What do you do when Verizon Customer Service won't help you?

[RSILVER900]

I’ve been a Verizon customer for approximately 16 years.   Any issue that I’ve ever had in the past has been solved quickly and professionally.  I’ve never wanted to leave Verizon until now.   This is my experience:

Last year, in July and August, my data usage suspiciously spike to levels that were impossible.  Such as a six-hour usage late in the night when I was asleep and not using the device. After I viewed a detailed chart of the times that the so-called usage took place, I knew that the usage was false and impossible to have taken place.

When I called Verizon to inquire about this last summer, I asked if anyone else had experienced a spike. I was told that only one other person had experienced it, and that it was a fluke.   Verizon refused to accept that the usage did not occur, and Verizon said that the only way out of this was to pay them a $15.00 overage charge, and consider increasing my plan, which I did.   I later discovered online, that I had been deceived.  Verizon did the same thing to thousands of customers, to the point that the FCC is now investigating them.

This past Sunday, my daughter dropped her phone and broke the glass.  She needed to get a replacement phone ASAP, and she knew she had an upgrade on her Verizon account.  Her husband went into a busy Verizon store, and was told that someone had already used her upgrade, so she was out of luck.

Since she was no longer under contract with Verizon, she was eligible to change to one of the other carriers who were offering promotions for new customers.  She needed the phone quickly for work.  Since we had been pleased with Verizon overall, other than the data usage spike situation, I told her I would contact Verizon, (since I am the account holder) to find out what happened to her upgrade.   She was hoping to get one of the promotions that Verizon has always offered which would allow her to get an older phone for a nominal price.

I called Verizon on 4/16/17 and spoke to “Celeste.”  I was told that my daughter did have an upgrade after all, and was misinformed at the Verizon store.  Celeste said that the upgrade was usable.  She also advised me that Verizon no longer offers nominal promotions. However, we could purchase the same model phone that my daughter currently has for $16.81 per month.  Additionally, Celeste told me that my daughter’s line usage charge would be reduced from $40.00 to $20.00 per month.   According to the math, my daughter would save $3.19 per month. Based on this information, we agreed to make the buying decision, and purchase the phone from Verizon.

I was not home at the time I made this call to Verizon, and I did not have a recent Verizon bill in front of me for reference.  The next day, I reviewed my Verizon statement, and compared it to the confirmation email that I received from Verizon.  I discovered that the promised $20 per month reduction had not been applied to our new plan. 

On 4/17/17, I called Verizon Customer Service to get this error corrected.  I spoke to several representatives who refused to honor the $20 monthly reduction, which was what I had been promised by a Verizon Representative BEFORE MAKING MY BUYING DECISION!  I was transferred to “Sheri”, a supervisor in Albuquerque.  Instead of helping me, Sheri insulted me by asking why I had not purchased insurance for the phone.  I think this was Verizon’s way distracting the customer, and then putting the blame onto the customer.  In the end, Verizon was unwilling to honor the pricing information provided to me by one of their employees prior to me making a buying decision. At that point, my husband and I decided not to renew any of our six devices with Verizon once the contracts end.

My daughter lives in New York, and I live in Kentucky.  At the time, I purchased the phone through Celeste, I provided my daughter’s name and New York shipping address to Celeste so that the phone would go directly to my daughter.  Celeste took down the information, and read it back to me correctly.

Last night, my daughter called asking when the new phone would arrive.  She’s desperate.  I checked the tracking number provided by Verizon, and discovered that Verizon did not ship the phone to the New York address that I provided, and that they read back to me.  Instead, the phone is being shipped to me in Kentucky. 

I called Verizon on 4/18/17, to try to get the phone rerouted to New York.  The first person I spoke to “Danielle” was very helpful, however, after a long wait, I became disconnected.

I frustratingly called back a moment later, and spoke with “Liz”.  I had to repeat the whole story.  In the end, Liz agreed to contact FedEx, and have the phone rerouted and overnighted to my daughter in New York.

This morning, I checked the FedEx tracking number, and discovered that the phone is on the truck, and out for delivery in Kentucky.  So, I expect I will receive the phone today, and then I will have to contact Verizon again to have them contact FedEx again to pick up the phone and ship it to New York.

The time and frustration that has gone into what should have been a simple purchase is unacceptable! Being quoted a price prior to making a buying decision, and then refusing to honor it is fraud!  Putting the blame on the customer for not choosing to purchase insurance is offensive!  The ineptitude that has occurred with what should have been a simple transaction is hugely disappointing!  The data usage spike scam last summer is illegal!

Can someone at Verizon make this right? 

[rcschnoor]

The first thing I notice about your story is that IF your daughter's line is being charged a $40 line access fee instead of a $20 line access fee, her line IS still under contract. On the Verizon Plan, the line access fee drops AUTOMATICALLY to $20/month once the service contract is completed. You do not need to purchase a new phone for this reduction to take place. It ONLY drops to $20/month when the contract is completed, not whether or not you purchase a new device on a payment plan.

[sprmankalel]

Ok. What's disturbing here is why you would spend the money to purchase the same model of phone that your daughter already has. You never mentioned what phone it is that broke but most malls have same day service to fix screens. This would potentially cost $100 or so. To me, if you're going to buy a new phone, you should buy a newer model while you're at it. I am assuming the the one she broke is 12-18 months old which means it is at the end of its life cycle and very soon it will stop receiving software updates and support from the manufacturer. Which means you're paying for the phone over 2 years and it will only be considered viable by the manufacturer for another 10-12 months.

Now, if her line didn't have an upgrade eligibility it is because her phone was either purchased on contract less than 2 years ago or you allowed someone else on your account to use that line's eligibility to get a new phone for a different line. Verizon, while having always allowed it, doesn't like when we customers swap upgrades from one line to another. It causes much confusion as people don't always remember OR they don't understand the long term ramifications. This being one of them. Then they get upset because they don't understand why they can't get the phone easily. While, there is never anything stopping us from buying a phone using line A's upgrade and giving it to line B, what happens is line A now needs a phone and neither line is eligible.

As far as Verizon sending FedEx to pick up the device from you and delivering it to New York, I can say with almost 100% certainty that this won't happen. You're better off taking the unopened box to the nearest FedEx shipping location and paying for it to be shipped to her. Your other option is to refuse the package, wait for it be sent back to Verizon and making her an account manager so that she can go to the store and buy a new phone. If that doesn't work, she can look into screen replacement. That is usually easy if the phone is an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy.

Be careful about switching her line to another carrier. If you are paying $40 per month, there is probably still some kind of contract on it and will probably be charged an Early Termination Fee of some sort.

[RSILVER900]

Thanks for your comment.  My daughter called me at work.  I did not have my Verizon bill with me. We have 6 devices on our account, and at the time I called Verizon, I had no idea which device was still under contract, and which device was not.  I relied on the Verizon Customer Service rep to advise me.  The rep that I spoke with told me that I was paying $40 per month, and would save $20 per month on my daughter's line access fee.  What she failed to tell me at the time, was that (as you pointed out), my daughter's line access fee had already dropped to $20.00 last fall.  So the $20.00 savings that she promised me going forward, was untrue.  In the end, the phone which was supposed to be sent to New York, was actually sent to me in Kentucky, which caused the additional hassle of several more calls to get this straightened out.  This morning my daughter called me and told me that she has now received 2 phones from Verizon, so now we need to go thru more hoops to return one of the phones, and get this duplicate charge removed from my account.  This is just way too much frustration for customers to go through in order to have cell phone service.  I read on USA Today that Verizon lost over 300,000 customers this past year, and that their stock price is declining.  They used to be at the top of their game, but they no longer seem to value keeping customers.  Their approval rate in many online sites is near the bottom.  If this were my business, I'd really be concerned.  It's so odd that they don't seem to care!

[RSILVER900]

Thanks for your reply.  My daughter's phone had already begun to have operational issues before she dropped it.  She just had not had the time to look into upgrading it.  After she dropped it, not only was the screen broken, but operationally, she was having more problems.  So yes, if it was only the screen, a screen replacement would have been fine.  In this case, the phone was nearly unusable.

Nobody used my daughter's upgrade.  Although a Verizon store employee told my son-in-law that this had occurred, when I called Verizon, I was told that my daughter's upgrade had in fact not been used, and was still available.  So we were misled by the Verizon store employee prior to being again misled by the Verizon Customer Service Rep.

I agree with you that  when upgrading a phone, getting the newest model makes the most sense.  However, my daughter is on a tight budget, and only the cost of the older model was affordable for her. 

By the way, I did refuse the phone when it was incorrectly sent to me in Kentucky.  After more calls, Verizon did ship a phone to my daughter in New York.  However, for some reason, they sent her a second phone, and now we have to go thru hoops to get the second phone returned and the duplicate charges removed from our account.  This is all way too much hassle for just trying to purchase a cell phone!

[Ann154 · Accepted solution]

You could have signed into your MyVerizon account online as the account owner and determined the status of all the lines' upgrades.

[GINAKEISER]

Verizon is great  for cellular coverage but not for speed of 4 G and I could handle that until I dealt with the incompetent , rude liars at customer. I have had and experience similar to yours. I have been a Verizon customer for a decade or more. After this last " larceny " in added cost , loss payments etc. I have finally had it with this company. It's like I had Stockholm Syndrome. I am making my break from them soon. Verizon used to be the best game in town, it was worth putting up with for coverage. Now T Mobile is way better. Bye Verizon. Please fix your issues.

[sprmankalel]

GINAKEISER wrote:

Verizon is great for cellular coverage but not for speed of 4 G and I could handle that until I dealt with the incompetent , rude liars at customer. I have had and experience similar to yours. I have been a Verizon customer for a decade or more. After this last " larceny " in added cost , loss payments etc. I have finally had it with this company. It's like I had Stockholm Syndrome. I am making my break from them soon. Verizon used to be the best game in town, it was worth putting up with for coverage. Now T Mobile is way better. Bye Verizon. Please fix your issues.

TMobile isn't better but I certainly do hope that you find greener grass.

[vzw_customer_support]

GINAKEISER, we appreciate your loyalty and would never want to see you go. We are always here to help. What seems to be the trouble?

TionnaB_VZW

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[mikedaniels500]

I realize that this is an older message I’m replying to but this is June 2020 and I’m having the same type of Verizon ineptitude which is effecting my ability to connect to school finals that has no grace period if I cannot connect in time.