Verizon worker is a jerk

[Phonengames]

My husband droppen his new iPhone 4; it slid off his knee onto pavement and the glass shattered. When we went to the Greenbriar Verizon store in Chesapeake, VA, the worker's first question was, "Did you buy the screen protectors?". I'm not sure about the exact term, but the thin plastic film. Anyway, when we said we didn't, he told us, "If you had bought the plastic, that wouldn't have happened. The glass would not have broken". We disagreed, but the guy just started acting like a jerk. His smug nonchalant attitude made me want to smack him in the side of the head with my own iPhone. When we told him that insurant said it would cost $100.00, he said, "Yep! $165, actually". We said, "But this glass is supposedly made of the same glass helicopters are made with", but he just kept this idiotic stand that if we had purchased that litte piece of film, the glass wouldn't have shattered. I went so far as the challenge the nit, "So if I buy that piece of film and slam the phone on the ground, it won't break?". "Nope. It won't". I told him to get me the piece of film and I'd try it on the ground. He said, "I'll ring you up, but you have to do it outside". My husband dragged me away before I did something stupid.
We went to the Apple store and THEY helped us out tremendously. People, if your iPhone 4 glass breaks by a slight drop, TAKE IT TO APPLE STORE!! DO NOT PAY ASSURANT!!

By the way, when I asked the App tech if the film would have helped, he laughed and said, "It might have kept your screen from getting dirty. But if glass is going to break, a small piece of plastic isn't going to prevent it. The plastic is made to protect the screen from dirt and scratches". When I told him what the Verizon guy told me, he laughed again and said, " if you have a problem, bring it back here."

My question is, if it is going to cost so much money to repair the phone, why are we paying for insurance? The cost that the Verizon guy quoted was almost what we paid for the phone. When I told him this he smugly grinned and shrugged. I said, "then I want to cancel the broken phone line and sign up for a new iPhone!" He shrugged and smugly said, "ok! But then you'll have to pay $300.00 for breaking the contract!".
We've been doing business with Verizon for YEARS, since they've been in service, and we were pretty happy until today. After our contract is up, we're leaving Verizon. Until then, I want to quit paying for insurance. It doesn't help.

[PJNC284]

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Phonengames wrote:
It's actually worse than I thought, since we have the 32 GB. Glad they didn't offer a 64. The "lost or stolen" isn't too bad, but how do you know someone isn't going to claim they lost it and sell it on EBay for a profit? Y'all owe my parents a "thank you" card. LOL. Seriously though, this is probably why the deduct is so high.

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The phone is property of asurion if a claim is filed.  A lost or stolen phone will have its ESN/MEID blacklisted, effectively rendering the phone useless and making it an expensive iPod Touch.   Granted most blacklisted phones just get flashed to cricket or one of the other small carriers that don't care.

[dirkbonn]

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Phonengames wrote:
It's actually worse than I thought, since we have the 32 GB. Glad they didn't offer a 64. The "lost or stolen" isn't too bad, but how do you know someone isn't going to claim they lost it and sell it on EBay for a profit? Y'all owe my parents a "thank you" card. LOL. Seriously though, this is probably why the deduct is so high.

OK, so I have one question: Apple replaced the broken phone, so it's not the same one Verizon sold us. We did buy insurance, but is it still eligible since it is a different phone? I mean, we received the exact make and model, but the serial number has changed. Will this effect the warranty?.

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As you said in an earlier post, the deductible was going to be $165.  It sounds like the Verizon employees were trying to assist you by giving you less expensive options to replace your phone. i.e. Droid X for $99, or something like that. 

Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide to do....

[legendsneverdie]

Just wanted to let people know if you file an insurance claim, your current phone gets flagged and cannot be reactivated on another line.  So if you think you're going to be slick and sell your 'lost' phone, all yuo're going to do is end up in small claims court paying the person you sold it to, back.

[oxzide]

Try not to let one bad "Apple" upset you so much... *snicker snicker*

[s0narbr]

Ok, insurance is a protection that allows you to get a new phone in the event that you have broken the phone. Yes, it is the same price you paid for the phone for an insurance replacement, this is still much cheaper than paying full retail for the phone which is somewhere around $799.

This is the easiest way that I could explain it. Let's say you purchased a brand new car and then a few days later decide to drive on the wrong side of the road resulting in an accident which damages your vehicle. You wouldn't expect to take it back to the dealership or the manufacturer to get a replacement one for free or even at a steep discount. That's why you have insurance, but even still the insurance company charges a deductible when you make a claim, this is part of the agreement between you and the insurance company that was aggreed upon when choosing to use their service.

It's the same way with phones or any other products that you may purchase. You're responsible for taking care of it. Also as for having to pay an early termination fee is so that the carrier doesn't lose out on the money they've already invested by "giving" the phone away.

[kustomsol]

How totally naive people are.. i have been a Verizon customer  before it was Verizon.. When you had to buy bag phones.In 1994..And one thing i have learned.. VERIZON does not care!!!! I will not go through all the problems i have had with them.. The only thing that keeps me with them is the reliability of the calls. Now if and when the ATT merger goes  through i will be gone.

[gerio]

Oh, please, wake up already...

I deal with people all over the country on many different phone carriers.

From my conversations with them, they all care about the same, a little more or less.

Having said that, my year and a half's worth of experience with Verizon has been head and shoulders above the 14 years I spent with
AT&T (including 3 iPhones).

Go ahead and hold yer breath to see if they get any better after this merger, if it happens. You will be a-looking pretty blue in short order.

Geri O

[sjb411]

I suggest buying an otterbox case, and saying screw the insurance. Apple gives 90 days phone support, and one year in-store technical support on hardware issues. And $69.99 adittional will get you an extra year, which in most cases will take you through the duration of the contract. As for Verizon customer service, it's really hit or miss. I too dealt with a few rude representatives in the past couple of weeks. But I also had a good experience in another store. I jumped over from AT&T too prematurely cause I thought the iPhone would be more reliable on CDMA, but I've regretted that decision since the day I bought it.

[kaebfly]

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sjb411 wrote:
I suggest buying an otterbox case, and saying screw the insurance. Apple gives 90 days phone support, and one year in-store technical support on hardware issues. And $69.99 adittional will get you an extra year, which in most cases will take you through the duration of the contract. As for Verizon customer service, it's really hit or miss. I too dealt with a few rude representatives in the past couple of weeks. But I also had a good experience in another store. I jumped over from AT&T too prematurely cause I thought the iPhone would be more reliable on CDMA, but I've regretted that decision since the day I bought it.

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In your case, when you jumped over and decided from day one that the move was too premature you probably should have used the 14 day return policy as your opportunity to port back to AT&T. Regret on something you felt from the day you did it is something you could have fixed. Not sure what reliability issues you aren't having with Verizon that you expected versus AT&T, but hopefully whatever your issue it is resolved soon. If it's something other than abilities you had with AT&T versus Verizon then that's a little different, but mostly it seems that people that switched did so because they experienced dropped calls more often than they liked. Most that switched for that reason seem to be happy with at least that aspect being better. Not sure if you have an issue that anyone can help with but if you post your issues on here or the Apple Support site I'm sure users will try to help you out if they have any suggestions.

[dudewheresmycel]

     Just signed up to the forum and this is the first post I read.......funny stuff.....finally found someone with something nice to say. I too have had a bad experience at Verizon, but that is life. No ones ever had a terrible waitress or a clerk who at a retail store that is a jerk? How about the convienence store or gas station clerks who are apethetic or just clueless? As I put it...when you have an issue and ask for help, the look on their face is like..."the look on the face of a deer in the headlights of a car".

     I just went to Verizon as my 8 year old LG became a boat anchor, giving me 100% of its life span. I bought a Thunderbolt and the girl who waited on me was satisfactory. She left me alone to wait on another customer and for me to look at more phones. Another sales rep approached me and we continued from there. When I reached a decision, I asked if the first girl was on commission, and the answer was yes. I thanked the second person and said I would wait for the first girl who spent some time  with me. I was then given to the store mgr to start the check out process(which was ultimately completed by my original salesperson). Thereby giving the "paycheck" to the correct salesperson. This is how this girl feeds her family. Isn't that why we work?

   All the people in that store (I spoke with 4 of them) were very pleasant. The mgr was very helpful and very, very knowledgeable. They had an issue with transferring data one phone to another as the charging/data port on the old LG has been trashed for a year. They apoligized and seemed almost distraught that they couldn't move the data for me. I understood as I knew the phone was spent. Life happens some times. All in all I have had very good service at this particular store, for personal and buisness products.

   As far as the insurance goes, why isn't any here complaining about paying car insurance every year and not getting anything back. How about Homeowners insurance or Life insurance. Where are those Flames? Its just that, a monthly fee that hopefully will help you out when you need it most.

   How about our jobs and our customers? If you work with the public, have we ever had our customers be jerks? Ohhhhhhh yeah, and we have to smile and say "thank you". Again that's life. A rep from Verizon posted an apology.....nice.....be thankful that someone from Verizon is monitoring this forum and replied. Thank you. Marketing 101...have a good experience and you will tell 3 people, a bad experience and you will tell 7. Its in print.

    Well I've bored everyone to tears now....just my thoughts...

P.S. While looking at phones, a store rep was asking me questions and typing on a laptop in the store as we spoke. Before I new it I was now given an install date for the complete FIOS package (internet, TV and phone). I never told her that I was going to do the switch from my current provider. She was very nice, but pushy. Thats her job and is on commission too. I will call and cancel the install. Did that ruin my day....NO....am I going to a forum to scream bloody murder....NO.....am I going to yell that Verizon is a scam artist....NO. She's just doing what she knows might work to make a sale. Feeding her family (2 cute little kids as we also discussed our children and traded showing pics).

  When you get bad service and are truly upset, try and resolve it. If you can't, don't worry about it and avoid that situation again if possible. There's a lot of people in this life walking around sucking on lemons..........

[SydneyK]

Nice first post, dudewheremycel. I agree with all your points. Service from some is better than others, but I don't let it ruin my day. I treat everyone like human beings and if someone's having a bad day, it's not the end of the world. 

[WithVZWLongTime]

Unfortunately, since the iPhone arrived on Verizon, the quality of the Customer Service HAS greatly degraded and in rapid fashion.

Prior to February 2011, I could count on one finger the number of times I had been mistreated or had a Verizon employee handle an issue rudely. Since February 2011, I have run out of hands to count the number of times this has happened. 

Recently, an in ept Tech Support idiot accidentally suspended my service (but it could only be seen on the technical side) while troubleshooting an issue I was having with text messaging. When he called me back five minutes later to see if the issue had been resolved and received the "temporarily disconnected" recording, he didn't even get an inkling that he must have done something wrong AND sent me a test stating "I can't call you back" NEVER mentioning that he was NOW getting that recording.  This was approximately 1:45 pm CST.  When I realized I could no longer MAKE CALLS, I called 611 and got runaround after runaround after runaround.  My son had to take off work to come check on me because I am disabled and was home alone without any means of contacting anyone in case of an emergency.  After repeated calls to Verizon a Level 2 Tech decided to check EVERY setting for my phone in EVERY Verizon system then at approximately 11:30 PM after my having been on the phone more than 2 hours, he FINALLY DISCOVERED the issue fixed it in two seconds, and explained and apologized for the "inconvenience".  INCONVENIENCE?! 

They put my family through this UNNECESSARY NIGHTMARE and it was merely an INCONVENIENCE to them.  I had to call back three times before anyone would send the feedback to the Tech's supervisor and the reps all acted as if it was no big deal. To this day Verizon has not offered us ANY compensation for my being without service due to this Tech's negligence.

Today, I get one of those not so friendly reminders - "return the defective device....or be charged full retail price" - more than 1 1/2 days AFTER FedEx delivered the device Verizon.  Verizon employee's explanation: "Oh, out system just probably hadn't updated yet."   So Verizon's idea of good customer service now is to annoy and badger customers rather than have their systems update in real-time?

Truly saddening.

I remember telling a friend who has AT&T that I would NEVER go back to AT&T's atrocious Customer Service and that I would ALWAYS be loyal to Verizon PRECISELY BECAUSE of their Customer Service. (on more than one occassion)

Verizon no longer cares whether "we (customers) can hear them now" or whether we can "rule the air" because they hold all the cards and don't have to be nice. 

I just feel let down and sad now because of ALL the companies with whom I do business Verizon WAS a FIVE-STAR STELLAR STANDOUT IN CUSTOMER SERVICE. Now Verizon is just like the rest: overcharge 'em and continue to reduce service.

If they complain, well, in the words of Marie, "Let them eat cake!"

Extremely disappointed.