StarTac ‘Tuneup’ Is Actually a Turn-In

Pacific Bell Wireless and Motorola, swamped with complaints over malfunctioning StarTac wireless phones in California, have been urging customers to come into nearby stores for a “free tuneup” for their phone.

But customers get more than a tuneup. At the PacBell Wireless stores, Motorola representatives are replacing each customer’s StarTac 7000 or the more expensive StarTac 8000 model phone with “remanufactured” versions--and tossing the turned-in phones in large boxes.

The replacement phones have new software that is said to fix the nagging problems with dropped calls and other glitches reported by many PacBell Wireless customers using StarTacs. In addition, Motorola has made a slight change to the phone to prevent the internal chip card from coming loose and disconnecting calls unexpectedly.

In addition, customers are given a one-year manufacturer’s warranty on the replacement phone. Over the last two weekends, 10 PacBell Wireless stores have held the special tuneup events.

Until the flaws were publicized late last month, PacBell Wireless and Motorola had only acknowledged the problems to customers who complained. Initially, the companies said the flaws affected only the lower-priced StarTac 7000 model, but now PacBell says the StarTac 8000 is also affected.