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Mislead by store employee?

I went to my local Verizon store for help in pairing my Droid to my car. The employee went out to my car and got it paired successfully. On the way home, I called someone to check that it worked, which it did. By the time I got home my phone had gone to "sleep", but when I tried to wake it up the screen was just gibberish. I couldn't even turn it off. I want back to the store and the same employee looked at it and told me it had a virus and there was nothing that could be done about it so I would have to buy a new phone. What did I know, after all, so he pulled out a Droid Turbo for me to buy out of contract for $649.99. He set me up on the Verizon Edge program which sounded nice as he explained that I could pay for it in installments over a period of time and my bill would actually be less than what I had been paying previously with my Droid Razor after he made some other changes to my service. He put my old phone in a box and told me to take it to the Post Office so it could be returned to Verizon and I would receive payment for returning it. Imagine my surprise when 2 months later I receive a bill for $299.00 for "Erly Edge Non-Rtn_Dmgd. I called Verizon customer service and was told that the phone I returned was not in working order. Did I know this? Well yes because if it was working I wouldn't have returned it. I went back to the store and the same Verizon employee told me that he knew better than to return a non-working phone and wouldn't have done such thing. I asked him if there was another employee that looked just like him. Of course there wasn't (it's a small store in a small town and he is the only employee). He said he remembered me but he didn't remember doing it. Well, Verizon received the phone, so I don't know who else would have done it. He took my information, including my social security # (why?) so he could look into it further. Have I heard anything further? NO. To make a short story long: I had to buy a phone out of contract because my old one supposedly had a virus (?); I was mislead about how much my monthly bill would be; I was mislead about being charged for a phone that wasn't working. In essence I paid for my old phone 2X: when I bought originally and when it was sent back in non-working order. Total cost to me? $199.00 for the original Droid Razor; $649.99 for a new Droid Turbo; and $299.00 for returning a non-working phone - Grand Total: $1147.99. Does this sound fair to anyone? I got nowhere calling customer service and I got nowhere going back to the store. What do I do now?

Comments

charilaus

Has this been resolved? I've a similar problem where I turned in a samsung stellar for early edge (bought it in store for less than 100 bucks) and now I'm being charged a whole 300 AFTER TURNING IT IN. Same error code on my bill as well, which is strange considering it was working enough for me to make calls and restore factory conditions the day that I sent it in...

Snn5

Was the Stellar the phone that was on contract at the time that you Early Edged?

MiiHere

Did you go to an actual Verizon store? Or a kiosk or "branch" of Verizon? I would avoid any and all "branches" of Verizon and only ever deal with an actual Verizon store.

When my better half had to get a new phone at full price (dropped the old one in water) she went in knowing full well she would need to drop $500 on a new phone. The employee she got was quite the opposite of the one you are dealing with. He grabbed a WORKING phone that was in the back and used it as the "trade in" in order to get on the Edge program; that way we could just pay off the full amount of the phone over the next 2 years. It actually also decreased the price of the line as well. It was around $25 extra every month in order to pay the phone off in 2 years, but she got a $10 discount on the line.

He did not make her mail in the old phone, my understanding is they verified it worked in order to even sign her up on the Edge program and then they sent it where ever it needed to go.

Did you keep anything from the shipment? Does the store have cameras? I would avoid contacting the store directly and call in somewhere and explain the situation. Worse case ask if you can send in a different phone and go on CL and drop $60-$80 on an old working phone; I just sold my old Droid Incredible II for $60 vs. spending $300 on the early termination fee.

Snn5

The employee that took a working phone as trade in was very dishonest. He mailed in a phone that wasn't yours. I am surprised you didn't find a charge for an improper phone return. Nonetheless, whenever someone Early Edges they must turn in the phone on contract..IE..the phone which the contract was started with that received the subsidized price. This trade-in pays the ETF for having cancelled a contract to get onto Edge which is not a contract. Obviously you don't have to trade-in a phone of any type if going from an out of contract line to an Edge line. (The traded-in phone must also work, be unmodified, and free of physical or water damage to be eligible for Early Edge.)

MiiHere

I don't quite follow most of your post, but as far as the employee being dishonest, he didn't take a brand new phone from the back. I wasn't there, but I image it was an older style phone that someone didn't want to deal with when they upgraded. Or perhaps his old phone because he upgraded that day etc. While I can't fathom leaving my old phone at Verizon "just because" I am sure some people do, my grandparents for example have flip phones still and when they "upgraded" they left their old ones at the store unsure what to do with them.

I don't believe what he did was dishonest UNLESS he stole the working phone in order to put my better half on the Edge program. He did what any person could do to INITIALLY sign up for the edge program, he activated the phone he grabbed from the back on the existing line, which if we had bought a used one on ebay or craigslist we would have done, and that in turn did exactly what you are saying, made the active phone on that line the phone that was being traded in; therefore there was no "improper phone return" charge.

You are correct that now if we wanted to Edge Up, which we don't, we would need to trade in the phone that is now on the edge program and I don't think they would take any other phone except that one. Even if we were to do what was done when we initially signed up.

Snn5

Taking any phone that was not the current contract phone to begin Edge while under contract seems a bit off to me, but it was what it was.

Starting Early Edge is different than starting Edge.

Early Edge is when a contract customer starts Edge early, before contract expiration. In that situation, the contract phone is returned to cover the ETF for cancelling the contract early.

When a customer starts Edge when out of contract, they do not have to return a phone to begin Edge. They might be able to trade-in a phone for credit though.

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