Popular Best Buy Cell Phone Network Shuts Down Without Notice, Customers Are Furious
Best Buy-owned brand Lively's Jitterbug Flip phones stopped working suddenly after 3G cell networks were completely phased-out.
Jitterbug cell phone users have been unable to use their phones for at least a few days, following the permanent shutdown of 3G networks. Jitterbug Flip phones, which are produced by Best Buy-owned brand Lively, are simple and easy-to-use phones made primarily for older individuals not accustomed to or comfortable with more modern technologies. Since these phones are so rudimentary in their functioning, they never needed to be upgraded to work with the newer 4G and 5G cell networks.
Hence, customers were understandably caught off guard when they suddenly couldn’t make calls to their friends and family. The Wall Street Journal detailed one individual’s potentially dangerous experience when she discovered her Jitterbug Flip phone couldn’t make calls. Teresa Kurtz told the Journal that her 78-year-old mother had accidentally locked herself out of her house in cold weather.
When Kurtz’s mother attempted to use her Jitterbug phone to call for help, she realized that she couldn’t dial out. Kurtz said that thankfully a neighbor was home and able to assist her mother. However, had that not been the case, her mother could have ended up in a much more precarious position.
Moreover, Christopher Rees told the Wall Street Journal that his mother’s non-working Jitterbug phone is causing his family concern. Rees explained that his 96-year-old mom lives in a retirement community that doesn’t provide access to landlines. Her Jitterbug phone was the only way Rees had to stay in direct contact with his mom.
Rees said he is concerned that his mom hasn’t been able to make calls for days because of her age. “I’m really at wits end, her phone just goes directly to voice mail when you call,” lamented Rees. He said for the sake of his mom’s health, he feels that he has no choice but to just get her a new phone instead of waiting for Lively to fix the problem.
Unfortunately, Best Buy-owned Lively has only taken retroactive steps to inform customers that their Jitterbug phones are currently non-functional. The company said that it was working to push out an update, but didn’t give an exact date that customers could expect service to be restored. For now, Lively’s only advice was to tell customers to use another device.
However, The Wall Street Journal did point out that in some cases, Lively is working with customers to upgrade their phones for free to the Flip2 version. The Jitterbug Flip2 is already programmed to work with the newer networks.
Additionally, Best Buy put out its own statement, apologizing to customers for the inconveniences caused by their non-working Jitterbug Flip phones. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our customers, and as soon as we learned about the issue, we worked to notify customers that were potentially impacted,” Best Buy said in a statement.
Considering that companies like Verizon and AT&T have been reporting on the phase-out of 3G for a while, it remains unclear why Lively did not take a more proactive approach to inform their consumers how the transition would impact their Jitterbug Flip phones.
