My iPhone 5c stopped charging unless I turned it off while charging. I pay for the total mobile protection insurance, so I thought getting a new phone would be quick and easy. I brought my phone to the Verizon store after my father spoke to a Verizon representative who informed him that this is what I needed to do. The man I spoke to at the Verizon store did not seem to care or feel like helping me fix my problem at all. While I was speaking to him, he said, "It's hot up in this b****!" I was shocked that a customer service representative would use profanity while working with a customer! He then told me that there was nothing he could do for me in the store other than switch my phone to a Droid, or he could "maybe try to help me with the insurance, but we don't really do that here." He then told me that my phone was still under warranty and sent me to the Apple store for repairs.
I drove 20 minute to the Apple store, where I had to wait two hours for an appointment. The man at the Apple store pulled up my information and told me that my phone was NOT under warranty, and he even showed me the screen that indicated this. He told me the only free option was for me to attempt to erase all contents and settings on my phone and reset it as a new phone. I tried this, and it did not solve my problem.
I called Verizon customer service and spoke to a man named Otis for about an hour. He told me to try turning my phone off and back on (even though I assured him I had done this several times since the problem occurred), and he told me to try different chargers, which I had also already tried. The chargers I tried work on other iPhones, so I know they are working chargers. He asked me to look into the port on my phone and describe what I saw. He then asked if there was any visible damage on my phone. I told him that there was none, and he asked the same question about damage at least two other times! He then told me to connect my phone to my computer and open iTunes, but my computer would not recognize the phone. He told me to try another USB port on my computer, but that did not work. He told me to update everything on my phone (which was out of date because of the previous reset), and when that did not work, he told me to update my computer's OS and iTunes. That did not work, so he told me that it could be iMovie, Numbers, or Pages being out of date on my computer that caused the problem. There is NO WAY this was the cause of the problem, because I had not even connected my phone to my computer in the past. He made me restart my phone, restart my computer, unplug the phone and plug it back in, and push on the cord (which sits very securely in the port). Finally, after about 50 minutes of repeating the same steps over and over, I had to give the phone I was using to speak to Otis back to its owner, so he told me to finish updating iMovie, Numbers, and Pages on my computer and then backup my phone on iTunes. I asked what I should do if this did not work, and he said to call back to discuss replacement options.
When the updates did not solve my problem, I called back to get a replacement phone mailed to me, and the representative I spoke to transferred me to another representative who said I would have to call back when I had access to a separate phone. I told him that I had already spent an hour troubleshooting the problem with another representative, but he said that the only way he could help was for me to have a separate phone. I told him I did not want to start from scratch, because I had already described the problem and the troubleshooting process I had gone through to at least four representatives. He texted me his number and gave me the times I could call back. He also said I could just text him with the number that he could call me on. Later that night, I called him back two or three times. He did not answer, so I texted him and waited until the next afternoon. He never called back, so I had to start from scratch again!
The last Verizon representative I spoke with told me that I needed to reset my phone. I told her that I had already done this, but she very firmly said that there was no way I could have done this if my phone wouldn't connect to iTunes. I REPEATED the entire troubleshooting process I had gone through to her (which was obviously very lengthy), and she told me that I needed to connect to iTunes to fix the problem. I told her that this was not possible, and she asked me to repeat several of the steps that I had already gone through. I told her that I did not have the time to repeat these steps and that I was told I could just call back about replacement options. She asked me to hold while she consulted Apple. When she came back on the line, she told me what she told them, which was not the problem I described to her at all! When I repeated my problem to her, she said, "Well, I'm confused because you told me something different earlier." I NEVER told her a different problem, and when I told her this, she spoke to me like I was lying! She sounded like she had an attitude for most of the call until the very end! She got back on the line with Apple, then told me that my charger was at fault. I assured her that I had tried at least five different chargers, all of which worked on other iPhones, and I even tried new chargers. She said that it could still be the charger that was not working and that my phone was not broken. I told her that I wanted a replacement phone because I was told that is what I was calling for, and I PAY for insurance! She made me reset my phone AGAIN, then finally filled out an order for a replacement. I thought for sure that was it! I needed the new phone before I went out of town, and this was my last chance to order it in order for it to get to me on time. Well, come to find out, she entered the wrong address, even though I repeated it back to her several times, and now I have to drive 30 minutes away in the rain when I am supposed to be sleeping to go pick my phone up from the FedEx facility! That's another hour of my time wasted, not to mention the money I will spend on gas to get there!!
I am extremely upset that I had to spend so much time and energy to get a new phone while I pay for insurance! This is completely unacceptable, and I will definitely tell my friends to stay away from Verizon.
