Why I have no intention of trading in my Note 7
SC0TTL
Enthusiast - Level 1

AKA "Why are Verizon and Samsung not taking Note 7 users seriously?"

I traded in my Galaxy S5 in good working order. With a recent diagnosis of early-onset-Parkinsons, I was having difficulty texting and needed something stylus-driven to help avoid mis-typed letters. I briefly tried a Galazy S7 as recommended by the cell phone salesperson in the interim, which I returned as I had the exact same problems with my disability that I had with the S5 - no surprise there, at least to me.

Like many here, I was, and continue to be, thrilled with the Note 7. And like many, I understood the reason for the recall. And like some, having been previously in the cell phone industry I understood quite well about their added motives around the 2 companies added concerns around their own liability.

However, since then I spent just under THIRTY hours either standing in lines in the Verizon stores, on hold or in well over dozen calls with the longest being nearly 3 hours, the longest wait in store being over 6 and the most recent attempt to upgrade being 2 nights ago. Every time, they run into a database problem. Or a billing problem. Or a systems problem. Or customer reps that aren't fully trained and say they don't understand what they are seeing on their own systems or say they can't get to go through. Or a promo problem.

And I've ceased being so understanding.

Verizon, if the **real** reason you and Samsung continue to make this process so painful for all of us is because you actually just want to shed the LEGAL liability, while putting the financial cost of all this fiasco on us, your customers (instead of bearing the costs of this fiasco yourselves), **THAT MESSAGE** is one that I think we all here have gotten by now LOUD and CLEAR.

You promised to make the process smooth;
You promised to make your customers whole;

You promised to do all you could to make your customers safe;

You promised our concerns would be taken care of;

You promised all credits would be handled expeditiously;

... on these and so many more promised, you failed us, all of us.

It is time that certain executives step down and Verizon steps up and answers it's commitments to it's customers.


In my own case, we were told we were getting numerous credits, including credits to off set the inconveniences, credits for more original trade in, a promotional credit, etc. We have 2 emails from you in fact stating our next bill would be minus 451 dollars one month and over 600 dollars in credit another month, with the (laughable) headline... wait for it... "No Surprises!" And, both months instead of a credit, you sent us a bill instead.

And I've tried upgrading multiple times. Only to get responses that the system wasn't working, or that the promotion wasn't being processed correctly, or more recently when they couldn't get the promotion to work, even that I should call back in a few days when a better promotion would be offered. Then today I find I'm not eligible for that promotion as the Note 7 is set for a trade in value of zero dollars and zero cents. That's funny; you didn't mind keeping the $150 (arbitrarily set by you) of trade-in value that you never credited me for when I traded in the S5, did you?

So now, you instead want me to PAY YOU $552 to get an S5 just like the one I had, repurchase all the accessories for it, and after (or should I say IF you ever, given the rest of the experience) you get around to processing the Samsung $300 credit, I'll still EAT $222 (plus all accessory costs), JUST TO GET THE PHONE i ALREADY HAD?

Get real. I understand how legal liability works. Until you get serious about processing things on our behalf in a reasonable manner, I'll keep my Samsung, thanks. And if it ever blows up, I'll happily get a lawyer to come after you. I hope others do as well.