another unhappy customer

[gail55]

Logged on to see some comments from other Verizon customers and I see I am not the only unhappy one. Several things had happened to make me detest verizon. I signed up with Verizon because they are to have such great coverage. Well i do live in a rural area however if i want to use my phone at home i need to go outside. If i use it in the house i need to fing a spot and be motionless. again thats not my biggest problem. the phone works well in town. signed up thru work to receive a discount. took 4 months for them to get my discount on my bill and of course they would not credit me anything. they also have the lowest discount from all other services. Where it begins to be a real pain is I have a family plan, me and my son. A couple months ago my sons phone (that we purchased thru Verizon) began acting up. the screen went black. then it would not take a charge. He took it into a verizon store at the mall and they said they could not do anything for him. Well he ended up buying a new phone FROM VERIZON. When I receive my bill the cost of the phone was on it $212.64. I also saw that they had extended my contract for 2 YEARS for upgrades service!  Not really happy with the cost of the phone but really upset that they extended me. I would have completed my original contract in a couple weeks. I made my son call ( he's over 21, not making a teenager call) and he got no satisfaction. I called and spoke with the agent. because he is not the primary a new phone to replace his one that did not work IS REGARDED AS UPGRADED SERVICE. While the rep was looking at the account she had the nerve to tell me that the phone he purchased cost $79.00 online at Verizon. She said he should have received a rebate for the phone he purchased $50. Looked thru Verizon bag that had everything in it and no mention of rebate! So I apparently got screwed on the price of the phone but also on my contract. They WOULD DO NOTHING TO RESOLVE THIS PROBLEM. I guess I was suppose to continue paying for a phone line that could not be used or get totally duped by VERIZON!  I am going to continue to fight this. but just wanted to share with everyone that I can that VERIZON IS NOT CUSTOMER FRIENDLY AT ALL. You will notice this with other comments posted here. I will continue to tell everyone I can about this horrible and costly experience

[sadie85]

You have 30 days from the date you get the phone to return it. If your son's phone was less than a year old then it would still have a manufacturer warranty on it...as long the phone wasn't damaged it would be replaced free of charge. If it was over a year and sounds like it was since he could upgrade he could get an out of warranty replacement for $50. A store tech would have gone over these options. What kind of store did your son visit? One with a tech? an authorized retailer?

Your son elected to upgrade, which he can only do if he was on the account(you giving him permission to do pretty much anything on an account) and instead of paying for the phone had it billed to the account. How can you be mad at Verizon for your son doing that?

Online prices don't always match up to the in store price...online quite frequently runs 1 day sales or online exclusive pricing.

As far as the rebate go to vzw.com/rebates and you should still be able to complete the rebates, as long as you have the box and receipt. Just make sure you make a copy of everything before mailing it it!

[tim600sl]

My advice to you is go return the phone and switch to At&t, I have 4 months left with verizon and I cant wait to make the change, At&t's customer service is superior!!!

[TheGreatOne]

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tim600sl wrote:

My advice to you is go return the phone and switch to At&t, I have 4 months left with verizon and I cant wait to make the change, At&t's customer service is superior!!!

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I wouldn't call AT&T customer care superior. I had a device that I used on their service a while back. Sometimes I would need help to trouble shoot a certain problem. When I called in mostly every customer agent I got didn't know what device I was talking about. In fact they never even heard of it, but yet AT&T was the one that sold it.  Funny!!   

[gail55]

Thanks for the tip on returning the phone. My son went to the Verizon kiosk at the mall. I don't know if the employee was a tech. but being a verizon kiosk i would assume that it is an authorized retailer.  I believe you missed my point on why I am upset. How does Verizon consider replacing a phone that doesn't work at our own cost be considered an upgrade and extend my contract for 2 years?

[sadie85]

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gail55 wrote:

Thanks for the tip on returning the phone. My son went to the Verizon kiosk at the mall. I don't know if the employee was a tech. but being a verizon kiosk i would assume that it is an authorized retailer.  I believe you missed my point on why I am upset. How does Verizon consider replacing a phone that doesn't work at our own cost be considered an upgrade and extend my contract for 2 years?

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Kiosks can be actual Verizon or Authorized Retailer, the easiest way to tell is look at the sign...usually Verizon is in BIG letters and in little letters it'll say another name or authorized retailer. Kiosk don't have techs though, so your son was dealing with a sales person who was just trying to sell a phone. Authorized or not they both work on commission so they may a spun it to sound like an upgrade was your son's only option(which may have been sorta true, it he wanted a new phone that day!)

Verizon does have replacement options that won't extend your contract. If the phone isn't working due to a defect and not physical damage then at most you may have to pay $50 if the phone is out of warranty. Only techs can issue replacement phones so I would return the phone and see if there a store with a tech in the area or call in and you can speak with a tech over the phone.

[Zehan]

Yeah, your son either got bamboozled into buying a phone, or he was planning to all along. With authorized retailers this is not an uncommon occurrence, regardless of the carrier.

[lalalamesss]

Yes, I'd rather go to a Corporate store and wait in line for an hour after I signed in just to upgrade to the phone I know I want. Because you can categorize all "retailers" into one bunch. Taste the sarcasm... I've had many pleasant experiences with my local retailer. Everyone seems to only go to the Corporate store and when they realize they can upgrade without signing in, the customer is all for it. Plus, the staff has more time to wait on you because there aren't lines and you won't be prodded along like a herd of cattle with a number....

But your son should't have gone to the mall to "exchange" his phone. I think he was just trying to kill two birds with one stone... Larger stores are the ONLY places that can do that and it was wrong of the salesperson (and illegal if your son isn't an authorized user) to do what he or she did. Good luck in tehhh future.

[gail55]

I agree the person that "helped" my son was working on comission and he got taken for a ride! He will be returning the phone. Hopfully it will resolve my issue. My account should be credited with the cost of the phone and my contract should not be extended!

I originally had not planned on leaving Verizon. Wonder why when my son and I each called Verizon why couldn't the CSR told us what you had just did? Take the phone back,  get a refund and my contract back to the original date and then go to a Verizon store with a tech and get a replacement?  They did not seem interested in finding a resolution for the problem. Just "so sad...too bad" and you are now stuck.

I realize working in a call center is not always an enjoyable job. I had worked in Customer service.  But we were taught one call resolution. Do whatever you can to resolve the issue on the first call. All someone had to do was tell us our options. Not "Sorry but that the way it is."

Thanks for helping with my problem. Maybe you could get a job at Verizon and tell people how to resolve their issues without making them irate. Again thanks for your help

[gail55]

Sadie85. Sorry my comment below was meant for you. I hit reply on the wrong comment. Thanks for your help