Verizon Wireless aka My Arch Nemisis

>> Thursday, May 13, 2010

Let me start off by saying I have been a Verizon customer since before Verizon existed. When I started using Bell Atlantic Mobile I was about fifteen. My phone was HUGE and had about thirty minutes a month on it for emergency purposes. I am not a spring chicken anymore so you do the math. I have been a customer a LONG TIME!! When I got married it was natural for my anti-cell phone husband be beaten into submission to join my carrier. He didn't have a cell phone until 2005. I know right?! So once again...been a customer a LONG TIME!

Not once until this time have I ever been pissed off at Verizon. They have always given me what I need and make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Until now.

Now I am irritated. My hubby's phone is a piece of junk. It randomly shuts off and is generally worthless. So I just want a new phone for him. Something nice. That does simple things like stay on during business calls or mid-texting. I even want to get him something a little extra special and upgrade to a smart phone. Droid anyone?



He is not super gadget husband, but I thought this would shut him up for awhile about me always getting the cool stuff. (hello iMac of 2009 anyone?)

Verizon's response? No way Jose! WHAT! Well apparently Michael is not due for an upgrade until December. And they won't budge. You know why? Because he is the secondary line. Well only by default since I already owned the account. And last time  I checked he was the bread winner in the family. Better yet we are both working adults in the same household. That ridiculous cell phone bill comes out of the same joint checking account every month. So why do we get different treatment.

But I can give him my upgrade. Uh how about no? Why don't you upgrade us both. I will even buy two Droids. AKA phone bill will go up 60 god forsaken dollars a month! Reminder: loyal, paying, LONG TERM customer here. I spend more money with the company than I am willing to admit and I just want to throw some more of my money at you please. Why won't you let me?

But nope. Won't work with me, won't do anything. Verizon's suggestion? Give my upgrade to him or add a line to get the upgrade. Or pay 100 dollars to buy a USED refurbished phone. Oh you want a refurbished Droid? That will be 280 dollars.

My suggestion? How about I just cancel? Because you know what? IT IS CHEAPER. Yes it is cheaper to pay out my contract and then add a new line and get the new phone. Oh but Verizon won't let me do that either. We can't guarantee we will approve you for a new line if you cancel. Oh and we will give your hubby's number away to some other poor soul just to be mean. I can't even keep my freaking phone number. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! Oh you can port it out but if you cancel and try to work the system we hold your number hostage.

And what is this threat of not approving me? So you don't want fancy phone lovers that have excellent credit and a  long term loyal history with your company? Wow. You must be the only company in the world that would turn down customers like that?! I mean there have to be tons of company's that would want my business. Well Verizon isn't saying they absolutely won't approve me, but they have to make me aware that there is a chance they won't. Oh and you still can't keep your number.

I am so pissed off right now. I know it seems petty. I realize that. But this is about principle. About loyalty. About customer service! For someone that is ranked number one in customer service I am not feeling the love. I am feeling the frustration of talking to a dead line when my husbands phone cuts off mid conversation. I am feeling the panic of not being able to reach him because oops the phone lost power and it is currently off in his pocket. On a brighter note the battery life is decent. BECAUSE IT IS ALWAYS CUT OFF!

I have to take blame for some of this. I should carry insurance on the phones. And believe me I will from now on. Because who knew it would be such a pain in the ass to get keep a cell phone that stayed on?

So with that being said maybe I should just cancel. Out of principle. Because you know what? I have had my eye on the iphone for awhile now. And we all know I live in an Apple household.

You know what else? I get 20% off my entire bill because of my job (vs. your 20% off my line and data). And finally AT&T's monthly plans are cheaper. So if I can get over the 180 dollars it would cost me to cancel Verizon this may be worth it. Just to teach Verizon a lesson. A lesson about keeping the business you have instead of only pushing for the new. I am not a customer you have to work hard for, or bend over backwards to please. I just want to get two new kick ass phones. I don't think that is too much to ask. I stay out of loyalty and happiness. But if Verizon has no loyalty to me and is not keeping me happy then why should I stay?


5 comments:

Emily Drum May 13, 2010 at 10:58 AM  

Sing it sister! Your post speaks to me today—I am currently in the throes of a dispute with Verizon. I, too, have been a customer since I was 15, and I, too, have never before had (serious) issues with their service. Time to start writing letters...

Kelly Guenther May 13, 2010 at 7:49 PM  

OMG, Chris and I just went throught this same thing!!! I told them just to cancel ALL 5 of my lines (no we are not under contract with any of them because I refused to sign into another contract) and I told them that we wanted iphones anyway. Well it seems as if they had lost lots of customers to iphones and they worked with me. I was elegible for an early upgrade and I just transferred it to his line for $ 20 and got him the droid. Here is the kicker, I had to sign his number into a new 2 yr. contract just to get this done! Long story short, go into your local store and tell them how pissed you are, then try to threaten them with the iphone story!! Hope this works for you...

Kari May 13, 2010 at 9:00 PM  

I say just get the iphone. You can join our club!

Wayne F. May 14, 2010 at 8:18 AM  

OK, I have to comment because I'm feeling the same pain right now. I am still, for who knows what reason, with Verizon and I have been with them forever just like you. I too had a "brick phone" back in the day and right now, I'd love to throw it at their customer service reps. I "upgraded" to the Envy 2 and it is without a doubt the biggest POS phone I've ever used. It shuts off for no apparent reason, just like Michael's phone. When I spoke to Verizon's technical support, the guy told me that the reason it shuts off is because I have too many text messages in my inbox (100-130 average) I had already purchased a 4GB SD card to save my pictures and video on, so I figured there would be plenty of space left for simple texts. I'm not even talking about texts with pictures attached because I save the pictures to the card and delete those messages when they come in. So, after explaining to the rep how aggravating it was to have "upgraded" from my dumb old phone that could handle itself with the difficult task of saving text messages and not shutting off all the time to this new "smart phone" that folds like a coward when asked to do simple tasks, I took his word for it and emptied my inbox and sent messages. Do you think that worked? My next move is either going to be to an iPhone or I might just downgrade to a dumb and dumber phone that I can umm make calls and send texts with. The sad thing is that even if I do leave Verizon, they won't care one way or the other and I've heard horror stories about the service and phones of all the other providers too. Maybe I'll just learn to survive like they did back before we relied so heavily on mobile phones. From now on, everyone who wants to communicate with me just write me a letter and mail it. The US Postal service needs all the help they can get to stay in business right now anyway.

Stephaine May 14, 2010 at 8:36 AM  

I am convinced this is an EnV phone issue. I swore no more LG phones too! Argh.

I say we all go to iPhones!!! Whhoohhooo!