Stolen Phone Support Improvement Idea

[peck79ko]

ok, i got my Black Berry Pearl stolen from me....i know, i know my bad. However, I got great customer service in shutting it off right away just minutes after i realized that it did. Now, I followed up in calling verizon to make sure how it was this was going to work.

Customer Service said: everyone has 30 days to in-activate their stolen phone. For those who try to turn your phone on, it will not be allowed. Then if you wish, you could keep calling back every 30 days to re-in activate the stolen product.

Now- that sounds all great. However, I believe a lot more can be done with stolen phone support.

• When that someone decides they wish to try to turn on the phone at a local verizon store. those sales reps who can see on their screens that  phone has been stolen. They should: 1. notify their manager  2. In however way possible keep the phone with them & DO NOT give it back to those 'customers'  3. Once however the situation has been handled at the store, call and notify the actual owner of the phone to tell them that their phone has been found & will be returned to them.
•           This may not sound like it would  work; so lets go into more detail......the day that the phone is being attempted to be activated (dah, the red flag will be notified) sales rep should ask: did you find this phone or purchase it? if there is no sales record. Ok, we know then it wasn't bought. Moving on, detailed discription of all phones that have been stolen in that local area zip code should be brought up onto the computer screen. This will show the sales rep: owners name and phone number, phone model and type, and when the phone was reported stolen/lost. By matching the discription, the sales rep can clearly then know who to contact to advice the actual owner that their phone has been found.
•           Alright, its kind of confusing but it is the best plan i have and sure there is a lot of "what if-or that can't be" So, help me to make this a better blue print with more links to set it up better.

w all hate to have something stolen, me I know I do. celllphones are so personal to each individual. Let's go beyond the basic stole phone coverage verizon has and improve it! im not the 1st to think this but it's a good start

[garetjaxthemise]

I am truly sorry for your loss and I agree with some of your ideas.

However, the real problem with your arguement is the E-bay effect. Stolen phones are sold quite frequenlty on E-bay as well as Craigslist. So there's no way to verify if the phone was indeed stolen by that person.

One thing to realize, when a phone is reported stolen, the device is unusable and also worthless. Which is usually enough for the would be theif to return to phone to a vzw store.