Aggravating Customer Service

[JTS_HARLEY]

TL;DR: The In-Store customer service is abysmal unless you are spending money there, then you're royalty.

Let me begin by saying I'm a 46 year old professional and have been a long time customer with Verizon.  I haven't made a claim since I've been a customer, prompt on payments and have multiple phones on my contract.  I take care of my property.

A month ago I bought a Pixel 2 xl.  Less than 24 hours later I had an issue with the volume button, it came out.  Now, I understand that is an incredibly odd thing to happen, and it could be misconstrued as incorrect usage, but as I pulled it out of my pocket to video my son receiving an award, it happened.  I could not find the volume button on the school bleachers and was at a loss.  I went to the Verizon store approx. 22.5 hours after my purchase, where, the day before, I was treated like royalty with an account that was in incredibly good standing, only to be told that I needed to contact Google as Verizon wouldn't be replacing the phone, or work with me in any way to simply get a button.  It was stated that one of the Reps there had that phone and it had never happened to them AND there was only one Reddit post with this issue on the internet and it didn't have many upvotes at all.  I was also told that IF they were to do anything, I would receive a refurbished phone at best as mine was now "not in good working condition".  This was less than 24 hours after my purchase.  No claims in 13+ years, good standing, current payments for that time, multiple large purchases, refurb at best....  It was also suggested to me that I should look on eBay to see if they sold a button there.  OK, I lost the button, it's on me,  I will acquiesce and deal with an unpleasant experience.

Flash forward 30 days.  I noticed a dead zone with my phone, this was towards the bottom, and the entire width of the screen.  The Pixel has a row of 4-5 navigation icons at the bottom of the phone (Chrome, text, email, apps, etc) and a search bar.  Both together take up approx 3/4" of the bottom of the screen.  On the home screen, this area functions properly.  On ANY other application, the entire area where these icons and search bar would be located is a completely touchscreen dead zone.  I called Google, as Verizon told me last time that any I should contact Google, and not them, for any other issues.  The Google Pixel support helped me, saw the issue and informed me this was a hardware issue and I should return to my Verizon store to warranty it immediately.  I told him the about the lack of support I received last time.  He informed me that should never have happened, he would be escalating a complaint and then sent me an email outlining it was a warranty item and that should take care of things.

I returned to my Verizon store, showed the person my phone, detailed the issue, explained my call with Google Support, showed them exactly what the issue was and the email from Google that it should be warrantied.  I was told that wouldn't happen until they went through Verizon Troubleshooting.  OK, at this point, you won't support the phone at all, until you're told it should be warrantied from the manufacturer, NOW you want to run me through your support.  Ok, I see where this is going.  I was told they had to do a factory reset.  Fine.  This happens and surprisingly the dead zone is still there as none of the buttons located at the bottom to set up the phone (Next/Skip/Back) work.  I'm told a refurbished phone will be sent to me in the mail.  In the mail...  No fault of mine, now with a new volume button by the way, pristine condition outside of the hardware defect and less than 30 days I get a "refurb" to be SENT to me through the mail.  I know they have this phone in the back.  They brought one out to me when I bought it a month ago, this person with incredibly good account standing...  Today I went in with a functioning phone with a dead spot and walked out with an unusable phone, as you can't click Next during the Factory Reset or do anything with at all, with the promise of a refurbished phone coming to me soon to replace this brand new, $800 phone I purchased from this same store 30 days ago.

I worked in customer support for 12 years.  Had I handled my customers this way, I would not only have lost the customers, I would have lost my job.  This isn't customer support.  This is sales and good luck, not our problem.