Getting conflicting info from store and corporate

[macman3107]

Last year I was on vacation and had an accident with my iPhone 5S in its Lifeproof case. The case leaked and destroyed my phone, so as soon as I got back home, I visited the local Verizon corporate store to see what options I had available for a replacement. (FYI...By the way, if you use a Lifeproof case, Lifeproof ONLY guarantees phone replacement if you bought the case from a Verizon store. I bought mine at Best Buy, so they would not replace my phone. Go figure.) I could use the insurance and pay $149, or I could use an available upgrade on my son's phone and get a new iPhone 6 for free. Naturally, I went for the free iPhone 6. Problem solved, or so I thought. Little did I know that this was the beginning of a nightmare situation.

Last weekend I called and spoke with a representative about switching our plan and was told that if we switched to the Verizon 6GB plan from the plan we currently had it would drop our monthly fee, PLUS we would be eligible for three early upgrades. Since I had the newest phone, I did not need one, but my son still had his iPhone 4 and my wife and daughter had a 5S and 5C respectively, so I thought why not upgrade all three of theirs? Simple, right? WRONG!

We went to the store at 1501 Rinehart Road, Sanford, FL 32771 (Which we have had issues at before, but it's our closest store) to do the upgrades. We were told that it was not possible due to the new plan we were now on. I could not "flip-flop" my upgrade date back to my son's phone, as I had done before, and have done with other phones previously. We have used upgrade dates on different phones in the past when they either wear out of if we just want to upgrade for any reason. I asked the representative why and was told it was just due to the fact that we were now on a different plan, BUT he promised to check into any other possibilities and call me back the next day. We left without upgrading anything, although we could have gone ahead and used the upgrades on my wife and daughter's phones, my wife decided that if our son, who needed the upgrade worst of all, could not get one, then she would not either.

The next day, no call came. I called the store and was told the rep was at lunch, so I left a message. Still no return phone call. Two days later, I called 611 on my phone and spoke with a very courteous phone rep who told me that it did not matter what plan I was on that the "flip-flop" was possible to do. She even said she would put notes on my account to the effect that we had spoken and she even told me to tell the in-store rep to check "Compass" which is Verizon's corporate operating system for the details of how to go about making it happen.

I returned to the store on the third day and approached the same store rep and advised them as to my conversation with the phone rep. They went to the back and returned stating that they stood by their first answer and that it could not be done. I was furious. I proceeded to call 611 again, this time speaking with a different rep, who after nearly two hours on the phone, secured an override to get my son's phone upgraded. I, then, proceeded to do my wife and daughter's upgrades in the store. Due to my son's being an override, it has to be shipped to us, which was perfectly fine.

Having said all that, my point is this; NEVER take an answer from this store as gospel. As I said before, this is not the first time that we have been told something completely different at this store only to find out later that it isn't the complete answer or that they are just unwilling to make any concessions to ensure customer satisfaction. They seem unwilling to make the customer happy at the expense of possibly losing business. I joked with them that I was going down the street to the Sprint store, but I wasn't 100% kidding. In a day when any carrier will pay your early termination fees to sign you up with their service, you would think that these folks would care a little more about solving my one small issue that losing four lines of service. I'm staying with Verizon for now, but I don't know if I will ever visit this particular store again for any service issues. One more strike, with this store or any other and I will be shopping for a new carrier.

Seemed like a simple request, right? Especially since we pay almost $300 in monthly fees. Word of advice Verizon; I know one little customer's treatment doesn't matter when it comes to your bottom line, but just imagine what could happen if this store, or any other, treated customers the same way?

[vzw_customer_support]

Macman3107, this is absolutely not the stellar store experience we want for a valued customer and we are truly sorry that you went through all of this to take advantage of those new phones. Please know that as I want you to be heard, I am submitting your feedback to store and district management to ensure that these experiences are not repeated.

I want to personally thank you for giving us that second chance and know that we can improve on this for your future experiences.
LorenB_VZW
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