Verizon phones are AWFUL but Customer Service is WORSE

[jessieb]

I can't handle having to talk to 15 different people about an issue, each person clearly dumber then the next, then after all that being told there is nothing they can do to help. i had 2 different phones sent to me both were broken! Then to top it off I have a mac so trying to transfer media is impossible. I don't care that this is a RIM issue YOU SHOULDN'T SELL A PRODUCT THAT HAS ISSUES LIKE THIS. If I had known this I would never have purchased a blackberry. Dealing with a store employee to discuss my issues is literally like talking to a trained monkey (but they were obviously trained by a **bleep**) TELLING ME YOU FEEL MY PAIN DOES NOT HELP THE SITUATION!! That only makes me angrier!! So in the end my contract is up soon and thanks to the NYC East 86th St employees I will be taking my money (as well as the 5 other contracts I pay for) elsewhere AT&T and IPHONE here I come!!!

[Crackberry20]

what is the RIM issue that you are having I have a Mac and my blackberry transfers media fine is there some way i can help 

[CanyonCarver]

Hi, I have an 8130 and a MAC, what is your secret? Only thing I have found so far is to sync with Google which is a bit of a hassle. By the way, never had any trouble with Verizon or Verizon phones.

[sadie85]

RIM came out with a desktop manager for Mac and there is an option for transferring media within it.

[Thelineman16]

You said it in a handful. Their customer servive is nothing, because it doesn't exist. They stand in line to wait on you to sell the darn phone, then you have to stand in line to get service. I don't get it.

[Movieman0086]

I'm getting sick of Verizon.I have my 2nd,count that my 2nd Blackberry Curve 8330. I have several problems with it. 1. a trackball that is pretty much non existant, 2. calls that dont come all the way through, 3. a phone that locks constantly (and have to pull the battery almost every second), etc. My upgrade date is July 14,2010. I have dealt with Verizon on-line, the tech number and even going into a store. I went into the store today and they lady i talked to said that i could upgrade (up to 4 months up to my upgrade date, but of course the lady that ended up helping me said otherwise and well she of course said i had to wait till EXACTLY July 14th,2010 and no time sooner. Well seeing as i can't get a replacement phone and my upgrade is due in like 8 weeks i'm curious why they can't allow me to upgrade. My phone is pretty much dead and i'm still paying a phone bill and a data plan. Do they give a *explative* about their customers? It **bleep** me off when i pay my phone bill and pay for a data plan and they can't do the simple task of helping me by letting me upgrade. Verizon i hope your listening.

Doug Post

[sadie85]

Why should they allow you to upgrade? Your contract states you can only get discounted pricing on or after a certain date. It also states you have the option of purchasing an extended warranty or insurance to protect your phone. You must have neglected to do either. Why should your poor planning constitute an emergency on Verizon's part?

[Movieman0086]

Well first off im on my dads business account so i cant afford an extended warranty or insurance. Its not poor planning m'am, but my limit on my account.  Its also not my fault i have a crappy made Blackberry Curve 8330.It is a pile of junk and its barely able to be used. Now with my lack of access on my account my only recourse is to upgrade my phone.

[sadie85]

Extended warranty is $1.99 a month. If finding $2/month is hard then probably a phone with an expensive data plan isn't the way to go for you.

If being on your fathers business account is such a problem then do an assumption of liability and get off his account. Just have to be over 18.

If your phone is out of warranty, Verizon will sell you a certified pre-owned phone. You can get a phone from a friend/ebay/craigslist. Just make sure to get the ESN before purchasing and  check to see if it's not on a lost/stolen list.

You have options...you just don't like them.

[Movieman0086]

Im learning to keep organized so the smart phones are easier for me to use and definitely keeps me organized. I got my phone through a business so they allowed an allowence for me.  I'm learning disabled so the smart phones make it easier for me to get organized, but i need the data plan for the smart phone hence i have no choice. Not saying that $2 is too much, but i'm limited by the company. I can't get off his account seeing as i get a better deal all around, but VZW should realize that phones are not indestructable. The plan i get is like everyone in the business. If the CEO of the business wants to save money they will make cuts in certain areas. The problem with getting a certified pre-owned is that when i asked about those it was the same price if i bought it new, hence not sure of their thinking on that. I would most certainly gone certified pre-owned in a heart beat for that. I will check craigslist and see what i can find. Just a little leary about stolen phones and all the stuff that has been going on with craigslist. Ive had some bad deals on ebay as well so not too comfortable with the whole on-line stuff. I wonder if any of them realize the customer is always right. I mean if its a matter of people who are wanting the newest and best electronics then thats one thing, but when i bring my phone into a VZW store and showing them everything wrong with the phone and also in a store where they can look at and verify my phone complaints i would think that they could do an early in-store upgrade.

One of the ideas i had in dealing with this problem may actually help any verizon wireless customer. I understand that the 800 number is a good tech number, but if there are some of us who have legitimate phone issues, whether we by a lemon of a phone or tech problems that cause us to lose production for either work or other important things. I say that VZW should adopt a policy whereas if a person (lets say he/she has a phone that turns out to be a lemon beyond the 30 days,etc.) the user should bring it to the closest official Verizon store and their tech people or whatever they have can determine if an early upgrade is necessary or if its a minor repair (in my case the trackball of my blackberry curve 8330). Even though if they had looked extensively at my phone they would have realized that it was seriously falling apart. I'm basically saying that besides their "warranty"period they should cator to the customer and develop a program to streamline technological problems locally.

[sadie85]

Verizon never claims the phones are indestructible. If they did, why would they offer insurance/extended warranty? If you purchased a new car and decided against the extended and something happens to the car after warranty expires, would you walk into the dealership saying "Hey my car is having problems with XYZ my warranty just expired, can you give me a new car?" No you wouldn't. You wouldn't even go into the dealership and ask them to fix it for free(which I saw on your numerous other post Verizon did fix your trackball for free)

There is reason why you can't just upgrade to a new phone at discounted pricing whenever you wish. Perhaps you need to learn more about the business you are speaking of before offering "solutions"(which by the way, already exist...yup you guessed it, extended warranty) Verizon does not make phones. They purchase them from a manufacturer, in this case Research In Motion. They are purchased close to the retail price(usually $500+ when it's a new model). Verizon then in turns sells you phone at the contract price, usually $200-$300 less than what they paid for the phone. They do this because they know you are now in contract for 2 years and they are going to making money off your business or you'll be paying an early termination fee. Allowing people to upgrade whenever they wish doesn't make very much business sense. Verizon after all is a business, whose goal is to turn a profit, just like I'm sure your father's business wants too.

[Movieman0086]

Well since I'm not paying Verizon directly then how preytell would i go about getting insurance, and since its broken i cant purchase a warranty or insurance, besides its close to 9 weeks for my upgrade date.  you  cant compare a cell phone to a car. that would be like comparing a house to a car and that isnt even close. That and there is a much bigger price difference. {No personal comments, please}  When i received the 2nd phone they never mentioned that i would need warranty or insurance. I wasnt even asked for that when i got the original, oh yea i got my phone through a verizon rep through my dads company (oh yea thats sarcasm). I didnt get it directly.. Ya think the verizon rep mentioned anything about warranties or insurance...I don't think so. I never met with the rep so i didnt have a say so. I can understand if i had a whole year and asked for an upgrade, but 9 weeks isnt far off.

[sadie85]

You can't get insurance after there's damage, just like anything else you insure. Insurance needs to be added within the first 30 days.

And yes I can compare cars and cell phones. While the cost is drastically different, the princple is the same.

Take the information you've learned from this experience and do something different about it next time.

[Jude526]

Sounds like a lot of attitude !  All devices have a one yr warranty and IF you are going to have a BB  you are WISE to have insurance on it or an extended warranty.  And your father should had gotten that on your phone.

And as mentioned earlier if you are over 18 then get your own account

Verizon has the best service and their customer service reps are great as well.  People sure try to take advantage of them and it is ashame.  There is always going to be an issue.  But don't blame a company for you not taking responsibility to have an extended warranty or insurance on your phone.  How do you treat your BB  ?  Do you throw it around...........are you careful with it?  User abuse can certainly take a toll on a device too  Just like being rough on a car and not taking care of it properly  It will certainly give you issues if you don't care for it !

[outamyway]

The problem with the warranty is that it only covers the 1st year of your contract. It does not cover the phone for a year. If it did, I would already have my 10th BB Storm. No matter when you get a replacement, the warranty is only good for 1 year from the date of the contract. So, if you get a replacement phone 364 days after signing your contract, and the next day is does what every single BB I've had does (i.e. malfunction), you are then out of luck. Ask me how I know this...

The last time I was in the store, the cust svc agent spent most of his time with me checking his email on that little clipboard device they have. At first i thought he was trying to research solutions to my problem, but when I happened to see what he was doing I  became pretty agitated. 

  To all the people that are quick t say things like "If you don't like it go somewhere else" or "All the other companies are junk, Verizon is the best" What's it to you? Why are you so far up Verizon's colon? Some people on here clearly have issues with either their device or verizon's (lack of) customer service, or both. If I buy something, I expect it to work. If I pay for a service, I expect it to be satisfactory. I've been a customer of Verizon for 11 years. I've never had as many cust svc issues with them as I have in the last year and frankly I'm pretty disappointed. BTW, my non-BB phone (my Wife's phone) never has any problems. I use my BB for business so I need to have it. However, when it is humid, I cannot use the touchscreen. Since I live in the south, it is almost always humid, therefore i cannot use my phone when I go outside. This would not come in very handy if I were involved in an accident or witnessed some kind of emergency for which I might need to dial 911.

[dissat57]

There is no customer service in my opinion. Just someone answering a phone after a 10 minute wait, wishes that there was something they could do, tells you nothing that you don't already know, and pleasantly wishes you a nice day.

[coach303]

for those who think verizion coustemer service is so terrible there are 3 companies wiht much worse coustemer service they are boost mobile. cricket and tmobile

[ebanks14]

For what it's worth I've used Verizon for 10+ years (they acquired Airtouch in Michigan around 2000) and my phones have always worked well and I've always thought the customer service was excellent.  I have had some problems such as accidentally subscribing to some crappy online trivia game where every time I played it charged me data fee and I wasn't on unlimited at the time so I had overages....I called to complain that I didn't know there would be charges and they took off the current month's overage fee which they didn't have to do.  I also recently had to upgrade to a smartphone for work and the customer service rep walked me through this very thoroughly and smoothly which I appreciated.  I completely disagree with the subject of this thread.....there are always exceptions and everyone has bad-service stories and you can vote with your feet, but generalizing with extreme statements doesn't really help anyone.  Something tells me you'll end up complaining about your next carrier as well.  Good luck!

[Tbarnes]

I totally agree with you.  Verizon is a joke.  I live in a rural area and service is a great issue.  However those who have US Cellular have no problem.  Verizon better step it up or they are going to lose a lot of business here.  and the customer service is a joke i have to agree. 

[#20]

I am sick of verizon aswell, my blackberry storm 9530 hasnt worked right since I got it..This is my 3rd one and it still doesn't work right. I want to down grade but it cost soo much, because Verizon is greedy and their service sucks, I keep getting this "SOS" on my signal bars and i can't use it. I think I should get my money back for this peice of {word filter avoidance}
phone

Is it possible to downgrade..I pay near $110 a month for {word filter avoidance}
service and a crappy phone. I think there should be suit or something for the people who recieve a malfunctioning phone from a company that wont work with you.

In fact I believe that there is a clause in your agreement/ contract that says you have to be satisfied with your service/ phone. I for one am not happy. I will not be renewing my contract, ever again

[LCromwell]

I have had my storm 1 since Aug. of 09. I am running 5.0.0.419. If you want help PM me.