Victra Customer Service

[charkohl]

On Victra’s corporate website they claim, “We don’t just consider you a customer – we strive to treat you as our “guest” when you join us in any of our nearly 1,700 convenient locations.” Unfortunately, this could not have been any further from the truth based on my experience with the Victra staff working at the 8795 Villa La Jolla Drive location in San Diego, California.

On November 16, 2024, I went to the store to explore my options for upgrading my iPhone 13 to an iPhone 16 Pro. I had acquired the iPhone 13 less than two years ago from the same location when it was an actual Verizon store and not a Verizon Authorized Retailer.

I interacted with Eli, a Sales Representative and Kaylen, an Assistant Manager.  Their actions, as well as the inaction of the Store Manager (Rob), clearly demonstrated a complete lack of basic customer service skills…certainly not representative of how I would treat a “guest”.  There was a lack transparency, a series of omissions, relaying of inaccurate and incomplete information and lack of responsiveness.

Over a period of one week, these were the highlights of my negative experience…

1. Nov. 16: Eli did not disclose upfront that there would be a service fee for the setup of the new iPhone 16 until we were nearly complete with the setup of the new phone.  In the past, when it was an actual Verizon store there was no charge for new phone setups.  He proceeded to state that I would be paying for setup fee, taxes, and EB2. Still no cost had been provided and I had no idea what EB2 was exactly. After asking for clarification, I was finally told the fee was $40 which is not a big deal but I believe it is reasonable to expect all costs and services be explained upfront so a customer can make an informed decision. I finally learned that EB2 is an Extended Bundle which consists of various phone accessories which I did not need.  As it turns out, it is an optional purchase but that is not how it was presented to me.
2. Nov. 16: Eli stated that I was paying $19 per month for my existing phone and the new phone would be about the same price.  In reality, I had received a promotion on my iPhone 13 (which had slipped my mind) that provided me with a credit of $19 per month so in essence the phone was free as long as I maintained the service contact for the stated time period.  As a result, I went from a $0 per month charge to nearly $31 per month which was never explained to me.  I would not call that “about the same price”.
3. Nov. 16: Eli never asked me how much storage I required for the new iPhone 16.  My iPhone 13 was 128 GB which I never even used half of that storage capacity.  I am not sure why he unilaterally decided to bring me a device with 256 GB which is an additional $100. I take responsibility for not confirming but that seems like a basic question to ask a customer rather than taking it upon himself to make that decision.
4. Nov. 16: I paid off the $335 balance of my existing iPhone 13 which was less than 2 years old and now clearly owned by me.  However, I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was not given my old phone which obviously had a considerable amount of residual value. I accept responsibility for not paying closer attention when I left the store but, in my defense, I had just returned the day before from traveling abroad for 3 months and had not slept in nearly 24 hours.
5. Nov. 21: Five days later, I received an email from Asurion about my Verizon Mobile Protect plan that I was enrolled in at a cost of $19 per month. This came as a complete surprise to me since Eli and I never talked about a device protection plan so obviously I did not authorize it.  I had to call Asurion and Verizon to remove that service from my account.  I would clearly classify this action as fraud.
6. Dec. 1: To discuss my concerns about my overall experience, I went back to the store to hopefully speak with the manager. However, the sales representative indicated the manager and assistant manager were not available but would be in the store shortly (in about a half an hour) if I wanted to wait.  I told him I had another commitment so I would stop by later.  I returned two hours later and was told that neither of them had arrived at the store yet.  I asked the same sales representative to have the manager call me so that we could arrange a time to discuss my concerns.
7. Dec. 2: Kaylen contacted me asking what I needed assistance with. I told him I would rather discuss in person if that would be possible. He said that he would be available the following day between 2-4pm or 8pm.  I told him I would need to check my schedule but would text him to confirm a time.  He acknowledged and said, “Yeah, just text me.” The following day I texted him and left a voicemail. I never received a response.
8. Dec. 4: I went back to the store and spoke with Kaylen. He indicated (with an attitude) that he did not receive any text or voicemail from me. It’s interesting to note that the number he was checking for my text was not the number he contacted me with.  When I gave him the number, he said he didn’t have any text on that line either.  Seemed a little disingenuous but I took him at his word.  He indicated Rob, the manager would be in the store in a couple of hours and would ask him to call me. It’s been 6 days and no word from Rob yet.

It is no surprise that 50% of the reviews on Yelp about this store are negative with one-star ratings.  Also, if you check the Better Business Bureau’s website, Victra has a customer review rating of 1.02 out of 5 stars. I believe that track record clearly speaks for itself.  Sadly, it seems customer’s or should I say “guest’s” with similar complaints spanning a considerable length of time are falling on the deaf ears of upper management as the negative reviews keep coming with no apparent action being taken.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello, charkohl. Thanks so much for this info as we always want to be transparent with any charges and fees that you may incur. I do want to clarify that the store location in question is an indirect store location as they do have their own pricing when it comes to service fees. Via our direct store locations, we do not charge to set up  your device. I can only recommend dealing directly with this store for further assistance for your service fee concerns. 

-Natasha