Verizon doesn't care about their customers any longer.

[gingermonk]

Dear Verizon,

I need to tell you about two recent experiences I had with Verizon Wireless over the past week.

First of all, I placed an order for in-store pick up at the Maple Grove, MN location on October 30. I went into the store a few times to try to pick it up. I waited for 40 minutes each time, and left because the store was so busy. I couldn’t get help.

When I finally picked it up yesterday afternoon, you were very close to losing me as a customer. Jeremy, the sales guy who helped me, was knowledgeable about the phones. I was upgrading at full retail price due to needing a new phone. Where things went wrong was when he continued to try to tell me about your leasing/Verizon Edge program… I told him I was NOT interested, and he kept pushing and pushing.  This is my money, how I choose to spend it, and he was pushing the program very aggressively. When I threatened to leave, he said he didn’t make any money on the deal, and that it was a better business model for Verizon because you don’t have enough money to invest in your network (?) Really? Is that something you want to advertise to your customers?

So Jeremy backed off, but then the Store Manager started in again with me at the front counter about the program, and I again told him I would gladly walk away from my order and leave. He would not stop either.  Jeremy finally got him to stop, and had I not needed the phone and had a friend with me, I probably would have left. My friend, who is also a Verizon Customer, was just as disgusted as I was with the Sales approach. I think the Maple Grove store is poorly managed, and this was apparent in my sales experiences there this past week, the sales associates’ behavior, and the behavior of the manager himself.

I stopped shopping at Circuit City years ago because the sales reps were pushing their extended warranty with the same aggressive attitude your employees displayed. They are now out of business. I stopped shopping at Best Buy as well. I would gladly stop shopping at Verizon and switch to AT&T or another competitor if you are having such severe problems investing in your network and need to badger your customers.  I really hope that this is not the way you want to treat your customers?

Also note, that I went to into the Delano Shock City Cellular Verizon Dealer on 11/1 and they would not honor the $699 price on the Samsung Note III listed on my order confirmation or the Verizon Website. They were charging $801 and $160 for 32 GB Memory Cards. Pretty Crazy. Again, do you want stores like this representing your business and your brand?

Seriously thinking about canceling all three lines when our contracts are up…You have also removed the contact us feature on your website, so I had to contact you this way... Customer service is evidently a thing of Verizon's past.

Thanks for listening.

[harvardale]

I am about to switch to AT&T.  Verizon only cares about money these days. Poor phone selections, highest priced network in the US, horribly slow phone updates, hidden fees, slow LTE speeds, unwillingness to work with Google - these are just some of the reasons I am jumping ship.

[pherson]

To the OP- 3rd parth resellers like Shock City can charge what they want. They do not have to offer or honor the same price as in a corporate store. Also this is a customer to customer forum and not a direct soundboard to verizon customer care. Yoir best option to voice your cocern is to use your PHONE and call. *611 or 8009220204.

To harvardale - those are yoir opinions but sadly they are all wrong. How is it unwillingness to work with google and they sell mostly android phones? I could see if you meant unwillingness to work with lets say Palm. And what feesare hidden? In another post you said you would prefer the fee to be in the phone price instead of listed. Being in the phone price certainty sounds "hidden" to me.

[harvardale]

It's not a hidden fee if it is out in the open, the current way means there is no such thing as a free phone.  The G2 may be on sale for $0 with a coupon, but it is actually $30+tax when you checkout.

All of my points are completely valid, you are like the typical large corporation these days telling their customers they are wrong. 

1. Verizon works with LG, Samsung, etc., not Google.  Verizon chose not to support the new Nexus 5 phone because it gets updates directly from Google.  Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile all support the phone.

2. Verizon advertised quick updates for the Galaxy Nexus when it came out, at one point it took Verizon 6 months to release a new version of Android.  Hardly quick to me.

3. The HTC One came out MONTHS after it was available for all other carriers in the US.  Then, they charged a full $199 for it even after other carriers had already discounted it, this is a typical Verizon practice.

4. Verizon is the highest priced carrier, this is a fact.

5. When LTE was first released I was getting 10-20 mbps down, now I consistently get 1-3 mbps down.  Verizon's LTE, in many areas, is slower than AT&T's HSPA+ 3g service.

[pherson]

Just to put it out there, I am not a vzw employee.

1. Thats their prerogative. Its just a phone.

2. See number 1.

3. So what? They chose not to carry if at first especially since theu just launched what they hoped to be a flagship device. Didnt you just post on another thread that VZW doesnt have to follow the crowd?

4. When Verizon changes prices so does att. The prices are the exact same for service.  The add ons may be only slightly different. Not enough to scream about.

5. Blame that on those who want to use their phones as the sole source of internet. They are the reason service degrades, as well as "rush hour" usage times. Not VZW.

Next?

[harvardale]

I certainly hope you do not work for Verizon, pherson.  Your motto seems to be "Verizon can do whatever they want, any fault lies with the customer."

I pay $2,352 a year on Verizon's service, their 'prerogative' shouldn't be to break promises, blame slow network speeds on congestion, and put their own interests over their customers'.  Verizon is about control and always has been.  They constantly trap their customers by demanding carrier specific phones (most newer phones have chips that support CDMA/GSM/LTE all in one), locking down their network (Nexus 7 LTE), and not future-proofing their networks (i.e. the now slow LTE).  I am not debating that AT&T is a better company, but the reason their service is more attractive than Verizon's is because their GSM and LTE networks are open (your device doesn't need to be 'certified' to run on their network) and they have always been focused on keeping their networks fast (as I stated before, in my area their HSPA+ 3G network is faster than Verizon's LTE network).

[jroeder]

Apparently Verizon doesn't offer what you want. If so, stop complaining and leave them. I love Verizon, they have the fastest speeds in my area by far, have the phones I want and cost the same as AT&T. I never have had any problems with them. But if I did have problems like you do, I would not complain about it, I would just move on. Maybe they have slow LTE speeds in your area, but they average faster across the country. If you don't like them, leave them.

[pherson]

Well its obvious you arent gonna win this debate so will just agree to disagree. Enjoy ATT. Youll be back.

[harvardale]

Wow, you are just abounding with humility.

[pherson]

One thing we agree on.