I've been an excellent Verizon customer, always made my payments on time and was diligent in doing so in order to establish a good relationship with Verizon. I have a two year contract ending on Dec 21, 2014, and was wanting to go on the edge program. Two months ago I had a payment due which I paid online like I always do. A day later I received an email from Verizon saying there was an issue with my payment. I went online quickly and noticed that my balance was not showing zero as it should. I went ahead and went through the whole payment process again because perhaps I typed my account number incorrectly. This payment took. I didn't think anything of it....the payment was taken out of my account before the grace period...so it was not late (whew!). Another bill due a month ago, made my payment online again, careful this time, and no issues.
I started to check online about the edge program, playing around with the phones, prices, plans, etc. Convinced of what my choice would be, I called customer service and was very surprised to find out that at the end of my contract on Dec 21, 2014, the edge program was no longer an option for me since I now have a "mark" of a payment return in my account. I quickly deduced this to what happened a couple of months ago when I incorrectly typed in my account number in the process of making a payment online....even though I caught it early enough before it would be deemed a late payment. I called several times, talked to several customer service representative, each time got a different answer for the reason why I'm no longer eligible for the edge program. I even called two local stores in the area. Here are a few answers I got:
"When it's time for your contract to end, we can call somebody to remove that mark in your account and eligibility in the edge program won't be an issue"
"There's a mark in your account and you are no longer eligible for the edge program"
"You've reached the retention department, and and I talked to our financial department, and there's nothing they can do about the mark."
"Not even the president of Verizon can remove that mark in your account."
"Verizon will review your account 6 months from the time when the "mark" appeared in your account for eligibility."
So...as you can see, even though this error in the process of making a payment was caught and corrected, and a payment made BEFORE it being considered late....that "mark" in my count remains and NOBODY in the entire Verizon department can or is willing to review this incident. So I ask everyone.....why should my choices be limited when the "mark" that happened was corrected on time and Verizon still got their payment on time....?
Solution....I will be going to AT&T on their Next program....similar to Verizon's Edge program.
I know I'm only one person, and my business won't put a dent in Verizon's profit....I just thought I was establishing a relationship with Verizon by religiously paying on time.....so much for that! And I know that the representatives who say "we value your business...you are important to us"...is nothing more than scripted verbiage and has no depth to it.
I'm hurt, I feel unimportant in Verizon's "family"....thank God they are not the only game in town. No amount of "We are the largest network" ads and statement is of value when you lose sight of the personal treatment of the individual.
