And is there anything I can do about it?
My Verizon plan purports to allow a free upgrade to a new smartphone after so many months, provided the old phone be “in good working order.”
The appointed months have passed and an email from Verizon said I was eligible. So I made my way to the local Verizon store to check out possible new phones. The first step was to surrender my phone to be checked. This took 10+ minutes, and it came back with the sad report that there are two tiny cracks in the side of the case, indicating that the back has been off the phone and making me ineligible for an upgrade.
Included with the phone when I got it was a strong protective case. I have never had this off, and certainly never opened up the phone.
About 6 months ago I was at a Verizon store in Florida, with a friend who was getting a phone. A salesman asked me if I had any issues with my phone and I told him the battery seemed a bit weak, which has been the case since the phone was new - no doubt because it’s a slim phone (Moto X) with a small battery. The salesman offered to check the battery, took the phone, and returned it several minutes later with a report that the battery was normal. This is the only time the phone has been out of my possession.
Do I have any case here for disputing the upgrade refusal? My phone continues to work exactly as it always has, which I’d argue constitutes “good working order”. The small cracks (each about a mm long) have no effect on the way the phone functions.