Disgusted With Verizon

[Kenneth]

My old phone has battery issues and they wanted me to spend $50 on a new battery when my contract expires 8/13/10. I called them up asking if they can give me an early upgrade for the Droid X (this also means they get $300 plus $30 in data fees a month early!) the rep cleared it with her supervisor and said she has the account all set up for the upgrade. Then on Wednesday the place that I pre-ordered the phone from said to come in early because they have 20 pre-orders and 5 phones. I came in early and then they went into the account and it did not mention anything about an early upgrade. The store manager called someone (who I assume was from Verizon wireless) and he got yelled out because he is not supposed to ask for early upgrade but he wasn't even asking about that. Then I called Verizon customer care and explained the story to a rep who transferred me to a supervisor. The supervisor said there was nothing she can do but she can order me one and get it shipped. She was obviously lying because I can't see how a Verizon manager can push a couple of buttons and get the date changed, a couple of customers and even the store manager said they've had this done problem free with contracts that expired in 4-5 months! I believe why this manager did what she did was because I was at an authorized retailer and not a corporate store and I believe she was desperate for a sale. If anything goes wrong with the shipping I'm canceling Verizon and getting an Evo 4G with Sprint or maybe even a 3GS with AT&T. This whole experience was a waste of my time and gas.

[crb79]

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Kenneth wrote:

My old phone has battery issues and they wanted me to spend $50 on a new battery when my contract expires 8/13/10. I called them up asking if they can give me an early upgrade for the Droid X (this also means they get $300 plus $30 in data fees a month early!) the rep cleared it with her supervisor and said she has the account all set up for the upgrade. Then on Wednesday the place that I pre-ordered the phone from said to come in early because they have 20 pre-orders and 5 phones. I came in early and then they went into the account and it did not mention anything about an early upgrade. The store manager called someone (who I assume was from Verizon wireless) and he got yelled out because he is not supposed to ask for early upgrade but he wasn't even asking about that. Then I called Verizon customer care and explained the story to a rep who transferred me to a supervisor. The supervisor said there was nothing she can do but she can order me one and get it shipped. She was obviously lying because I can't see how a Verizon manager can push a couple of buttons and get the date changed, a couple of customers and even the store manager said they've had this done problem free with contracts that expired in 4-5 months! I believe why this manager did what she did was because I was at an authorized retailer and not a corporate store and I believe she was desperate for a sale. If anything goes wrong with the shipping I'm canceling Verizon and getting an Evo 4G with Sprint or maybe even a 3GS with AT&T. This whole experience was a waste of my time and gas.

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I was afraid this was going to happen.  You have to be careful with "authorized" stores as they routinely make promises they cannot meet.  A large portion of this is due to employees who work off of commission.  They will promise you the moon just to get you to come into the store.  

As for your early upgrade plan, you were better off to do this over the phone.  Authorized Retailers don't use the same VZW software and cannot alter account information such as your upgrade dates and credits etc.

[Kenneth]

It wasn't the store who was being greedy. The VZW supervisor on the phone  would not authorize an early upgrade when it was cleared with a different supervisor at an earlier date. She insisted that I order it over the phone. I just think she wouldn't authorize it at the VZW dealer because she wanted the sale.

[sallyj]

Vzw Customer service is not sales. They dont care about selling phones cuz they dont make commision. the problem ur running into is that authorized dealers have their own rules and policies. Its really a behind the scenes issue not a sales issue. and supervisors dont just press a magic button for you to get ur date changed, you have to be eligible and they get audited for every early upgrade exception that they process. So trust me if your even getting an early upgrade your lucky that one of the supervisor stuck their neck out for you if you truely dont meet the criteria and they get in trouble. The other guy was right, the sales people at the authorized retailer are the ones that try to get the sale's commission

[nacleri55]

IM NOW NOT GETTING MINE UNTIL THE TWENTY THIRD AND THE REPRESENTATIVE LIED TO ME ABOUT PLACING THE ORDER AT 12AM WHEN SHE ACTUALLY PLACED IT AT 3PM, SO MUCH FOR GOOD SERVICE...........

[dreamrgrl79]

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS write down the names and the times and dates you call and talk to verizon! I cant even begin to tell you the issues  I had with them. I wanted to combine my plan and my fiances plan to a family plan, but I wanted to make sure that if we did that then we could get the blackberry Buy 1 get 1 free. The person I spoke to said yes. So I changed my plan. Well, I was told that my fiances phone was not upgradable for another 6 months.  Needless to say, I spoke to verizon ALOT and emailed many times. Eventually they adjusted it so we could upgrade our phones the same day, but I think if I didn't take down all the information I would not have gotten as far as I did. It is just so inconvienient and customers spend alot of money on their phones and monthly plans- there is no reason to treat us the way they do.

[dave22]

NE2 can never be pushed earlier than 4  months b4 EOC. Early upgrade can be done on Primary lines only, No supervisor can change that.