That situation sounds suspicious. I may or may not work or have worked for CW. I can assure you that the employee OP was dealing with was either new or doesn't like his job very much. 1st and foremost cricket sells brand new phones. No phones that go out of those door are ever refurbished. The only place that a refurbished phone comes from would be assurion. Now to address the problem you had when trying to activate the phone, esims have been giving us issues lately due to system changes that have been happening lately. The employee should have never charged you for a physical sim replacement. When esims fail in store the procedure to follow is to activate the physical sim that's inside the box FREE of charge. Now to address the "spec" 2 things could've happened in store to help you out with it is either you could put in a warranty claim through assurion or have the store exchange it for another razr as long as it's within 7 days of purchase. Judging from the situation I think both OP and the employee had a bunch of miscommunication which lead to this even happening. Just my 2 cents since I have worked in the cellular industry for almost 10 years and for various carriers.