upgrade upside down
rj525
Newbie

I was unsure about doing this, but I think it is important that Verizon uses the info to improve the customer experience. I want to qualify this by saying the actual cell service is not what I'm disappointed in. I also want to state I have a grandfathered in 8GB plan with two lines. 

I went to a local Best Buy to upgrade my XS MAX to a iPhone 12 Pro MAX on 11/19/20. I've done it multiple times over the years and always had a great experience, walking out with a new phone activated and working. Never had any issues with billing, etc.

The store was very experienced, but ran into a slight problem at the end. The phone would not activate. They called their Verizon tech support and were told things were slow and it should activate by end of day. 5 pm rolled around, no activation.

I called Verizon tech support on 11/20/20 as I was going out of town and had no phone. I spoke with several people, and was told it was stuck in the switch and would probably activate by Friday pm. She also opened an incident number (which I will omit). I checked the phone each day until Monday when we returned. Still not activated. Also did not receive a call from the rep who promised she would check in on the situation.

On Monday 11/23/20, I tried using the chat function on the web site to get some help. I spent FOUR HOURS on it and have the transcript. Still being told it was stuck and no one could override the situation. This continued through Thanksgiving. 

On 11/28/20 (12 days now), I went back to the Best Buy to return the phone and hopefully get my old phone back. The Best Buy employee was very knowledgeable and offered to try and push the activation through. He was on the phone with Verizon for several more hours, this time reaching someone in management. She said something about there being two instances of the order which was creating the issue. It wasn't because the store entered anything wrong. She got on the phone with me and told me that I needed to return the first phone, which would hopefully push the old orders out, and purchase another new phone. The store only had phones with more memory, which adds cost, and the lady from Verizon (omitting names) said she would apply a $200 credit over 24 months to make up for the situation. I agreed. Best Buy then spent another 1.5 hours trying to get the first phone returned, and a third party had to be involved. At the end of FOUR HOURS at the store on 11/28, I was done. I told Best Buy I wanted my old phone back. They still had it, and it was still active as the order never went through. I left the store.

On Monday 11/30/20, my phone suddenly stopped working at 10 am or so, giving me a message that my number was invalid. I went back to Best Buy that afternoon, and found out that the first phone I purchased, and tried to return, was active?? They asked me if I still wanted it, and I said yes. However, they couldn't give it to me because they had returned the phone at the store level in order for me to get my old phone back. So they tried to upgrade me to the phone with more memory, and couldn't do that either due to more error messages in the Verizon system. Another THREE HOURS, and I finally told them activate my old phone on my plan. They were able to do that and it it is still working today.

I'd also like to state that the lady that offered me the $200 credit promised to call me on my work phone Tuesday morning (today). Unfortunately, that call never came.

As I said at the beginning, this is not about the cell coverage - I think it is the best of all the carriers I have used. I will continue to be a Verizon customer for that reason. That being said, I hope that the customer service team takes note of this experience, figures out what went wrong, and then makes necessary changes to prevent it from happening to someone else.

Also, the local Best Buy did everything they could. I appreciate their tenacity. 

Thank you.

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Re: upgrade upside down
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

rj525, I'm sorry for the trouble you had progressing your upgrade. I'm glad to hear our partners at Best Buy were helpful and that you do enjoy our coverage and cellular service. We appreciate all feedback, even when it's letting us know things could have gone better. I will lift and forward your feedback up to the right people so we can use it to improve our processes. I know you'll enjoy your new phones, and thank you for being part of VZ!

 

JohnT_VZW

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Re: upgrade upside down
rj525
Newbie

John, Thanks for the reply. Just for the record - I wound up with my original phone instead of an upgrade due to the issues surrounding described. Best Buy couldn't get the transaction to work for the upgrade, so they reactivated my XSMAX.

rj525

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