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Deceptive Selling Practices

I have been a fairly long term customer of Verizon for several years. We have three separate phone lines w/ the unlimited plan. We generally rotate the upgrades of the phones through the three lines as they were all added at separate times. I always go w/ the 2 year contract deals. Recently we went into the store: as my son wanted to upgrade to a Galaxy 6. I explained what we wanted; new 2 year contract: the deal was $250 for the phone w/ a $50 rebate. He asked if I wanted the Edge plan and I said no as I feel that is not a good deal. Due to we were switching his old phone to my wife's phone as she had the upgrade; there were many changes being made. The customer service rep told me there was a better deal and that we could get 2 more gigs of data; a new bose speaker; a and told me the "bundle" was only $25 more a month but we would get a credit of $25 so it was a wash. He charged me the $200 and some odd dollars and transferred the phones.

A month goes by and my kids keep exceeding the data plan so I went to up my data and I took a detailed look at my bill and I noted I am getting charged $25 for the Edge plan. So where did my $200 go? I pulled the receipt (that was emailed to me with around 6 other receipts and letters; to add to our confusion); the $200 was for the Bose Speaker, the screen, a charger.... all stuff I didn't need which he alluded to me was free and "part of the bundle". I called customer service and they said since this is 45 days out they cannot do anything about it. They told me it was a break even because of the $25 credit. If you do the math it isn't break even: if I was on a 2 year plan I would have paid $200 for the phone. One of my other plans is up in 6 months; so if I wanted to upgrade i could. If I want to upgrade now thru the "edge" plan I have to pay the balance of the $600 phone. So in essence I have paid $200 for a bunch of stuff I didn't need and paid full price for the phone. I am not "paying" anything because of the credit: if 1 year into the plan I want a new phone I have to pay the balance of $300; so that is not accurate. I have searched all over this site to file a complaint and no where on this site does it allow me to do that; only this community section. If someone knows of the site address or have an e-mail I would like to file a formal complaint. Thank you,

Comments

MiiHere

Here is why he said it is a wash.

To buy the phone outright you would have paid $200 + $40 activation fee (at least I think it's activation, I do know there is a fee) = $240

The Galaxy 6 is $600 at full cost, but the Edge program allows you to break those down into payments of $24.99 over the span of 2 years.

The edge program also allows you to get a $25 dollar discount (which you can't get on a 2 year contract) on the line access charge of $40. Meaning if you keep that phone for 2 years, like you were planning to do by doing a 2 year contract you would save .24 cents plus the $40 activation fee because this fee is waived by signing up on the edge = $40.24 cents in savings over the span of 2 years.

So keep in mind you've now been given $40.24 cents to do the edge program and did not have to pay $240 for that phone.

You were panning on spending $240 for a 2 year contract, so he he sold you some accessories instead = You spent exactly what you were planning to spend only you got a new phone and some accessories for the same cost.

jdoboski

I too had a recent bad experience with deceptive selling. I needed to get a new phone because the microphone on my phone was no longer working. So I just wanted to get a phone. That's all I wanted. a new phone (which took nearly an hour). They tried to sell me the Edge plan, I said no. They said I could get a cheaper plan then what I was paying .. $10 less. I got sucked into that without knowing the details. When I went online, while my overall bill was $10 cheaper and included unlimited talk (my previous plan had number of minutes), they were now charging $30 per phone. I have 2 other phone lines (my parents). And they are just using flip phones. So I am playing $60 total for 2 additional phones .. that are flip phones!? That seems crazy to me. I'd rather go back to my old plan that had limited number of minutes but the phone lines cost $10 each.

Doesn't matter if you know what you want - they still go through their selling routine because they are salespeople. The process is terrible.

Oh and did I mention, the new phone I was getting ... the battery was pretty much depleted as I left the store so I ended up having to charge it on the way home and not able to use it because the battery was dead.

mbecks

No - because I have 3 phone lines that have various upgradable contract dates. i.e. one is up 12/25/15: so if I wanted to upgrade I could transfer the upgrade to his line; purchase a new phone and transfer that phone to someone else in the family.

Now on the edge plan; if I wait a year: then want to upgrade that specific phone: I have to pay the balance which is $300. Then go through some other deceptive "bundle" purchase and buy another $200 worth of stuff I didn't need? I just spent $500 vs. $240. Bottom line is I was sold something I didn't want and it was done deceptively. If he was actually trying to help me he should have just sold me the Edge plan and not had me buy $200 worth of accessories. He didn't say; "if you buy these accessories the phone is free".

Do you work for Verizon?

Loquat

I understand the benefits of edge as it works in my favor to do so and is the reason I've chosen to purchase my devices that way...but not everyone fully comprehends the program or "gets it". As customers we have to be more diligent about what we're getting ourselves into and make sure we read all the fine print before committing to the sale. And MiiHere, if you're calculations are correct, mbecks didn't really gain $40.24 because using edge does require you to pay taxes on the full price and tax on $200 bucks versus $600 certainly eats into the $40.24 that you say is a gain in this instance.

MiiHere

My point is you don't want to upgrade every year do you? You only have to pay the Edge contract off after 1 year if you want to upgrade after, which I assume you don't want to as you were planning on doing a 2 year contract. You've always had the ability to upgrade every 2 years, and now if you wait the 2 years you were already planning to wait, just like on the other 2 lines that are eligible for upgrades so is this one. Nothing has changed except you spent the money you were already planning on spending.

I can assure you my math is correct. On a a 2 year contract you would have paid $240 for the phone, plus $40 for the line access fee each month = $1,200 for two years.

On Edge you pay $24.99 a month for the phone plus $15 a month for the line access (after the $25 discount for edge) = $959 for 2 years

I don't work for Verizon.

MiiHere

So is your plan $10 less or not? Did you not get any helpful information in your own thread when you posted this exact same thing?

mbecks

No my plan really didn't change at all because I increased my data plan; it's actually increased. The overall $25.22 charge is credited w/ $25 so it is a wash; it's still $40 for the line a month.

MiiHere

The $25 credit is for your $40 line access fee. You can see that if you go under your account and pull up the phone the Edge contract is under. Either way you want to slice it, though I know you are wrong, you're still paying $40.22 for 2 years which means the plan costs you $965 - doing my math I got $959.

The fact still stands buying the phone out right would have cost you $1,200 over 2 years.

Edge program costs you $960-$970 depending on the change for 2 years + $200 you spent on accessories = $1,160 - $1,170 - you save $30.

MiiHere

That question was actually for the other person who commented - they already started their own thread with their issue, but didn't respond on it and I don't think it's cool to try and steal your thunder.

MiiHere

I'm from Oregon, we don't pay sales tax, but yes, it was more than likely a wash.

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