Verizon BYOD not honered
yakovk26
Enthusiast - Level 2

I know I'm not the only one, but I also think that Verizon officially tries to be honest, and honor their promotions.... but after trying multiple times to chat or call, I think my best bet right now is to post on the community about this, hopefully, either someone will be able to help me, or Verizon will see this and take care of it.

Last year July I opened 2 new lines with the $650 BYOD promotion, 
I had to read all the fine print myself as the customer support agents kept on messing things up, (First, they just opened a new line without porting or asking me about what plan, second, they ported the line - but left the plan, the third call, they updated the plan, but didn't update the sim (I already had one to use...), etc, etc. - I don't even remember all times I chatted/called - all I know is the agents didn't always know the promotion rules, I had to read it all by myself - and I had to call multiple times, over and over to get these otherwise simple tasks completed)

Anyway... in the end, I got 2 lines both of them had all requirements for the rebate, BUT when I sent in the rebate request it got declined,  (Full disclosure, I sent in the rebate a few times before all rules were met - and they got declined (understandably), but the last time I sent it in I had all requirements).

I called Verizon support multiple times, (each time I was transferred between 2 and 5 times, and each time I was transferred I had to explain the story from scratch...), and somehow every phone call ended up with nothing... usually they would just give me a different number to call (saying that's the rebate center) but when I called it just restarted the entire process.... Only one phone call did I end up actually getting to a person who said - oh you're right, and we have to work out how to honor our rebate, and the next thing I know I got disconnected and she never called back (I WANT to think I got disconnected because she was the first agent to actually work with me... but there is always the possibility I didn't just get "disconnected"....), I also sometimes just ended up having to hang up before even getting to an agent because of how long the wait time would be...

If not for the rebate I would 100% not open these new lines, and now I spent so much money and so much time on this, that I honestly don't think it was even worth it... 

As it stands now, I was ripped off, big time... and I just hope Verizon will be able to fix this, at least to the bare minimum they promised!

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Re: Verizon BYOD not honered
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Thank you for reaching out to us. This is never the experience that we want you to have and we apologize for the ordeal. We want to make sure that you get the assistance that you need and this way you get any and all qualfying rebates. When was the last time that you worked with us? ~Roger

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Re: Verizon BYOD not honered
yakovk26
Enthusiast - Level 2

Hi, 

Thanks for getting back to me, as I said, I do believe you guys try to be honest, just doesn't work out sometimes, the only sad part is that customer service isn't set up well enough to solve this...

Anyway, to answer your question, I don't remember the last time I actually spoke to someone, was quite a while ago (probably like end of December), but the last time I called (I checked call history) was January 4 (I'm 99% sure I didn't get through to anyone then)

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Re: Verizon BYOD not honered
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Thank you for the additional information. I do appreciate it. When was this rebate submitted originally?*Jesse

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Re: Verizon BYOD not honered
yakovk26
Enthusiast - Level 2

Don't remember exactly, sometime in August was the last submission.

If you want the phone numbers - in my account (yakovk26) it's these 2 lines: 0450 and 0952

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Re: Verizon BYOD not honered
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

 

Thanks so much, yakovk26. I've sent you a private message.

-Arya

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Re: Verizon BYOD not honered
yakovk26
Enthusiast - Level 2

So I actually had a lot of back and forth on private chat.. and after everything, they said the reason I can't get the rebate is that I first put the sim cards into basic phones, and then switched it to a smartphone.
As I explained in the first post, not a single agent actually helped me out with everything I need, and I had to call multiple times to get this figured out...
one of the things I asked was if it has to be a smartphone, or a 4g flip phone is good... I'm not shocked that the agent didn't know that it has to be a smartphone... but what bothers me is that after I called for getting disqualified, and was told to switch to a smartphone, I was also clearly told that by doing this I will qualify... 

Besides the agent telling me I will qualify... it sounds so from the fine print... 

From the fine print: "Customer must submit for redemption within 30 days of activation, and device must remain activated for 45 consecutive days"

After reading this it sounds that you have to qualify within 30 days... and can't change the phone for 45 days, it does NOT sound like the sim card can't be put into any phone but the phone that will be used... even for a minute, because once you do so when switching phones, even if done a minute later will disqualify you...

Well... 
The agent understands differently and now I'm upset because I could've saved so much money and time if a single agent would tell me this earlier...

Anyway... in short, if anyone comes to this post to decide if they should trust Verizon's BYOD rebate, I would say I don't think they're lying... and I think they would give it to you IF... you have every single thing right... on your own.
They will NOT help you.. and the agents who seem to help you, or tell you things you have to know about it, DO NOT TRUST THEM... as they either don't know, are misleading you, or just outright lying to you, just so you don't actually qualify...

So yeah... go for it, but make sure you research it, know all the fine print, and even know how anyone else might interpret the fine print... or get a lawyer to read it for you...
after that... go for it!!

 

P.S.
I actually wrote a different word for upset, but it told me I have to remove it.. (I wrote p-i-s-s-e-d)

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