discontinued and end-of-lifed within months of release, especially the more budget ones you tend to find on pre-paid in the US. Aren't no commitment pre-paid phones sometimes known colloquially as "burner phones"?

 

[essannekay]

It finally responded and ended up restarting itself, but now it says I have no signal, but the other phones on my plan do have a signal :/

 

[essannekay]

I tried to make a call and it said to turn off airplane mode, but it's not in airplane mode. I tried turning it off and taking the sim card out but that didn't work. Taking the battery out isn't an option, because it can't be taken out

 

[The_Chief]

If you haven't already done so, you might try to cycle Airplane Mode by turning it on and off several times, leaving it turned off. Remove the SIM and make sure the contacts are clean (a pencil eraser is fantastic for this) and replace it. If it STILL won't work and the carrier won't help, then yeah: I'd be way done with Metro PCS. Then contact Alcatel and get some advice from the manufacturer.