Bad signup experience, probably taking my business elsewhere.

[swimmininbs]

A quick background history

I was an Alltel customer and around 2010 when Alltel bought out Verizon I received a letter telling me my contract had been moved to AT&T.  I called Alltel and Verizon and pleaded my case, AT&T had terrible coverage where I lived and moving to AT&T was unacceptable.  I contacted Verizon, set up a new account and was told I could not port my number and they weren't servicing the area I was in, so I had to change to a number from a town 70 miles away.  I then canceled my contract with Alltel and paid over $400 in disconnect fees and my final bills. I was with Verizon for almost 2 years and due to financial strain had to cancel that contract and I again paid all of my fees and bills.

And now the current problem

I was signing  up online through a company sponsored link and when it came to the credit check I was denied and given a credit app # and the number for the Credit and Order Review Team.  I called them the next day as it was very late when I was signing up.  A helpful rep looked at my account and mentioned I still owed them $16 from some previous transaction years before, she then said that it would be no issue and she took care of it and I was approved for 5 lines on the Edge plan and to submit my order again.

I went to work (Saturday night) and signed up again, as I can only access the link through my employers computer system. Again I was denied with a new credit app number and had to call the CORT.

Here is where it started to get messy.

The first rep I spoke to said there was an unpaid bill of a little over $100 and she would need my credit card.  When I asked her for ANY information, date, account, anything she said she had no way of seeing that information and needed my credit card information.  Without knowing what or why I would have a bill for I refused to give her a credit card.  She finally told me it was from 2010, and I exited the conversation.

I called again to get a new rep, they ran my credit yet again and then told me they had to collect over $500 from me in order to proceed.

I hung up and called back again.  This time I spoke to a rep that seemed genuinely willing to help me, we were not able to figure out what the amount was for and his shift was at its end so he sent me his contact info and we hung up.

This agitated me not knowing where these amounts were coming from so I got on the RealTime chat online, the first rep transferred me and the 2nd rep was able to answer every single question.  We found out the money owed was on an Alltel account opened in 2008 and closed in 2010, over $400 had been paid on it and for some reason $100 remained.

The next day (sunday) I couldn't get anything done.

Monday (today) I call in to pay the money even though I recall having every thing paid in full when I left Alltel, I figured if it lingered for 5 years it will linger longer and I can pay it and be done.

I got ahold of a credit rep and paid the money, and got a confirmation number in return. She was supposed to connect me to telesales and disconnected me instead.

I called and had to call again until I finally got another rep willing to help set up my account now, as the first one who sent me his contact info would not reply to my email or text.  The rep I was now with was very eager to help resolve the situation.  After connecting me to the credit rep I was then told I owed almost $1000 on my land line account.  I have never had a Verizon land line and as far as I know have never lived anywhere one was available.  Eventually we got to a rep that had a clue, and they verified that everything I had ever owed Alltel or Verizon was paid in full and in good standing.

The rep tried setting up my account and ran in to problems. 20min on hold and he said I was paid up and everything looked great but there was an issue with the system reflecting what changes they had made to my account to show everything was paid.  I was told he would contact me when they fixed the issue and we could proceed.

An hour later he emailed me only to tell me the best they can offer me is a 2 year contract and they could probably do 2 phones but there would be fees. They were in my credit report enough to drop it 7 points, verified I owed them nothing, the $100 I paid im absolutely sure was paid back in 2010, and if it wasn't, why didn't any one contact me about it in the next 2 years that I was a paying Verizon customer.  They had my account info, address, phone number, and yet its 2015 before I hear that I somehow missed paying $100.

How is it I can be approved for exactly what I needed, and yet 6 hours later I apparently owe them money for a service not available in my area, then go back to them telling me everything was current and paid and I was going to be approved as soon as they were able to update the account, to being restricted to a contract and told I could upgrade after a couple of years?

I knew from being a previous customer that barely 20% of the reps know what they are doing and only half of them can actually answer questions and help you.  That part wasn't surprising.

The part that irritates me is the YOUR APPROVED, OR NOT, OR YES, WELL MAYBE, NO YOUR GOOD FOR SURE, OH WELL I GUESS MAYBE NOT, well.....since we cant fix it, everything IS PAID, nothing was ever written off, and you even paid something that may have been paid before...we decided to offer you something else you don't want, and wont work for you.

This is why most of my family members just move to straight talk after their contracts expire.  3 other family members were waiting to see how Verizon handled this situation.  Needless to say they are staying with Straight Talk.  They thought the edge plan would work well for them, but no longer want the hastle of shoddy customer service.

If nothing comes of this at the very least I will share my situation on all of my public media platforms, just to be sure everybody understands the tactics some of these reps are using while trying to get me to pay for accounts not mine, and on accounts previously paid so they can be sure to ask the right questions, or to at least know to hang up and just call back till they find one of the helpful few.  Then share with my employer to see if we can negotiate discounts with other local providers like US Cellular.

I am reasonable, I will wait till the end of the week before doing so, maybe this can be resolved yet.  Who knows.

Until then I guess I will just keep my head above water while swimming in the BS.

[swimmininbs]

I cant believe they put stars over the letters b and s.