Poor Customer Service

[morganbogart123]

This story is long, so I am going to do the best at summarizing it.

I have been on my mother’s cellphone plan for the last 15 years, and just recently got Married so decided to leave her plan and open my own plan. On Jan 4, I began researching and talking with different cellular providers on pricing to see what my cheapest and best plan would be. I talked with a “John” with online Customer Service who sold me on choosing Verizon. (My moms plan was Verizon, so he made it sound like sticking with Verizon myself would be the best option.)

John looked at my mom’s account and told me we owed $266 on my current Apple iPhone 12. He said what I could do is trade that iPhone in before my first bill came out in 30 days (as long as we paid it off of course), and I would receive a $1000 credit towards my upgraded device. He also said that the best plan for me would be the $90 plan that is currently running a free Apple Watch SE with the plan. I told John that I wanted a cheaper plan than that, and he said if I went ahead and transferred my Husbands plan to be on mine, it would make my plan $75/month. He said this would just all need to be done before the first bill came out. I also told John that I wanted to keep my phone number that I have had for the last 15 years, and he said that would be no problem. He told me he would have to issue me a temporary phone number in his system to process the order, and after I picked up my order in the store, I’d call the 1-800 number and it would take them 30 seconds to move that phone number over. He told me what my exact bill would be (without adding my husband) and what my exact bill would be after adding my husband. $101 was the cost he gave me after trading the phone in and adding my husband.

I picked my new phone and watch up that night, and went home and chatted online to get my phone number moved over. I talked with 4 or 5 different people, for 3 hours straight. At the end of the chats, one of the reps said they moved the phone number over. However, when you called the phone number, both my new device and my old device were ringing. But, when I called out or sent a message from my new device, it would come from the temporary phone number. It was the end of the night, so I decided to go in to the store the next day for help on getting this fixed.

I went to the Greenville, NC store on Greenville Blvd. when they opened at 9am, having to be late for work to handle this. The manager was there and informed me there was no way I could move my phone number over, since it was a Verizon phone number. She told me it was easier to move a phone number if I would have gone with a different Cellular provider. She told me she had been working with Verizon for the last 13 years and knew from her experience that I was informed wrong from John and what I was going to have to do was return everything with Customer Service, and start over. She told me I should call the 1-800 number just to make sure and asked me to do it in the store so she could help if I needed her to. I was in the store for 4 hours, being transferred to rep after rep after rep who all told me something different. I was hung up on 3 different times, with no explanation, which caused me to call again and start all over with some one new. Each one of those Reps kept telling me what was taking so long was their system, in moving the phone number over. I was never told there was an issue, I just kept being put on hold and was told it was getting worked on.

At the end of the 4 hours, a Rep on the phone told me I would have to pay off the iPhone 12 from my mom’s phone before the phone number was moved over, and that John had told me wrong when I placed my order. Frustrated that I had just been fooled, I told them I just wanted to cancel my plan and get back on my mom’s plan, and return my items. The Customer Service Rep informed me that they were canceling my plan, and moving me back over, and said I needed to return the items in the store, and we ended the call. When I told the Store Manager what was happening, she told me she couldn’t help me – that if she took back my items, I would now be responsible for paying a restocking fee. I didn’t understand how this was possible, after I just went through hours of misleading information and how none of this was my fault, why I now would be charged for that! She told me my best bet would be calling Customer Service back and trying to return with them and fighting the restocking fee. I asked her if there was any way she could do that, since she just watched me speak with Customer Service for FOUR hours and I really didn’t have it in me anymore to do it again, and she told me no.

I left and called my mom to let her know I was moved back on her plan. She checked her email to accept me being moved back over, and the Customer Service Rep moved my new iPhone 14 device on to my mom’s account instead… My mom then called Verizon Customer Service and explained to her what had been handled wrong and what I had just been through, and that Rep- Kirsten, said she wanted to help. She felt bad that all of this happened and she wanted to make it right. They 3-Wayed me in the phone call. We stayed on the phone with Kirsten for another 3 hours. This obviously made it where I had to miss the full day of work now.

Kirsten saw that what John had informed me was all wrong. She explained to me that that is not how the order should have been placed. She also told us that because the phone number still had a Device Agreement attached to it, the phone number can not be removed from my mom’s account. What she did find was that my mom’s phone device was paid off, so she and a Rep named Colby both worked to get the -3411 device agreement moved over to her phone line -2583, which was freeing up my phone number to be moved. Kirsten left the line, leaving us with Colby for another hour.

Colby said that his system was allowing him to attach the phone number to my device and device agreement, but it would attach and then un attach itself right after. He said it was then giving him an error message that he had done it too many times that day and we would have to try again tomorrow. I told him I could not and would not be calling in a third day in a row to Customer Service to get this done. He promised he would call me himself, at 12:00 the next day, and get this done. He apologized for all of the Reps before him, and saw where they were not doing anything with my account correctly. He said if I would have gotten him in the beginning, none of those 11 hours I just spent on the phone with Customer Service would have happened. He said that the next day when we would talk, he would apply some sort of credit to my account for my troubles.

12:00 on Friday came, the third day of me dealing with this, and he did not call. 1:30 came, still no call from him. I finally gave in and called Customer Service and demanded that I speak with Colby. They said they were messaging him to have him call me, but that he was not responding. This rep had no idea what I needed done, and asked that I start from the beginning. I then had to re go over everything I just dealt with in the last 3 days.

This Rep was able to get my phone number moved over to my account. Afterwards, he told me there was a bigger issue. John quoted me wrong on everything. He told me I would not be getting the $1000 credit for my phone turn-in, the cost John told me of my plan was not right, and that I would indeed have to pay for the Apple Watch. As you can imagine, I broke down crying on the phone with this Rep. I told him I didn’t know what to do anymore, but I wasn’t sure what more energy I had in me to deal with this. I asked to speak with a supervisor and he transferred me to Diane, I think her name was.

Diane unfortunately was just like everyone else. I again had to start from the beginning and tell her everything that had just happened to me. I told her I was very upset that I spoke with 12+ Reps at this point now, and almost everyone saw something different and told me something different. I didn’t realize why no one in the company knew the same thing and knew how to help me. I told her how I did not feel like any of this was my fault, and how I should be responsible for this mess-up that John started by starting this order in the beginning. Her exact words were “Unfortunately we all have Human Error.” She told me the only thing she could do for me was take $8/month off of my bill towards the watch.

So here I am, the following week. Feeling like Verizon really did me over and made a fool out of me. I can’t change providers now because I own this device and phone number until it is paid off. On top of all of this, some where in the middle of everything, I was told that my “My Verizon” account has been issued to another customer and I can only log-in and view as a Member, not as the Owner. Diane told me I’d have to call sometime this week to get it all re-set…. Another poor customer service move made by a Verizon Rep.