Why am I paying the consequences of my salesman's blunder?

[ShrewdConsumer]

Hello Dear Verizon Consumers and associates!

let me start by saying how i wish i could avoid making this post, but it seems i have little other recourse.  After my iphone 5 failed a few months ago after roughly 22 months of dutiful service, i decided to downgrade to an old basic phone i had and await my 2 year upgrade discount.  I called and called trying to find someone who could get me set up on another smartphone sooner, and the best luck i had was when someone told me i could upgrade 30 days out from my actual contract end date - which is Jan 2 2015, so on december 2nd, or somewhere thereabouts - and they said to call back when that date arrived...

so i get an email on black friday and i find out the phone i want is being offered for free that day - 11/28, and i decide to call and hopefully get an associate on the phone who appreciates the proximity of that Dec. 2nd upgrade date, who appreciates my business, and will allow me to go ahead and take advantage of that wicked deal.  But the first associate in telesales, Corey, could not make it happen, so i got transferred to a sales supervisor, Jarrell, who happily discussed the nature of my request, and agreed that while he could not ship the phone until the official date on Dec 2,  that he would ship the phone the following week on the 2nd of December at the promotional price.  I talked with him about how they'd ship it, and he even suggested i leave a note on my door if i would be away during the day so fedex could leave the package - this was an order that i was clearly given the impression had been completed and was ready to roll out on Dec 2.  As you can imagine, I was thrilled that my months sans smartphone were over...  Or so I thought...

The phone never came, the confirmation e-mail never got sent, and as it turns out, Jarrell never even completed the phone order.  I should have asked him for some form of confirmation, but it slipped my mind.  Perhaps he couldn't follow through on his promise, and rather than call me back and let me know, he just hoped I would forget that I was supposed to be receiving a new phone the following week... 

On Wednesday I started to feel concerned that the phone might not be headed my way, so i called and spoke to several customer service and sales reps for a period close to 2 hours.  They try to offer me the phone i had been promised by Jarrell, except they wanted at least 100 dollars for it, and would not honor the prior agreement.  Many of them stated that "the notes on my account" did not reflect the story as i am telling it to you now.  But a recording of the phone call most certainly would, so i asked them to pull up the recording, listen to it, and honor the agreement.  But they "couldn't" - they needed to "send e-mails and do research" and "hear back form that call center" and they were "going to be off of work until Sunday" etc.  So when i said "hey im supposed to have a new phone by thursday or friday of this week, thats what i was promised" they all essentially just said "too bad" or "we can submit an order today for a higher price and if you accept it then we will do no further investigation and we will not credit you back the amount paid if the phone call indicates the story as you are describing it."  That's horse excrement, if I do say so myself.  So, if by some stroke of luck any of you read this, I say to you  - Jarrell in sales, Ben in customer service, Shelley, tier 2 supervisor in customer service, Sharon in customer service, Khadija, supervisor in customer service --- i know you all are taking the salesman's side on this one, and i understand i was not eligible for the deal that Jarrell promised me, so stop repeating yourselves, i get that part.  What's fair is that you honor what he promised because that's taking accountability for the company's actions, not blaming the misdeeds of your associates on the consumer.  So here i am, at the mercy of this monolithic wireless provider, and at the mercy of these call center managers, some of whom have promised me call-backs but not followed through on them, who have talked to me, a faithful Verizon customer of many years, as though I was lying about this matter for some personal gain.  My honor and integrity are worth a hell of a lot more than 200 dollars, and I just want to see that this company takes it as seriously as I do that I was, at the very lest, misled by this sales associate. 

So, again I ask, why am I being made to pay the consequences of this salesman's blunder?

[rcschnoor]

The consequences being that you actually have to pay the amount for which you qualify to pay for a phone??? Those are certainly some steep consequences.

You tried to get something for which you did not qualify. You were not able to get it. If you want the phone, purchase it at the price available when you qualify to make the purchase.

[ShrewdConsumer]

You know, I really do agree with you rschooner, that i wasn't eligible for an upgrade, and i wanted one anyway, and so I tried to convince somebody that I should receive one, and I knew it was a long shot, and I would be more than willing to accept this outcome as ideal and appropriate, had it not been for the fact that the salesman TOLD ME THE DEAL WAS DONE, that the phone would be here this week, etc.  So my consequence in this case is not just being forced to pay a price I qualify for, but rather being made to pay a higher than agreed upon price for a device that I was told was ordered, regardless of what I technically "qualified for" on the day I ordered it, and the outcome constitutes a break in an agreement, albeit an oral one, that was made.  Do you think the salespeople of Verizon are serving their customer base when they tell their customers things that are not true, or promise them things they cannot promise? 

[rcschnoor]

ShrewdConsumer wrote:

Do you think the salespeople of Verizon are serving their customer base when they tell their customers things that are not true, or promise them things they cannot promise? 

Personally, I think that Verizon salespeople are not always versed completely in what is available. I also think that sometimes what someone hears is not always what someone else meant when it was said. I also think that when you ask for something and are told no and you continue to ask in order to get another answer, you are even MORE likely to misinterpret what someone is saying, i.e. someone will tell you they will try to do something and see if it works just to placate you since you did not accept the no as an answer. Such as someone tells you they will try something simply to make you happy and then say "There, it is done" as in they put it in the system, not knowing if it will work. Then when it doesn't work, i.e. rejected, you then say you were lied to.

Bottom line, you now have to pay the price which you were eligible to get the phone for. Yes, I think the agent was serving the customer base trying to get you something for which you were not eligible. That the order got rejected, does not mean they didn't try OR that they necessarily lied about it. Just that you were not eligible. Whether or not the agent was aware of that fact WHEN you place the order is anyone's guess.

[ShrewdConsumer]

The chances of my misinterpreting a salesperson telling me that yes, the phone would be on its way here this week, and yes, the price would be free, and even going so far as to tell me if I wouldn't be home thursday or friday to leave a little note on the door for Fedex so they could drop off the package, are literally zero - but i appreciate your skepticism.  The salesperson perhaps should have said "No, I can't do anything for you," or even "I'll try, but I cannot be certain the order will go through," then I would have absolutely no complaint about what happened here, and I would just move on and try to get a phone this week or next week or any other time. But that isn't what happened, regardless of how far you want to read into the details and try to determine where I began to "misinterpret."

[rcschnoor]

I am not trying to "read into the details". You simply asked if you are being made to pay for your salesman's blunder. I simply gave my opinion. You are not, you are paying for what you are eligible. Whether or not is was a blunder, you have no way of knowing. The salesman very well could have put the order in. The order very well could have been rejected because you were not eligible. That does not mean the salesman made a blunder. It could very well mean they tried and were unsuccessful. It is my opinion, nothing else and if you think I am saying something else, you are simply "misinterpreting" my statements.

Whether or not the salesman made a "blunder", I certainly don't know and I can't imagine how you could possibly know. I certainly don't know how Verizon's computer system works. The order could have been placed as stated by the agent and then rejected later on. People on these forums make this claim all the time that their orders have been cancelled after the fact for a myriad of reasons. That you were not eligible seems to be a fairly valid reason, in my opinion. If the order was placed as you claim the agent did, and was subsequently rejected after the fact, how is that a blunder of the agent?

Bottom line is you are not getting a phone at a price for which you were not eligible. You are not being made to pay for the salesman's "blunder". That is my opinion.

I know your opinion is different. We simply disagree.

[ShrewdConsumer]

I agree with your sentiment and I appreciate your candor.  Respectfully, I think perhaps you are confusing my original question.  I did not ask if I was or was not being made to pay for his blunder, I rather asked "why?"  It is important when answering a question that we thoughtfully consider the true intention of the question.  In this case, maybe you disagree with me about an assumption the question makes: that the salesperson did in fact blunder. 

The matter here is that we disagree as to whether or not this outcome is the result of a "blunder," as I put it. The dictionary defines blunder as a "stupid or careless mistake."  Now you are entitled to opine as you wish, but there is no debate in whether making an agreement with someone promising something that one cannot provide is a mistake, and while it may not have been careless, in this case, I must say it fits the definition of stupid (day in, day out, telesales associates process sales orders; if this one were so atypical or contrary to policy as to be canceled after the fact, a prudent sales employee would certainly follow-up, you don't have to take a sales seminar to know that).  Let's live out some of your scenarios:  If in fact the salesman attempted to place the order and failed, the onus would have been on him to own up to the error and contact me to inform me that he would like to alter the terms of our agreement, that's not a courtesy, it is a duty.  If on the other hand he did put the order through, and then someone else in the chain of command canceled it, rejected it, or otherwise postponed it, then the onus would be on that person to inform the sales associate that an order he submitted was being rejected, at which time, again, a diligent salesperson would follow up with the customer, detailing the challenges to completing their part of an agreement, and perhaps suggesting an alternative to which both parties agree.  Assuming perhaps his superior did not inform him of the rejection, one could rather shift the blame for my not being informed of the situation from the salesman to the reviewing party who subsequently canceled, but either way, no one did inform me, and someone is responsible for failing to follow through on the Verizon end of this agreement. 

[Weth]

Let me get this straight. You are not due for an upgrade until Jan 2. You are allowed to move that up a month to December 2. AND then you smack that gift horse in the mouth by asking for an even earlier upgrade date. And then it doesn't work out. Sorry. I am not feeling the "I have been wronged by this big monolithic company"

I suspect the salesperson, tried is best to help you, put the order in, and then later on down the line, it was rejected as not meeting criteria. You were already told no, but kept persisting, someone went out of there way to try, even though others said it will not work. That person tried, and it may have looked like it worked at first, but then was cancelled or rejected by the system at an integrity check.

Yes, you should have gotten some sort of communication that it could not go through, but by no means are you owed the free phone that you are not eligible for.

Some stories on this site certainly meet the I have been wronged by Verizon. In my single opinion, this is not one of them.

[rcschnoor]

ShrewdConsumer wrote:

If on the other hand he did put the order through, and then someone else in the chain of command canceled it, rejected it, or otherwise postponed it, then the onus would be on that person to inform the sales associate that an order he submitted was being rejected, at which time, again, a diligent salesperson would follow up with the customer, detailing the challenges to completing their part of an agreement, and perhaps suggesting an alternative to which both parties agree.  Assuming perhaps his superior did not inform him of the rejection, one could rather shift the blame for my not being informed of the situation from the salesman to the reviewing party who subsequently canceled, but either way, no one did inform me, and someone is responsible for failing to follow through on the Verizon end of this agreement.

Along with the assumption the question makes that there was in fact a blunder, you are also assuming it is Verizon policy to contact you when an order is rejected/cancelled.

Reading on these forums, there are MANY instances where people claim to have had their order cancelled for multiple reason without ever being notified. That would not lead me to believe it is the policy to contact you when an order is cancelled. Whether or not that is the case, I certainly do not have any way of knowing.

The fact still remains that you are no worse off than when you got your first answer to whether or not you could get the special Black Friday price, which was no and you are STILL not paying for anything which you were not entitled to in the first place.

[ShrewdConsumer]

Hey Weth, thanks for your input.  Frankly, I agree that they were certainly helping me out by offering to bump up the date.  I certainly didn't mean anyone harm by calling a wopping 4 days prior and trying to score a good deal on a phone I wanted.  If the salesperson said he was "trying" then yea, I agree with you - im shit out of luck.  But in this case, he said "yes, it's a deal," and my values and expectations as a consumer are what prevents me from simply letting the fact that he said that in error go without seeking some form of rectification of this iniquity.  If the "system" canceled the order, then perhaps the architects should incorporate some kind of notification system to follow up behind those integrity checks - letting me and/or the salesman know we are back to square one?  You think, maybe?