Verizon Genies - Reps not exactly giving you the whole truth

[rvrpilot]

I am not sure where to start I am so fed up with Verizon right now.

My latest contract expires here in a couple of weeks so I have been shopping around for a new phone. I have been on the Verizon site trying to figure out what I will move to next as well as moving to their edge program --- I like new phones and the 2 year contract thing is pretty painful. I was excited to see that I was available for early edge, perfect! I was using a phone from another line of mine, so I switched the phones around since I had to return the one on the line when moving to edge. I went to the store and stood in the long line and diligently and quietly waited like a good customer should.

The customer service rep was really friendly and proceeded to help me out. He did an account review and talked me into getting onto a different plan now before it went away. I was put on a Loyalty plan after last year's bait and switch, which of course took away my Hot Spot and I was never really happy about that. So anyway, it seemed like a good deal to switch to the More Everything Plan, up my data to 10GB, and make the switch to edge. It would be a little more than what I was paying now, but I could live with it. I felt like I was getting a pretty fair deal. The rep also saw this extra line I have, last year's attempt from a rep to "Help" me out which has cost me dearly! He was going to knock the price down as they are running a special and they can do that for me. So by switching everything around I can get the plan I want and actually save $10 a month. I was pretty happy at this point.

He asked what phone I wanted and this is where thing turn for the worse. The only phone I can get is the Droid Turbo, the one they are trying to push heavily. Would someone like to show me where it says anything about restrictions? I can show you a screen shot that shows nothing in the fine print, no restrictions icon, nothing. Verizon just tried to bait and switch me, you got me into the store and tried to get me to go with a different phone with more margin - per the nice service rep, Verizon gets really good deals on Motorola products.

I declined as I was not desperate to upgrade and with less than a month I can get anything I want. So miffed, but somewhat Ok with the service change and price drop I went home to undo my phone swap. This went really wrong. I had to remove the SIM card to get the ID from the card so I could activate it online. After inserting it back in, the phone no longer read the card. Back to the store the next day.

Another customer service rep was really nice, explained that I didn't have insurance and phone warranty just expired, of course the good news is I could early edge to a Turbo.... I declined again and told him I ill just get the phone fixed myself locally or get a used on. Once again he helped me out. He did some magic and said good news, that extra line of mine he could discount $10 and by adding on the total protection packages, it would only cost me $8 extra a month. Remember, the service rep from day one, he supposedly did that for me. But it didn't happen, oh yeah, this one didn't either.

I really wanted to get my phone issue resolved on Sunday, and already knew a place I could get a refurbished one and what it was going to cost. The rep told me I could have a replacement on Tuesday as they would overnight the phone first thing Monday. Yep, I must be pretty naïve again; it was not overnighted as far as I can tell it might be here tomorrow. USPS shows it is just sitting in Texas and has been since Sunday night.

So let me recap the past year and show you the Genie in the bottle....

I broke a phone last year, which was not under warranty and so I went in to purchase a new phone at full price. Rep helped me out and was able to add a line, get the phone on the line, and get me a deal on the whole package that actually kept my price the same. This turned out to not be true and after the first bill realized it was about $40 more than he had told me. Because of the switch it was not easy to tell what the bill would be until the second month. So I call and tell the customer rep what happened and of course they have no idea what that rep tried to do. So they put me on a loyalty program after I complain more, but this takes away the Hot Spot and was supposed to be the same price I was paying before the extra line was added. This didn't happen either, I gave up because every time I called something wasn't quite right and it just kept getting worse for me and customer service really didn't seem to have anything to help me fix the problem.

Then after this weekend it is happening again. Verizon pulled a bait and switch on the phone, got me to change the service, add insurance to 2 lines, and ....

The awkward pause is nothing.

After so many years of great wireless service, I am willing to change. T-mobile has really intrigued me and I have signed up for a test drive on their service. Verizon, you can fix this but time is running out.

[rcschnoor]

From your description, you have no idea what is going on with your account. Of course you don't give much information, so we can't really tell.

First of all, "breaking" a phone would not be covered even if a phone was still under warranty. Warranty covers defects in the phone, not when you "break" the phone.

It appears you have 2 lines of service, now on More Everything with 10 GB of data. The hotspot is included with smartphones with that capability on More Everything. You are not clear if you have 2 smartphones or 1 smartphone and 1 basic phone.

2 smartphones = 2 x $40 = $80 in line access fees.

10 GB of data = $80

Total for the account = $160 + taxes/fees.

If you added insurance, not sure why you would want to do that to a phone you are about ready to replace or why you would let someone talk you into doing so, it appears that is $8 x 2 = $16 bringing your total to $176 + taxes/fees.

If you purchase a smartphone on Edge, you will get a $25 discount on the line access fee for that line but will be mostly if not all or even more by the monthly payment on the phone. Chances are your bill will not change that much when adding an Edge phone to the account.

Of course, if you have 1 smartphone and 1 basic phone, the monthly access fee charge should only be $40 + $20 = $60/month.

[rvrpilot]

You are pretty much right on the money and that is my huge hangup. They tweak things every time I go in the store and my account is not where I want it. So I end up paying more than what they told me in the store, they promise discounts in the store and they don't actually show up, so it just keeps creeping up. When I call customer service they have no idea what the store reps were talking about, so they can't really fix it either.

[rvrpilot]

Interesting my replacement phone is sent economy mail and my test phone from T-Mobile, ordered 2 days later, shows up before my regular phone.

[deloused]

T-Mobile ships their replacement devices the same way (7 business days unless you pay for expedition) except they also charge you a $20-25 warranty processing fee in addition to that.

https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2624