Beware, There Was Kobe Bryant and Lenovo, and Now It’s Stephen Curry and Vivo

Kobe Bryant and Lenovo, Stephen Curry and Vivo smartphones

Beware when you get a 2-year smartphone plan that offers Kobe Bryant’s Lenovo or Stephen Curry’s Vivo or new smart phones with previously unknown brands. Are these phones durable? Are there really long-time-operating repair shops for these phones in the Philippines?

Have you heard of celebrities advocating for consumers when the products they endorse fail to function?

kobe bryant Stephen Curry

Kobe Bryant and Lenovo, Stephen Curry and Vivo

2-Year Globe Smartphone Plan



It was just this April that I was able to terminate a 2-year Globe smartphone plan that offered one Lenovo smartphone and one Lenovo tablet that failed to function just months after I got them. The smartphone’s charger port got easily damaged I could no longer charge it, and the tablet heated so fast I could not use it for long times.

No Lenovo Repair Shop
When I went back to the Globe store, they directed me to a nearby repair shop that quickly told me that they’re not accredited to repair Globe’s Lenovo phones. I went back to Globe and they gave me a certification to show to a repair shop in another city. And the certification was good for only the day specified in the paper!

And so I went to the other city, and what was I told? That they were not accredited to repair Globes’ Lenovo. So what did I do? I went to one of the phone repair shops in the mall and paid 500 pesos for them to fix the charger port. The fix was good for a while, maybe for just a month, then the port gave out again. I had other things to do in my life, so I just gave up. The Lenovo tablet?  I gave it to a young nephew in the province. When I went to the province recently, I never saw the Lenovo tablet in his hands and I no longer asked.

Monthly Globe Bill Payments
So there were no more phones, but I had to continue paying. Remember it was a 24-month contract, and I had to pay all if I discontinued. So I got the Globe SIM and inserted it into a Samsung phone.
My plan was 999, and if I were smart, I should have spent only 24,000 pesos for those 24 months. But I was not. So I paid a total of 39,855.49 for those 24 months. Data turned out to be so expensive.

Companies That Exploit the Naive
There’s a side story to this: My daughter’s first company was into recruitment, and this company exploited the youth, vulnerability, inexperience, naiveness and enthusiasm of new graduates. This company wanted their employees to recruit and produce results, but they didn’t provide enough Internet connections, so what did my daughter do? She used my Internet data just to produce results. I asked her to resign, telling her that the company was exploiting them, but she refused, arguing that one-month or two-month employment record will mess her resume. I was so relieved when, after several months, she finally left.

Where’s Lenovo now?
. Globe is now selling online just 2 Lenovo phone models.
. There’s not even one Lenovo in Smart’s online store.
. Samsung phones and Apple’s iPhones are still the best sellers, so they must be the ones really good.
. Abenson fills their front display tables with Samsung phones.

My Phone Now?
I use a Samsung phone. I accidentally dropped it twice without any protection, and it still works as new.

Kobe Bryant and Lenovo, Stephen Curry and Vivo

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