Ordering experience

[JanFran]

I had a truly terrible customer service experience over the last few days. Last Friday I attempted to replace my daughter's iPhone and have it delivered to her in another state. Can't be that unusual, can it?

I couldn't place the order online despite trying several times in several browsers. Kept hanging at the point where I tried to specify a different shipping address. Chat support did not help. He basically told me what I was seeing on the screen wasn't what I was seeing on the screen. Had to phone in the order. Got flagged for Fraud. Talked to Verification. They cleared it. Was told phone would be delivered Tuesday.

Checked status Tuesday and it still said "In process." Checked in via Twitter chat. Was told terms and conditions hadn't been accepted, although I did that while on the phone last week. Tried accepting again online. Failed with a message that said the order was "compeleted or closed" (sic). Called customer service. They said the order had been canceled and I'd need to start over. They couldn't give me a reason why it was canceled and couldn't (or wouldn't) just reinstate the existing order.

After work last night I called "Customer Care" and spent an hour and 15 minutes talking to 4 different people (some multiple times). Got an order confirmation, but this morning it still says "In process." I was not offered any kind of compensation (like overnight shipping) for all this trouble, and I don't trust that the order is even actually going to go through.

Resolution I want: Verizon should take the phone I ordered from inventory in a Verizon store in Los Angeles and have it delivered to my daughter TODAY. Honestly, that's the least Verizon could do.

[vzw_customer_support]

I'm sorry for the trouble this order has caused, JanFran. I understand after ordering a new phone, your daughter must have been eager to receive it. While we are unable to order a new device from a local store while there is a pending order on the account, we can cancel the pending order for you. Please contact our customer service team if this is an option you would like to explore. I have shared your feedback with our Internet Orders team so they can improve this process.

AndreaS_VZW
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[JanFran]

I guess that's a correct answer if you're saying that Verizon has no flexibility to do anything other than forward my feedback around internally. I had hoped that Verizon would be trying a lot harder to satisfy a customer who has stuck with Verizon for a decade.

Because I didn't think anyone would believe the hoops I had to jump through yesterday to get this order placed (for the second time), I kept up a running monologue with @VZWSupport via DM. I can send my transcript with time stamps if it would be helpful in evaluating Verizon's processes.

I'd also like to find out why the phone has not shipped yet. After this experience, "In process" makes me very nervous. If you'd like to check, the order number is [removed for privacy reasons required by the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service]

Thank you,

Verizon Moderator

[pherson]

BBecause you called after the shipping deadline of 4pm it's not going to update with a tracking info until after 4pm the next business day. Which means, the earliest she will get the phone is Friday.

[JanFran]

That information was not shared with me last night. I was told she would have the phone on Thursday.

[pherson]

UUnless the order was specifically placed as overnight shipping would it come Thursday. Standard shipping is 2 days. Unfortunately there was miscommunication there. In this instance if she needs the phone right away it would be in her best interests to go to the store. Also is there a Best Buy or another authorized reseller in her area, like in a mall? Does she possibly know someone with a spare phone that she can borrow and use on her line?

just trying to give options.

[JanFran]

One of the people I spoke with yesterday suggested that Verizon would provide free overnight shipping, since it was Verizon's fault the original order was cancelled. But when I asked the person with whom I placed the order for that overnight shipping I was told it wouldn't make any difference; she would get the phone at the same time either way.

[JanFran]

I appreciate the options, but there are reasons I didn't make her go buy the phone in the first place. Her old iPhone is still working, but barely. She has to carry around an external battery to prevent constant rebooting. So the old phone is extremely annoying to her (and could stop working entirely at any moment), and the process of conducting what should have been a routine transaction with a long-time customer is extremely annoying to me.

Can you just switch the shipping to next-day (with no extra cost to me) and get it out the door?

[pherson]

No.

i Am a customer just like yourself. The majority of the members of this peer to peer forum are vzw customers.

[JanFran]

Sorry, @pherson, I should have realized you were a customer and not a Verizon employee. Since the first response was from Verizon, I thought I had at last stumbled on a way to actually communicate my experience to someone who might be able to take an action. Thank you for taking the time to suggest all the things I could possibly try.

I got a shipping notice a few minutes ago (Yay!). Unfortunately, my daughter noticed that instead of "Street" after her street name, the shipping notice says "Way." So the saga continues. I'm hoping UPS can figure it out, or we can somehow get them to make the change.

It appears, though, that neither one of us can actually track the item with the number provided, so our options are limited.

[pherson]

ALso what you should know if no one told you is that their have been high cases of fraud with iPhones especially being shipped to different addresses. As a result you have the situation that you are in. The length of time that you have been a customer doesn't unfortunately change that.

[pherson]

IS there a particular reason why you can't add your daughter as an account manager so she can go to the store herself and pick it up?

[JanFran]

Actually, she IS an account manager. But she's also a college student with a full course load, a 20 hour a week job, and in rehearsals for a play. "Going to the store" means a minimum hour round trip from her campus and would have to happen during store hours. If she tried to do the order online, she would have hit the same problems I did since billing address and shipping address don't match. As a student, her billing address is still my house.

In other words, I was trying to help out my kid.

[vzw_customer_support]

JanFran,

We truly regret to hear that you have run into multiple issues with ordering a new phone. This is definitely not the experience we want anyone to have. I see since you last posted that you were able to get the phone ordered again, but there was a discrepancy in the address. Had that been taken care of? Have you received an order number & tracking number yet?

AliciaS_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[JanFran]

Thank you for checking in, AliciaS_VZW. I WAS able to get the address corrected. It "only" took 15 minutes on the phone. Since the phone was shipping from Fresno, she received it on Thursday, just as I had originally been promised.

I should note that my daughter already WAS an account manager. I was only buying the phone for her because I foolishly thought it would be easier for me to order online than for her to go to a store. By the time it was clear that it was harder to do it that way, I was too deep in to back out.

Hers was the first phone in the family on the Verizon plan. That led to another uncomfortable situation.

Yes, the saga continued. There are so many places in my experience where Verizon could improve for the future. Please forward to whatever channel can actually make change.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 I had purchased for myself the week prior had a few dead spots on the screen (touch didn't work along the left side) so I returned it to Target. 2.5 hours later, after working with a VERY patient representative in Target, I walked out with a new phone. If it hadn't been that I'd just bought new phones for the whole family, I would have walked away from Verizon. I still might have, except that the problems emerged AFTER she had deactivated the bad phone and was trying to activate the good phone. This process had worked seamlessly for the two phones (myself and my son) that I'd bought the previous week.

After many phone calls and much detective work, it turned out that my account was repeatedly getting flagged for fraud (even though we never received a message telling us that). The reason was that the name and Social Security Number on the account were my husband's. He passed away almost five years ago. I had tried in 2013 to get the account switched to my name, but that long phone call was unsuccessful in the end (I think they only made me an account manager rather than doing an Assumption of Responsibility) so I just kept using his name and SSN when I needed to make a change.

When the rep tried to activate the phone, the credit check was failing because the automated check returned "Deceased." I have no idea why this didn't happen when I bought the phones the previous week. I suspect it DID happen with the order for my daughter, resulting in the inexplicably canceled order.

When we finally figured out that was happening, I got on the phone with Customer Support and did the transfer right then.

During that process, someone at Verizon called my daughter (remember, her phone was the first one we got) and asked for her deceased father. Yeah.

The basic facts and Verizon response make sense: I would want a fraud check if someone was using my husband's SSN. But there were so many failures, and it was so difficult to even figure out why the problems were occurring, that I really think Verizon should look at this case and find ways to improve the customer experience as well as make better use of their employees' time. I lost count of how many different people I talked to in the last two weeks.

You may have noticed that my screen name has changed. That's because the process of assuming responsibility for the account cleared out all of my previous account information. I had to create a new identity with a different email address to get into MyVerizon because, of course, my current email and screen name are "taken." But that's a minor inconvenience compared to all the rest.

[vzw_customer_support]

pherson - Being able to add account managers is a must. Here is some information that will come in handy. The account manager must be 18 years of age or older to be added. The account owner is the only one that can add an account manager. The account must be older than 30 days since it was opened. If the account is less than 30 days old you may visit a Verizon Wireless corporate store to add the account manager. Here is a link that will allow you to find the closest store. http://vz.to/1bUtDMJ  You may add her online if the account is older than 30 days. Here's how! http://vz.to/1KD45AN
JacobV_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[RTW1]

JanFran,

I empathize and cannot help but laugh as I read this exchange.  I have tried 14 times (no joke, and all lasting at least one hour in duration) over the last 6 months to get a new phone but only have experiences, similar to yours, to show for it.  The last straw for me was when I took time out of my vacation travel, this past week, for my second in-store visit in order to get this resolved.  I still have no phone. 

After over 15 years of being a Verizon customer, I am forced to take my business elsewhere.  Good luck to you!

[JanFran]

RTW1: Where are you going to take your business? Now that I have three working phones and an account that actually belongs to me, I'll stick around until these phones are paid for. But I really don't want to go through any of this (or whatever they throw at me next) again.

[RTW1]

JanFran1,

Most likely Sprint.  Ever since this ordeal started, my wife has been trying to get me to switch since she has never had a bad experience with them.  She's probably been more enraged by the experience than I have been, which is saying something.  But, I want to do my homework on AT&T as well.  It's a shame, because I do like Verizon and their customer service people have been courteous and typically attempt to help.

But, like I said, this last experience was the final straw since the manager I spoke with (via phone, not the in-store manager who seemed helpless) was unbending on a policy that had already been noted in my file as passable.   So frustrating.  All I wanted was a new phone and to sing a new 2yr contract. 

[vzw_customer_support]

RTW1 we do not want to see you leave our family. I know we can turn this around. I have sent you a Private Message so we can begin.
RosanneM_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[timothykelpsas]

I ordered the 3-piece deal for Memorial Day just days ago, asked for the equipment to be shipped to a diff. address than billing address--the agent only changed the address on 1 of 2 boxes, and the 2nd box was returned to sender...that took a 3.5 hour chat session in the web-based chat session.

DON'T DO IT...JUST DON'T DO IT...the Verizon ordering process should just be me!!! When I order McDonald's on the McDonald's app???!!! Guess how many times is the order screwed up? NEVER!!!

How about with Verizon, where it goes like this???

Me >> Web >> Agent >> Order Form >> Order Delivery

Why why why Verizon Why???

My entire order has had to be CANCELLED, and re-ordered, and the agent didn't even order all 3 pieces had to create a 2nd RE-ORDER to get it "right"

Nothing is right with the Verizon Ordering Process