The Verizon Run Around

[df78]

Here is my saga so far.

First I called tech support to figure out what was wrong with my
phone and they were unable to trouble shoot because I don't have another phone
line to call them from (in the market for job currently, so I can't even call
from a work phone). They suggested that I go to the store to have a tech look
at the phone. The first time I went in to have a tech look at the phone they
told me that the problem was with the update and not the phone and there would
be a new update soon that would fix all of the problems. They told me to just
wait it out a few more days get the new update and if that didn't fix the
problems to come back to the store for a switch out. This is the point that I
started researching the problem and found this forum.

The new update came out and I still had problems so I went back
to the store for a second visit. The store told me the three switch out options
were X, Incredible and Charge, then told me that the Charge wasn't in stock.
They keep trying to push the X and Incredible instead and I keep telling them
that if I had wanted a Motorola or an HTC that I would have picked one of them
when I bought my Fascinate. They told me to try another factory reset and see
how it works over the next couple days and if it still has problems to come
back the following week and hopefully they would have Charge's available.

After the factory reset and still having the problems, I went
back the next week for a third time with the same issues and the manager spends
10 mins staring at a computer screen and say the Charge still isn't in stock, I
then asked when they would have more and why they were available online and he
then told me "its not like really even an option anymore".

After wasting my time and flat out lying that he was actually
checking on the Charge (he was just staring at the screen because he wanted to
look like he was attempting to find one) he then tried to tell me that it
sounded like it was a problem specific to my phone. When I told him that this
is and has been an ongoing problem since the first update and that his trying
to tell me that it must be in the wiring in my phone was insulting my intelligence,
he was dismissive and told me that he had done all he could and I would have to
call their customer service department.

I called Verizon again and tried to get tech support to help me
through an online chat support or any other method, both the tech and he
supervisor suggested that I go to a neighbor’s house to use their phone or have
a friend come over so that I could use their cell phone. At this point I have
wasted time and gas money making 3 separate trips to the store (mind you I am
not employed every penny is being watched and I need to have a reliable phone
for my job search and networking), am now being asked to go door to door asking
other people to let me in to use their phone, make yet another trip to the
store where I want to cuss out the manager or wait until I can trouble a friend
to take time out of their life to hang out with me while I trouble shoot this
stupid phone.

Sadly I have been with verizon for over 15 years, pay over $100
per month for their service and am ready to drop them over this incident. They
seem to be of the opinion that this is my problem and I should waste my time
and money trying to fix the screw-up, with the only other option being to
accept a phone option that I had no interest in to begin with. I had a Samsung
and I want a working Samsung in return, but I refuse to continue to be used as
a beta tester or guinea pig while they fix the Fascinates.

[AnAngryPole]

I fully understand where you are coming from; see my post in this forum(An open letter to VZW....).  My recommendation is to persevere and move higher up in the chain of command!  I personally contacted through email my regional VZW president with all my detailed information on this situation.  I received a personal call back from VZW Corporate and two new Droid Charges to my home!  As loyal customers we deserve better treatment by the corporate stores in general;though through the years there have been some truly helpful and caring individuals that I have dealt with!  Good luck and God Bless!

[DBJohnston0104]

What email address did you send it to cause I've talked to about 10 different people both on the phone and in-store and they all say something totally different.  I'm very aggravated!!!!

David

[rcschnoor]

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DBJohnston0104 wrote:

What email address did you send it to cause I've talked to about 10 different people both on the phone and in-store and they all say something totally different.  I'm very aggravated!!!!

David

---

At the top of the Verizon Wireless page, click on "About Us".

On the page that comes up under "Verizon Wireless Overview", click on "Leadership".

Find the President of the area in which you reside and click "View Profile".

At the end of the profile, there will be a "Contact : <name of person>.

Click on the name and an email form will pop up to which you can send you correspondence.

[SFObrien]

As I have stated before it seems the manager of each corporate store is allowed to run it as they see fit.  Guess if they don't like some policies they just make their own, and yes I HAVE seen this first hand.

[Doughdaddy]

DF78, here is my letter I just sent them. Now to wait for more run arounds.

Ms. Clark,I am writing you in hopes of getting some kind of assistance with VZW's terrible customer service and the constant run a rounds I have recieved. Here is my latest experience I have had with your company. On June 14th I bought a Samsung Fascinate via telesales, the rep was very nice and assured me that I was getting a great deal on a very reliable phone. I commented on a friends warning to me of how he and his wife do not get calls on theirs. He again assured me the phone was very reliable and had no known issues, and in fact, that he had one and did not have any issues with his. I recieved my phone the next day as well as the extras I purchased and activated it. I did not seem to have any issues immediately but noticed after a couple of days that many of my calls went directly to voice mail and that my phone never rang. During a casual call with VZW I was advised that a recent update (ED04) had caused an issue with calls not being recieved and that an update was coming. I was told this a couple times. 
I had been getting more upset with the consistant missed calls and on July 22nd I had enough. My father died that morning and the first two calls my family placed to me went directly to voicemail. Since it was 6:50AM I could never wake up to a missed call. The third call rang, woke me and I went to the hospital. After that I was again advised by VZW that an update was coming and it would fix the issue. What I was never told was that VZW had a replacement plan set up to replace my device with a different one that did not have any issues. I was never given that option. 
On July 29th the update was pushed to my Samsung Fascinate and my troubles got worse. My battery life decreased and my missed calls increased. I again contacted VZW and talked to tech support who advised me that the update fixes the issues but I told them it didn't. They performed several tests including calling my phone, of which a third of the calls went to voicemail with out ringing. A comment the tech made angered me when she said "Gee, if you had called the other day I could have sent you a new Droid X2 or HTC Incredible2, but they stopped that yesterday. All I can do is send you a new Fascinate". This angered me because that information was withheld from me earlier. Instead, they wanted me to wait two days until Monday August 1st before they would do anything while they waited for the update to finish rolling out.
On Sunday, July 31st I called back because I was having too many problems and the tech this time (V. Montemayor) tried to help but wanted to do what VZW loves to do which is to force a reset of the phone (erase all data). During this the phone froze and she requested I pull the battery which "bricked" my phone. I had to stay up most of the night fixing my phone myself. She also had advised that VZW stopped the swap program and the only thing she could do was to order a used Fascinate and send it overnight. Since I had no choice I accepted.
My used Fascinate arrived Tuesday August 2nd and I activated it on my line. I noticed that this one had half as many service bars (only one actually) as my previous one and that after 90 minutes had killed my fully charged battery. The same battery that lasted almost a whole day in my original phone. I was told that if I had any issues I should call right away which I did. I went through this whole story with the tech (P. Diviness) and after about 20 minutes of trying fixes and complaining, I was told that the supervisor (B. Dyer) had authorized a Droid Incredible 2 to be sent out to replace the defective Fascinate I had. I was told it would go overnight and arrive Thursday. 
On Wednesday, August 3rd (today) I had not yet recieved an email about the shipment so I called. I again had to spend 15 minutes rehashing my entire saga with the tech (Peter Muller {edited for privacy}) and was told that the order for the phone was cancelled and no one called or emailed me. He advised me that they would not be sending me another phone and that the whole problem I was having was all related to my SD card and the third party apps I have on it. He insisted that I use the phone in safe mode for 48 hours. When I questioned this and how my SD card was at fault he said he has seen it many times and that most issues are related to 3rd party apps and not actually the phone or VZW's fault. So now I have a smart phone that is not smart, a phone with 2gb memory that is not supposed to be used for apps and I pay for data which I can only use to browse the web with and not use any of the 150,000+ apps in the Android Market that VZW advertises on TV, web and print which is the basis of a smart phone.
My issues are these; I have been lied too from day one, the telesales guy knew of the issues (VZW knew since ED04 went out) but lied to me when asked; I was missled when I questioned the missed calls and told only of a pending update not a currently running swap program; I had my phone bricked by tech support which I had to fix and received a worse phone than I had; I was again lied too when told they would swap my phone for the DInc2 and was told tonight that I would never get another phone and would only get used phones if these continue to fail.
I can't believe that VZW would treat people like this. I am not a new customer, I have been one for about seven years and spend an average of $210 a month. Why do I get lied to, treated like a child and misled continuously? Is this SOP on VZW's part? Do you train your people to treat clients like this? I assume you do since it seems to be so wide spread on VZW's part. I am asking for the last time to have another phone sent to me; either a Droid X2 or Droid Incredible 2. I do not want a phone that VZW knows is not right and has not worked correctly since I bought it.
Please let me know what you can do to assist. I will wait 24 hours for a reply before I assume you don't care and forward this to others.

[JoeL_VZW]

@doughdaddy

I will be sending you a PM to resolve your situation.

Thank you 

[Doughdaddy]

Joe,

Thank you for your call. I will update this forum message on Friday if everything works out the way you said.

[DBJohnston0104]

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JoeL_VZW wrote:

@doughdaddy

I will be sending you a PM to resolve your situation.

Thank you 

---

Can you help one more out?  I'm so tired of being given different answers.  From the callers end, it seems like VZs computers aren't networked together. 

I was told that I could swap mine out for a Charge by a tech even though the offer had expired because they knew that people were still having issues after the ED05 update, which I had.  So I rushed to the store and stated to them that I had spoke with VZ tech support and they notated my account.  This was at 8:05 PM, closing time.  With the store manager standing behind her, she told me that she didn't see anything like that on my account.  Frustrated, I called back to tech support and he told me that it was there and that he could see that it had been notated at 7:55 PM.  He made further notes and that was that.

The next morning, I went the VZ store and they told me that they could no longer order me a replacement.  So guess what, I called tech support again...  They then told me that the stores have the authority to make the decision and that they could call to see if they would do it.  So she put me on hold and called the store.  They came back and told me that the same the store told me, obviously.  That phone call ended with me telling them that I would try to call another store to see if they would honor it.

So I called another local store and he told me something different, imagine that.  He said that he could swap it out for a DX or Inc2 but it would push my upgrade date back one year.  That didn't sound right so I hung up with him.

So I call tech support, again.  This time the lady told me that it had expired and that there was nothing she could do.  She said that she could basically send me out another Fascinate.  So I asked to speak to her supervisor.  She asked me to hold and then immediately came back and said, "Oh I forgot to tell you, I can swap it for an Incredible 2."  Hmmm.....  Suddenly remembered that...  So I told her that would be fine and settled for the Inc2 instead of the Charge because I was just tired at this point.

About an hour later, my brother calls me and tells me that he had called in about the same issue and they are sending him a Charge!  Now I'm very aggravated!!!  It sucks knowing that you're being lied to by a company that you pay money to provide you with a service!

So I call tech support again and immediately ask to speak to a supervisor.  Phyllis gets on and I could tell instantly that she didn't care about helping me out but she was more or less just gonna get me off the phone.  Her point was that the offer had expired and that nothing could be done.  I then asked for a corporate email contact and she had her tech give me a PO Box address and said that they don't have an email address.

I tried calling back one more time and immediately asked to speak to a supervisor but the lady said that they were all in a meeting and that their computer systems were down so she couldn't access my account.  So I explained the situation to her and she said that she had just gotten an email about the offer that stated that it had expired and that they should no longer honor it.  She eventually took down my name and number so that her supervisor could call me back.  I never heard from her.  At this point, I'd say that's about par for the course.

With all that said, I'm just frustrated that I've been running all over town, took time off from work and spent hours on the phone for something that I know can be done.  It's just bad business!

David

[DBJohnston0104]

I just talked to my nephew who said that he called and they offered him a Charge yesterday.  Sheesh!

[DBJohnston0104]

And it just keeps getting better...  I got the tracking info via email which said that something was to be delivered on Friday.  Well they "supposedly" sent me the phone overnight and the battery and door would come on Friday.  So I call customer support to see what was up.  He tells me that the phone is scheduled to be delivered on Friday and the battery and door on Monday.  I lost it! Tech support is "supposed" to call me back, but we'll see how that goes since it worked so well for me last time...

How can is it possible for people to be this bad at their job?  Someone please explain it to me....

David

[phylshin]

Seriously? I thought the replacement program was over.... I'm going to call in today and get mine replaced.

[df78]

The way I last left my situation was being told by the cancelation rep that he would look further into the situation and then call me back, that was Tuesday and I still haven't heard back from him.

So I sent an email to my regional Verizon president lastnight and received an email response asking me to call in to to their executive relations office. I called in and they asked for my cell # and then said that someone would be in contact with me hopefully same day but within 24 hours. So I guess I get to wait one more day plus any shipping time in order to get a resolution. There doesn't seem to be any real concern or time sensitivity on Verizon's part, I guess my business isn't that important to them.

If I don't hear back from them within 24 hours I will be taking my business elsewhere.

[DBJohnston0104]

I was supposed to get a call back today too and so far nothing.  I'm about to call them and see what kind of excuse they drum up this time...

David

[df78]

Another update. After sending an email to the regional president on Wed and getting a call on Thur to say that they would call me within 24 hours, I get a call today from the presidential customer service team to say that due to their heavy case load that they will try to get to me sometime next week. I explained that I still have an unreliable phone and I have waited way to long already and was told that they were not a one call solution line and perhaps I should go deal with the store for tech support. I asked if the guy had even read my email (in which I stated I won't go back to the store after my experience there) and he confirmed that no he did not read it and was just calling to confirm the receipt of my email..... 

This is completely unacceptable and I am done with Verizon they have just grown to large off of the back of customers like myself and my family to turn around and be so cavalier and dismissive.

[tawest64]

I so feel (all) your pain.  Because of the runaround, I don't even want to go into a Verizon store, call customer service, etc.  I'm about to just pay full price for a new phone.  I don't have time to mess around with something that Verizon should be bending over backwards to fix and yet they are all running away - in different directions.

On another note KROGER called me on my home phone today to alert me that I did indeed purchase some ground turkey a few months ago and that the turkey has been recalled and to please if I still have it bring it back for a refund.  If Kroger can track and call all their turkey buying customers and make moves to make things right by providing awesome customer service then Kroger needs to teach Verizon a thing or three.  It's really NOT hard to please a unhappy customer.  Really.

[mstnwilliams]

I feel you. I HATE Verizon. They just shipped my 4th Droid. The phone keeps doing the same thing; freezing, choosing its own widgets, having a mind of its own, shutting off in the middle of calls, resetting itself, powering off out of no where, disconnecting my ear piece, turning off my ear piece, not connection to my ear piece and to add injury to insult now it is stopping my ability to talk. The mute button comes on without me touching it. It doesn't even show that the phone has been muted.

I asked for a completely different phone as this is my 4th phone in a month and the customer service department lied and said that Verizon has a contract with Motorola and that all I can get is another refurbished phone everytime anything happens. I was told that Verizon has a policy that if a customer has to exchange phones this many times in less than 6 months then they are supposed to get a new phone of their choice. That is all I want and I literally am about to drop their service and go somewhere else. I have a phone and so does my daughter. This is some **bleep**. I have been with Verizon almost 10 years and this is the customer service I get. All I want is a completely different phone that actually works.

[yellowboy74]

Yeah I feel your pain because i am still having miss call problems as well, but since the ED05 update, they only occur in the morning when i wake up which is a  hell of a lot better than before. All i have to do is wake it up and all as well until the next morning. I get up @ 6:00 am so no one is calling me at that time anyway .After the ed05 update, i woke up one morning and lord behold, there were two voicemails and no miss calls in the call log and i almost lost it, but they only way i calmed down is that they promised me that another update was coming on aug 1(still waiting) but as i previously stated, the miss calls only occur in the morning when i have went almost 8 hours without touching it which is still unacceptable. But my point is you guys are probably going to have to bite the bullet and have verizon continue to send u fascinate replacements until you get one that works because you noticed the number of miss call complaints have decreased  alot on this forum since the update so evidentally , the Ed05 update had to fix at least  the majority of fascinates, maybe 90 percent of them. Yeah i think the two reps was just trying to get me off the phone when they told me another update was coming so i guess i was lied to, But i have looked at other fascinate forums, and a lot of people have posted that ed05 fixed their miss call problems, so i would have them send another fascinate and you might get one that works well with the Edo5 update. I just think that the hardware inside of these fascinates are not identical(might be slightly differnt) which is just enough to caused more problems after the Ed05 update, im just saying

[DBJohnston0104]

Update: So Friday comes and only one phone arrives. I was supposed to receive two phones. So I called, again, and had them ship the other phone overnight with Saturday delivery. As for the batteries, they did agree to ship me two more batteries overnight to be delivered on Saturday. And that wasn't without having to call back a few time times and make sure that the order was supervisor approved so that it would ship out on time. Otherwise, it would not have made I'm sure.

So the batteries and the phone comes in and the batteries are the extended ones as promised. As for the phone, the ear piece doesn't work. And the phone that came on friday also has an issue with the ear piece, it sounds like the other person it talking through a kazoo.

Long story short, two new "certified refurbished" phones are scheduled to arrive on Tuesday. We'll see what's wrong with them on Tuesday I guess. At this rate, my contract will be up before I get two working devices.

David

[ChristinaB_VZW]

Hi DBJohnston0104,

Did you receive the call you were promised? Have your issues been addressed? Please let us know, since we are here to assist you as well.

Thanks very much,

[DBJohnston0104]

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ChristinaB_VZW wrote:

Hi DBJohnston0104,

Did you receive the call you were promised? Have your issues been addressed? Please let us know, since we are here to assist you as well.

Thanks very much,

---

I was told three times that I would be called back by a supervisor but never received a call from any of them.  I have since been sent two Incredible 2s which I am not happy with considering that the interface is totally different than that of the Samsung.  Can you offer me the Charges that I was originally promised when I first started this fiasco?  I don't think that this is an unreasonable request considering that I called about missing calls on the 20th of July which was well before the deadline but was never informed of the offer.

Overall, I am very dissatisfied that I have been sent to two stores accross town on a wild goose chase and have spent MANY hours on the phone trying to get things sorted out.  I was told that the notes on my account regarding this issue span over two pages now. 

I was originally offer the Charge and immediately chose that because of the interface being virtually the same as the Fascinate only to have that offer pulled out from under me.  My wife is also unhappy because she has a hard time navigating around on the Incredible 2s interface.  Also, of all the batteries I was sent, none of the covers fully snap on and make noises when you grab the phone.

If you could help me get this resolved once and for all I would greatly appreciate it.  I just asked for what I was promised...

David