My wife and I were in the Verizon store in Eagan, MN back in June to sign up for new service... they were offering a $330 trade in for an old iPhone, so while my wife finished up the paperwork I went home to get our old iPhone. When I came back with the phone, I handed it to the sales rep, he inspected the phone ( noted it didn't have a SIM card but said that was ok ), entered all of the information in our order ( Device ID, etc. ) said "this is my phone now, you can't get it back", reviewed the $14.59/mo credit we will be receiving, and then we paid and left.
A week or so after my wife got an email from Verizon saying they haven't processed the trade in yet... we thought it might take a couple of weeks to be credited to our account so we didn't think anything of it. After another couple of weeks, the credit still hadn't been processed, so I decided to go into the store to see what was up.
I went back to the store and talked to the General Manager to explain my situation. He said they never take phones from the customer they always give the customer a box to mail in their phone from home. I told him that absolutely wasn't what happened, I physically handed my phone to the sales rep... he phoned the sales rep I worked with, who wasn't in that day, and the sales rep said he remembered my wife and I but never received a phone from us. I reminded the General Manager I explicitly left the store to drive and get our iPhone and came back and personally handed it to the sales rep... he said they wouldn't have done that. I asked him to review the security cameras in the store and he said only corporate can make that decision. He handed me a phone number to call the "Loyalty Team" and explain my situation. So now I'm out of the credit, and my phone which was apparently stolen by the sales rep at the store and the General Manager just shrugs his shoulders and basically says my story wouldn't have happened at his store and hands me off to an 800 number.
So I call the 800 number... on hold for 40 min, then they hang up on me. Call back... on hold for 30 min, then they hang up on me. Finally get through to someone ( ~5 days later after 5 or 6 times calling )... and had the nicest representative who was trying to help me. However, she said there isn't a "Loyalty Team" at Verizon and she was just in the general customer service department. She verifies the IMEI hasn't been received at the Verizon warehouse and essentially says she's sorry, but there is nothing she can do... she recommends I go to the store and talk to the General Manager as he should be able to resolve it in store, and of course I mention I already did that.
So I'm really feeling stuck as Verizon stole my phone, the General Manager of the store is lying to me and covering up for his employee, and nobody at Verizon seems to care.
