Hi all, I'm sorry to have to make my first post about such a subject, but I am a fairly new customer to Verizon and I've uncovered something pretty ugly about the company, I guess we'll see if they make it right or not.
The situation:
I had my iPhone stolen on the 7th of Feb 2013 (a week or so ago). I wasn't too worried about it, because I'd called to get insurance added shortly after receiving my iPhone 5.
I completed the necessary steps (find myy iPhone app, no luck there so I erased my iphone remotely, to protect my data, reported the theft to police)
Then, I called Verizon to file an insurance claim.. this is where I come to a screeching halt.
The rep I spoke to, tells me that my phone is not insured. This can't be right.. I definitely insured it. I asked the rep to double check. Nope, no insurance. Then I asked them why the insurance wasn't added, and they were able to find the notes from the call I had, when I insured the phone. Problem solved.
After putting me on hold for a while, the rep comes back and tells me "although the phone is technically uninsured, Verizon have agreed to give you a new iphone 5, at a discounted price, so you will pay the same cost that you would have paid with insurance. The cost of the deductible." - please note, when I quote the rep, it may not be verbatim.
So that's a relief! Great..
The rep puts me on hold again while she goes to order my new phone for me.
After some time she comes back again and tells me "I'm so sorry but the iphone 5 is on back order, so I'm not able to put the order in for you. You would be better off going to your local Verizon store, where they will be able to give you the phone at the promised price"
I was a little worried that the store would not be able to, but when I asked about that, the rep assured me "Don't worry, they will be able to see the notes. I am notating your account that you will be getting your new iPhone 5 at the same price of the deductible."
It's not easy for me to get time to go out to the Verizon store, but I decide to make the trip, it seems worthwhile, to get my replacement phone on the spot.
A couple of days after the phone call with the rep, I found the time to go to the store, but when I got there, they seemed confused and after quite a bit of time, finally refused to give me the iphone 5, telling me that it's not possible and that I need to order it through customer service.
So I call customer service again.
This time I speak to another rep, who tells me that they cannot in fact give me the iphone at the discounted rate. She started from scratch even though I asked her to look at the notes so we didn't have to go through everything again.
She starts to question the other rep's decision, saying that the other rep was in a different part of the company, and "maybe that's how they do things there". I tried to explain to her that while they may have different departments, I expect them to all be "Verizon". As far as the customer is concerned, every part of Verizon should represent the company as a whole, not as this branch of customer service versus another.
By this time I'd become increasingly frustrated, having been led in circles, told something different by each person I spoke with, and having wasted a substantial amount of time on the phone and driving to the store, talking to the people at the store, back on the phone etc. so I asked to speak to a manager about the issue to try to get it resolved once and for all.
The manager got on the phone and from the start seemed very confrontational. Maybe I got him on a bad day, or maybe he just loved to fight.. either way, things did not go smoothly.
He started out by trying to twist the blame of not having insurance on the phone, back around onto me even though Verizon had previously accepted responsibility.
I asked him how he could justify this being my fault, and his answer blew me away.. "well, you should have looked to make sure the insurance had in fact been activated" So disgusted I was at this point, by the sheer lack of professionalism. But still I kept my composure, and calmly asked him if Verizon's policy was to have it's customers check to make sure they did their job.
He basically latched onto that idea, that it was my responsibility to check it and make sure the insurance had been applied. I could not believe it.. aghast, I just told him that it was irrelevant anyway, because Verizon had already accepted the responsibility and promised me a replacement at the same cost as a deductible.
To that, he replied: "Well, I'm not going to honor that. Our rep could offer you a million dollars. Do you expect me to honor that too?"
Think about this for a second.. Clearly, a customer service representative offering to replace a phone because of an error made by the company she represents is not the same as a rep offering me a million dollars. This guy was just completely adamant on helping me, and it seemed to me it was more about "winning the argument" than anything else for him.
I knew I would not get anywhere with him, so I asked him to please escalate the case. His reply to that was: "I'm as high as you're ever going to get, speaking to Verizon. I'm it.. it doesn't get escalated higher than me. My decision is final"
I asked one more time, what what the official reason is for not honoring the other reps promise, and how he could justify not doing it even though it had been offered to me. (Now, I'd like to add, this promise was not something I'd imagined or made up. It was actually written in the notes, that I had been offered the replacement for the same cost as a deductible. I confirmed this by going on chat to speak with a sales rep later that day, and I had the rep go into my account and confirm that this promise was made. I also had them email me the chat transcript, so I had something in writing.. I have evidence of this promise.)
His answer was simply: "That offer is no longer on the table" - That part is verbatim. I remember clearly those were his exact words. That offer is no longer on the table. I asked for him to clarify, but he just repeated, "That offer is no longer on the table", followed by "..and there's nothing you can do about it."
In all my life, I have never seen a large company like Verizon behave in this way. It has been extremely the most stressful dealing I have ever endured with a company of this scale.
Now, a week later I still have no resolution. I'm currently without a phone, which is a very big deal for me, because I have two young daughters in Australia, who have my number memorized as an emergency contact and they call me and speak to me often. I miss them a lot, and after having not seen them for over a year, speaking to them on a daily basis has become something that's very important to me, and to my girls.
I'm hoping and praying someone from Verizon will read this, and help me, or maybe some of you on the forum may have some idea on what to do at this point.
Thank you so much for reading, thank you for your time, please comment, or let me know if you have any advice for me. I'll be posting this on several other sites as well.
Along with hoping to get some help with my situation, I'm also hoping others who read this will be cautious about trusting the word of your Verizon rep, and please get everything in writing, (although even if I had my offer in writing, I have no idea how it would help.)
I plan also to open a case with Consumer Affairs, as well get my story out there on a large scale via certain media.
Thanks again
Aloha
