Promos and customer service

[jevernham]

Dear Customer Service,

I have been a Verizon mobile customer for nearly 5 years. I initially switched to Verizon because of the superior coverage, and was willing to pay a premium for that compared to my previous carrier. During that time I have been satisfied with the cell phone service. I started out with six lines on a family plan, and currently have five lines.

We decided to upgrade our phones (two iPhone Xs, two 11s, and a 13) to the iPhone 15, intending to take advantage of the “free phone” offer to receive $830 in credits for each phone, spread over 3 years. I placed five online orders on December 30 and that’s when my problems started.

All problems that were caused by Verizon. My only mistake was choosing to place the orders.

A few days into the saga I realized my experience was so far below any reasonable standard of service that I started keeping logs of the situation. I am happy (barely) to report that as of January 26, all of the issues with my original order appear to be finally resolved. However, the process required to get there was abysmal. If I could do it over, I would switch to AT&T.

With the trade-in promotions, I now have a $3,320 incentive to stay with Verizon for three years. So it’s too expensive to switch now. But if you want me to even consider staying with Verizon in the future, I need to be compensated for my time and for this horrible experience. Make this right, and maybe I’ll stick around. Do nothing, and I’ll be sure to let everyone I know that Verizon isn’t worth it.

I have a comprehensive log of all events and all the mistakes, wrong information, and false hope provided by your agents (14 of them) through this process. The window for submitting my information would not allow me to post all of that detail, so here I am providing a summary. I would be happy to send you the full log, which captures many elements that are missing and clarifies much of the confusion that I am sure is captured in your own internal customer support logs. I would encourage you to ask for it so that I may send it to you and you can read it to get a glimpse into the challenges that I faced with your systems. Here is the summary:

• On December 30, I ordered 5 phones online using your website, with trade-ins, each with a “free phone” promo over three years
• Three of the orders completed without issues
• Verizon cancels the order for phone #1. I called customer support and they said it was corrected. The phone shipped – and was immediately returned to the shipping dock. I had to re-do the order and trade-in, with the added confusion caused by the first order.
• Verizon cancels the order for phone #2, this time with no notice to me that it was canceled. I had to re-do the order and trade-in, with similar confusion.
• Verizon then cancels the trade-ins for both of these phones. Then Verizon creates another trade-in for each phone. And then cancels those. (remember, none of this is happening at my request!) But the devices were still “not eligible for trade-in” on my account so neither I nor any of your customer service reps could initiate an actual trade-in.
• On January 22, exasperated, I went to a Verizon store and asked to speak with the store manager. He was able to initiate the trade-ins but was unable to apply the promos.
• On January 26, customer service was finally able to get the original promos applied to those two phones.

It took 9 calls (with 2 hangups), 4 online chats (with 2 “hangups”), 14 agents, one store manager, 25 days, and I don’t even know how many hours because I didn’t log them all, but at least 25 hours of my personal time.

I’m not sure what “satisfactory compensation” is in this instance, but I am requesting a $500 bill credit immediately and full credit rather than half credit for the two iPhone X trade-ins. In other words, increase the promo trade-in value for the two iPhone Xs to full credit ($830 each rather than $415), so that the monthly credit for those two lines increases from $11.53 to of $23.05 for 36 months (so that all five lines have a monthly credit of $23.05). That’s compensation of $1,330 spread over three years, which is very reasonable given 1) my lost time 2) my frustration and 3) Verizon’s advertisements of “trade in your phone for a free iPhone.”

Also, please give Thiago at the Verizon store in Mullica Hill recognition for his outstanding customer service and please give Andy (the last customer service agent I spoke with) a promotion for his understanding, patience, and ease with which he addressed the promo credit issue.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and I am happy to discuss it further.

[Nycheadaches]

I’m literally having the same nightmare rite now. 

[Pattil1]

After over three months of a similar nightmare with Verizon I finally got my credit.  FYI they even turned our phones off even though I had paid my usual monthly bill. It was not the over six phone calls (all over 1 hour) or the 2 visits to the Verizon store that got my account credit .  It was filing a formal complaint with the FCC.  Ryan from the “executive staff “ in Dallas contacted me before the end of that day.  Our first call he wanted to offer an additional 200 dollars for our time and frustration.  I honestly think Verizon is the worst and this is their method of operation.  I expect to be fairly compensated for all our time and aggravation and I have all the proof.  I kept a detailed log of all my calls and who I spoke with. Note to everyone save your tracking receipt !