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You gotta love Verizon’s $30 upgrade fee to provide customers with the level of service and support they have come to expect. I’d rather deal with “no credit, no refunds, no checks” CricKet.
Verizon Wireless customers pay a $30 “upgrade fee” when purchasing new equipment with a new two-year contract, ostensibly to “provide customers with the level of service and support they have come to expect.”
After losing more than an hour of my life yesterday afternoon inside a Verizon Wireless store, I am here to tell you it isn’t worth it.
For the second time in seven months, Verizon Wireless has taught me they specialize in keeping customers waiting, giving them conflicting information, and proving the employees should be availing themselves of the “Wireless Workshops, online educational tools, and consultations with experts who provide advice and guidance on devices that are more sophisticated than ever.”
The latest nightmare began with an upgrade to Samsung’s Galaxy S3 that arrived with two 4G SIM cards that were initially declared useless-on-arrival. Despite early assurances that a customer service representative should be able to manage the activation of the phones without loss of our coveted unlimited data plan, it turned out a visit to a local Verizon Wireless store was recommended to swap out the 4G SIM cards enclosed in the box as part of a slightly-complicated activation.
Walking into the Pittsford, N.Y. Verizon store brought a feeling of trepidation when I realized my friend “the Verizon Wireless Welcome Kiosk” that I had been signing in at during previous visits was now missing. Instead, the store manager, armed with an Apple iPad, registered me for the inevitable queue of customers waiting for assistance.
“The wait should be around 15 minutes,” the store manager promised.
Nearly 30 minutes later, as I watched what seemed to be the only employee not on break deal with Ms. I-Don’t-Know-and-I-Can’t-Decide, the store manager returned to ask why I bothered to show up in-store to activate phones I could have managed online or by phone.
“Because I was told to,” I explained. “I have two phones that require new SIM cards and special attention to ensure I don’t lose my unlimited data plan.”
“Well, you have to activate them first,” came the reply.
That was news to me, of course, when a Verizon Wireless phone representative an hour earlier warned me specifically not to activate the phones and let a store customer service representative handle everything.
“Please don’t even attempt to activate the phones because I have had customers doing that all day who forfeited their unlimited data plans when they tried,” urged the phone representative. “You need to bring everything to the store and make sure they do it for you because I don’t want you inconvenienced.”
Good intentions, but reality always intrudes.
Phillip “Kill Me Now” Dampier
By now, 35 minutes into my 15-minute wait, several additional frustrated customers trickled in, all with the same phone. One found he couldn’t activate it even when he tried. Another needed his assigned a different number. Again, the store manager insisted the customers activate their phones before approaching a store employee.
As I wearily watched Ms. Indecision -still- taking up the time of the employee that was going to serve me next, I heard other customers casually griping about upgrade fees, the new Share Everything plan, and Verizon’s idea of customer service these days. The consensus: Verizon was shaking down their customers for more cash and also punishing people forced to walk into a store to resolve a problem. Pittsford is one of Rochester’s wealthiest suburbs, and even here customers were tapped out.
I have literally been here before. Back in December, at the same store, a remarkably unhelpful Verizon Wireless employee insisted the problems with my last phone, intermittent they might be, were not his problem if he could not exactly duplicate it while I waited. Since he did not have time to try (but had at least 15 minutes to chat up a young lady that preceded me about his holiday pie-making experiences), I was on my own, just as my warranty was set to expire.
He no longer works there.
As each new customer arrived on this remarkably warmer July day, the store manager warned the wait was growing longer and longer. He didn’t mention the customer -still- at the counter contemplating this or that and holding up the entire free market wireless economy in the process.
At this point, I was advised I could activate my phones by dialing *228 and I’d be all set. Only a year earlier, a Verizon employee told me 4G LTE customers should burn their fingers with a cigarette lighter if they ever felt the urge to try, because it would “scramble the SIM card forever.” True or false, I felt burned already.
I decided instead to call Verizon Wireless customer service, ironically, from inside the Verizon Wireless store that was supposed to be giving me “the level of service and support I have come to expect.”
“Due to (incredibly) high call volumes, your wait (is likely to be until the snow flies before someone will pick up your call).”
I then realize there are two other customers doing precisely the same thing I am, which probably explained those high call volumes.
Mr. Store Manager returned to ask if I had activated my phones yet. I explained I could not get through, but was bemused to notice the phones had now powered up with messages indicating they were in the process of activating themselves.
An hour into my 15 minute wait…
“That’s because you had your phones turned on,” came the odd explanation. “You have to turn the phones off before you call customer service.”
“I don’t think so, I seem to recall my Samsung Droid Charge activated itself in a similar fashion,” I replied.
“No, that isn’t how it works.”
Two minutes later, the phones activated themselves. I’m not certain I’ll ever know exactly why, especially after being told I had dud 4G SIM cards. But I also found it ironic that even a confused customer like myself, now dying in my personal Verizon hell, seemed to know more than the people working there, and I didn’t even take that Wireless Workshop.
Regardless, I was elated that stage of my trial had come to an end. Now I only had to have an employee swap those SIM cards out to assign the phones to the proper phone numbers. Then I could escape my excellent customer experience for good.
But there was Ms. Should-I-or-Shouldn’t-I, still tying up the growing line (the wait had now grown to perhaps an hour for customers entering the store… at their own risk.)
Suddenly, an employee miraculously returned from break and I was finally helped.
“You want insurance on these phone, right?”
“No.”
“But you have 14 days to change your mind.”
“No.”
“Which phone do you want on which number.”
“Since the phones are precisely the same, it does not matter to me.”
Those were the days.
Long pause.
The employee kept dropping below the counter to deal with an interminable number of snake-long thermal cash-register-like receipts that kept spitting out of the printer whenever he did anything on the slowly-responding computer.
After another 15 minutes, the new 4G SIM cards were in.
“Now let me show you some of the cool new features on your phone, but first enter your name and password.”
I compromised by entering my name and password but suggested we skip the training course. Besides, my personal lease renting space inside the store (and my new 2-year contract) was likely to expire before I would finally get out of there.
“We have some nice new cases to show you to protect your phones.”
“No thanks.” Now I am questioning why I bought the phones in the first place.
“Okay, now it is time to restore your apps.”
Kill me now.
As soon as the phones were up and running, back into the boxes they went, and polite thank-yous were delivered to all concerned. I then busted out of the store, more than an hour after my promised 15-minute wait, like a prisoner escaping Attica. Sure I realize I am not “free at last,” stuck on a new contract with Verizon for another two years, but I can do my time standing on my head so long as I can avoid ever dealing with another Verizon Wireless store… and keep my unlimited data.
They should pay me $30 to go through upgrading anything with them. Oh wait, just a year or so ago they did — $100 as part of Verizon’s long-gone “New Every Two” program… exorcised right along with their budget-minded voice calling options, unlimited data, and text plans suitable for the occasional text here and there. In their place, the all-new, super exciting $90 Share Everything plan… including $50 for a “generous” 1GB data allowance.
Thanks Verizon Wireless!
Other stories of interest:
- Verizon Wireless Offers Customers Early Upgrades, Then Yanks the Offer Away Days Later
- Verizon Wireless: Our ‘Recertified’-Used Phone Replacements Are Better Than Factory Fresh Phones
- Verizon Wireless Fraudulently Pumped Up Prepaid Numbers, New Lawsuit Claims
- Internet Overcharged: Verizon Reseller Sells California Man Wireless Data Plan That No Longer Exists
- Verizon Confusion: Is Verizon Redefining Texting Plans to Mean Only Plain Text Messages?
None of this surprises me, frankly. The notion of “good customer service”, in the old fashioned sense of that phrase, has either totally evaporated or been relegated to extremely high-end retailers or brothels.
When my wife and I recently had to replace our ancient-by-2012-standards phone because of a hardware failure, we decided to completely skip the smart phone route, and get a Casio Ravine 2. But when we shopped in the Verizon store in Henrietta (also a Rochester ‘burb for those not familiar with The Flower City), even that process was painfully slow. And the price they quoted us, including the infamous “$30 ’cause we said so” fee was $100 more than the price at Best Buy for the same exact phone, including that same fee. Everyone here gets exactly one guess where we bought the phone.
I won’t tell the story of the hassles we had in activation, as they pale in comparison to what Phillip experienced. But we have the phone, it works very well and meets our needs, and I look forward to not setting foot in a Verizon store for at least 2 more years.
Yes, I strongly recommend people considering ordinary upgrades pursue them first from outside vendors like Best Buy, Wirefly, Amazon Wireless, etc. You will often see enormous savings going that route. In the past, I collected the best prices I saw elsewhere and offered to buy from Verizon direct if they matched the pricing, and was not surprised to see them work a price match through a $50 instant discount and the rest as a service credit on my bill. (This was over the phone by the way, not in-store).
Buying regular price from any carrier’s store can be an expensive experience.
It’s funny, I read these horror stories from people who are extremely dissatisfied with the level of support they receive, and I wonder, how do these folks show their dissatisfaction to a company that overcharges for service yet provides such horrible support? They enter a new 2 year agreement? That oughtta show ‘em that you mean business!
The only message Verizon gets out of this is “our customers must not be too unhappy, because they keep coming back for more” so really you are just making the problem worse for yourselves and the rest of Verizon’s slave….er, customers.
Why don’t you send them a message they would hear loud and clear? Hit them where it counts (their bank accounts) and stop paying them to treat you so poorly!!!
For example, we’ve seen here on StopTheCap that you have to threaten to cancel your services from Time Warner Cable to get them to offer you a better price for phone/TV/internet. Phil himself mentions that you have to be willing to back up that claim, cancel your services from Time Warner Cable and get them from a competitor if they don’t satisfy your requests. Why wouldn’t you apply the same philosophy in these cases?
Don’t like Verizon’s plans? Or the $30 fee? Or the piss poor customer support? Get your cell service from someone else!!!
The answer is pretty simple, for most people when 80+% of the wireless market is controlled by Verizon and AT&T.. your choice is either worse customer service or even more abysmal customer service and cellular coverage.
The entire consumer market isn’t so dumb that nobody hasn’t considered alternatives, if there was a viable quality wireless provider with good customer service it would provide a good choice, but not a market dominated by two providers that have an almost 10 yr lead squeezing customers for all they’ve got then using those funds to further consolidate and protect their comfy duopoly while bidding up spectrum and making it even more costly for smaller competitors like Sprint or T-Mobile to even think about going nationwide to build out and compete at the same level.
Go prepaid. I went prepaid and it feels good not being tied down in a contract for 2 years. In my area, we went with Cricket and their $55/month Android plan (unlimited call, text, and data). Got my Sprint EVO 3D flashed for Cricket and it works perfectly on their network. Total bill for 2 phones, $112 w/ tax compared to ~$170 before tax with Verizon or AT&T. The kicker, they have the same coverage as Verizon in my area, as Verizon uses their towers, and where we usually travel they have coverage.
@Aaron
Totally agree with ya there. If you don’t like the service then why sign back up with them. Crazy…
I understand that the two “big” providers is what most people think are the only options, but how did they get so big? People paid them. How do you expect a competitor to have a chance if you ignore what little competition there is and continue to give your money to the big guys? Little guys need money to grow their networks and cover more areas or improve speeds.
If 20% of Verizon’s/AT&T’s customers all left and got plans through Straight Talk or Cricket or Sprint or T-Mobile or someone else, don’t you think that perhaps the big guys would change their ways a bit when they saw the effect it had on their profit margins? Then, when they realize they made mistakes, and correct them, go back to the big guys and reward them for listening to consumer demands.
Oh no, heaven forbid you might have to struggle with speeds that are slower than what Verizon or AT&T can provide (at least it costs less)! As for coverage, there are providers like Cricket and Straight Talk that rent the same networks used/owned by Verizon/AT&T and still provide you unlimited Talk, Text and Data for a reasonable price ($45/month for Straight Talk).
Using the same comparison I made earlier to Internet/TV/Phone services, here in Rochester, NY we really only have two options: Time Warner Cable or Frontier. Frontier’s offerings are a joke (their highest speed DSL is crap compared to Time Warner’s lowest speeds) yet if I don’t like how Time Warner wants to introduce usage based billing or keeps hiking the monthly costs up, what do I do? Give them more money and bitch about it? Or perhaps it would make a stronger point if I cancel my services, give my money to a competitor (in this case Frontier, even though the service is worse at least it will cost less and prove a point to Time Warner) and hope that Time Warner sees the error of their ways and makes strides to win me back.
If you keep giving money to the people who are screwing you, you have yourself to blame for being screwed.
@Phillip
How did people ever live without cell phone coverage to begin with?
I find it surprising that people have to have that coverage when we did without cell phones for so long.
Phillip you do realize that Cricket have roaming agreements with Sprint and Verizon, just to name a few? They offer Nationwide coverage now through those roaming agreements, which cost you nothing extra. Just can’t rack up the majority of your minutes/data roaming just like any other carrier out there. So your little countryside trip would be covered bud.
Guess what, you can even flash Verizon phones to their network.
I have taken my CricKet prepaid phone to areas that are outside of their home network coverage and endured “no signal” until you reached well outside of their intended signal area, then finally getting a roaming signal. Like T-Mobile, it seems CricKet does not want customers roaming in marginal signal areas they intend to serve (partially at least) themselves.
I understand this from a business costs proposition, and am also aware you can bring phones over to CricKet, but if I had an emergency and was relying on a CricKet phone in an area that was too weak for good reception, but not far enough outside of a coverage area to get a stronger roaming signal, I’d be very uncomfortable.
CricKet’s current data network is also an afterthought. It never performed better than 500kbps for me on their dongle.
That must be your area then. Mine the signal strength is great. The old lady had to take a trip to a rural part of SC and she says she still has good signal (iPhone 4s). I have gotten 2.21Mbps on Cricket’s 3G in some parts of town and usually get 1.2-1.5Mbps at the house.
Anyway there has to be a prepaid provider that has better rural coverage up there that you are overlooking. Those postpaid plans are getting out of control. Verizon is already trying to get rid of the unlimited plans. .
In reality, I was not shopping for a better deal from Verizon Wireless, I just wanted to get new phones activated properly. So when you mention TWC, that is a case of being reasonably satisfied with the service, but not the price. With Verizon, it was mostly about being unhappy with the customer service.
Verizon Wireless generally works the best out of the carriers that serve our area, which includes AT&T, Sprint, CricKet, and T-Mobile. I have reviewed every wireless carrier that serves Rochester through their prepaid phones (I have one from every carrier in town).
Verizon has the most robust and consistent coverage in the greater Rochester area, period. That is because they are more aggressive in rural areas adjacent to the inner city and suburbs.
AT&T is in second place, and their coverage is not bad, but considering AT&T’s completely outrageous customer service record (if there is a right way do something by your customers and a wrong way, AT&T -always- picks the wrong way), I refuse to do business with them.
I am an ex-Sprint customer and would have remained one if their coverage was more robust and their customer service in the early 2000′s did not decline to third world standards. Sprint literally had dead spots in various areas around the town of Brighton where I live, including the 12 Corners area, which was completely ridiculous. I also could not use my Sprint phone indoors where I used to live, literally a block from the city line.
Things with Sprint are much improved today, and I am going to seriously re-evaluate them when their LTE 4G network launches locally. They also still believe in unlimited data. My decision not to switch to them this time around is simply one of service quality. Their 3G service is nearly unusable, and 4G Clearwire is pretty poor as well.
T-Mobile actually performs better than Sprint on the data side, but they are an urban-focused carrier locally and have marginal reception once off the major highways. Their roaming agreement with AT&T is all fine and good, but the way they program their roaming system, you literally have to be in a geographic area that they designate as having no T-Mobile reception before your phone will switch to roaming. Inside what T-Mobile considers their service area, you will get stuck with no service at all because the phone simply will not switch to roaming mode if the company thinks it can serve you where you are.
CricKet is not a major player locally. If I never left the city or suburbs, they are about as good as Sprint and T-Mobile coverage wise, but this is the first company that leaves you without service after 20 minute rides into the countryside.
With all this in mind, Verizon remains the most viable choice for most people in this area, and their market share shows it. They are by far the biggest player in this region. AT&T manages a distant second, and they can thank the iPhone for that. A lot of their iPhone customers are still leaving AT&T for Verizon as contracts expire.
The other reason why changing companies is really not a good choice is that I maintain grandfathered unlimited data plans and mobile hotspot plans from Verizon, as well as a grandfathered calling plan. If I were to switch carriers and kept the same services I have now (with a new 2GB data limit), I would literally pay $70 more per month than what I pay now — for LESS data service!
That is why Verizon is so unsuccessful convincing people like me their new Share Everything plan is a money-saver. It simply is not for users like me.
Verizon’s the most reliable for overall connectivity. Thing is…they every so often don’t get their billing right. 9Gb of data in 12 hours is the *theoretical* maximum for the 3G link I am currently using. There’s no way in HELL that I wouldn’t have noticed it happening and cut the f*cker off- and there’s no way in HELL that I could have even done it (At work, girlfriend was off looking for housing possibilities…all machines except for one was OFF. Machine in question was a Linux box…so, no virii, etc.) Sorry, not buying your BS- and I used to work for one of the traffic monitoring hardware companies (Used by AT&T, T-Mobile, Orange, etc…) and I know the way you guys do billing- and you can hose things up on the billing system just as easily as not.
The idiots in “Customer Service” (Yanno…there’s another use of the word “service”…I’m beginning to think they really mean the second- and not in a pleasurable manner…as they seem to want to use 50-grit…) insist that it’s not only possible that I’ll need to call in to “have a chance of correcting it”. Waste of time. Now I’ve got the dubious “pleasure” of making that call.
As for me… Those fools made it cheaper for me to save up a bit of money and pay full retail on a phone rather than signing off on a new two year commitment. If it weren’t for them being the only adequate mobile data provider in the business for someone travelling, they’d find out just how fast I can drop ‘em on my USB dongle. T-Mobile’s a joke unless they’ve changed up the pay as you go deal (The caps make it utterly worthless. No ability to pay for more than 5Gb of carriage and when you hit the cap…it’s worse than dialup, really…)- and the coverage’s a pain compared to Verizon. AT&T’s coverage is better, but they’re not as good as Verizon- AND they use 50-grit combined with vinegar and salt for lube.
His choice would be AT&T. A company much worse than Verizon.
This is what happens when we have a corrupt political system that allows huge corporations to buy off and own our politicians. Do you think Congress is going to give the FCC teeth so they can properly regulate the wireless industry and break up the duopoly? It will never happen as long as AT&T and Verizon can legally donate (legal bribe) any member of Congress. Essentially Congress works for AT&T and Verizon. Senators and Congressmen are employees of big telecom.
“His choice would be AT&T.”
Or Sprint or T-Mobile or Straight Talk or Cricket…I know, perhaps you would have to make a slight sacrifice with the network’s capabilities, but at least you wouldn’t be feeding the beast that bites your hand!
Is the political system corrupt? Certainly. Perhaps if the huge corporations had less money to pay politicians they would lose some of their edge. Again, solution seems to be stop giving them money, not continue to give them more money to keep the cycle going…
Heh… People KEEP talking about those players.
As if they had the same coverage that Verizon does.
Keep dreaming.
Some people travel. Most of those are a joke when it comes to that. Sprint’s unlimited data access is great…until you need it in a market they don’t care about or are a distant third or fourth. Cricket? Good God…you’ve NEVER apparently tried them for data, have you? Network’s “reliable” but they don’t seem to have a solid handle on billing. At. All. Don’t know about Straight Talk, but I’m suspecting they might be adequate for voice- but with a smartphone and USB dongle, you’re looking for DATA. I strongly suspect they’re little better than the other wanna-be players in the space.
There’s a REASON the “big two” are that way- and use 50-grit for lube when they screw you as a customer.
Cricket works great in my area and I get really good 3G speeds, which is all I need really on a phone. I will grant you that they may not have the best coverage elsewhere though but for the most part they serve my needs just as good as Verizon could.
If you ask me, it is crazy to pay for the postpaid plans. The prepaid options out there are just as good if not better.
“There’s a REASON the ‘big two’ are that way-”
Yes, and one reason is silly misconceptions like “I strongly suspect they’re [Straight Talk] little better than the other wanna-be players in the space.”
You see, Straight Talk rents the same networks used by Verizon/AT&T/etc. Like the coverage you get from Verizon? Do some research, get the right phone and you’ll be using that same network you had when you were a Verizon customer, except with Straight Talk you’ll get unlimited talk, text & data for $45/month.
And again, how can a smaller competitor grow their network to expand coverage or increase data throughput when they have no income because people will pay too much to be raped by the big guys instead?
So, basically, what you’re saying is if price is what you are unhappy about, you support cancelling your services to prove a point and give your business to a competitor (like the TWC vs. Frontier analogy). But, if the customer support (or lack thereof) , $30 fee AND horrible choice in contract plans is what you are unhappy about, you support continuing your services and then bitching when they take advantage of their position in the market due to you giving them more money. OK, I think I understand the lack of logic being used now, thanks for clearing that up.
After reading this article and all your complaints I seriously understand why verizon and all companies charge these fees. You people are complete idiots including the guy who wrote this article. So if I dont ask you if you want insurance then break your phone you can come blame the rep for not asking if you want it. The reason a rep double checks everything is cause customer are jerks and think the companies owe them the world because they pay 100 dollars a month to a company thats cost billions to operate correctly. Same with accesories. If the rep didnt ask you for a case or car char charger then u leave and say damn I forgot to get a case. Now your going to go back and complain to the manager for having to wait again because the rep didint ask if you needed one. And to start you said the whole reason you went was because the numbers where on the wrong phones then you said there the same phones. then switch the sim cards yourself smarty. If you had this much of a hard time activating phones on your own where you ruined the sims then you sir are one of the reasons verizon now charges upgrade fees. Those sims cost money someone has to pay for them and customer always mess up becuase you dont read directions you just do on your own. You think you can buy from somewhere like walmart to save a few bucks then have everything get messed up and go to a verizon store to get things fixed yet you arent willing to pay for there service. You people need to get a grip on reality. Should I go on. You get mad at the rep for helping you set u your email accounts. They do this for two reasons. To make sure you know what your doing and dont mess it up again and to make sure your phones are fully activated. Would you rather leave just to come back because they didnt check . AGain you sound like an idiot. Then the rep was willing to go out of his way and show you how to get your apps back and you make a fuss about that. Sorry but i guess you are the smartest person on this planet because most customers complain that they dont get service like this and when a jerk like you gets the service everyone else wants you complain. Yea next time a lady isnt sure what she wants and has to keep for two years we should make her leave and come back because your dumbass knows everything. Why dont you start your own company then and tell customers they can help thereself because your not going to.
It sounds like you have experience as a customer service person at a wireless store. If so, I rest my case.
Setting aside the incoherent personal attacks, while I am sure certain customers are all the things you suggest, I don’t happen to be one of them.
Let’s not portray Verizon as a poor victim here. That company that “cost billions to operate correctly” pulls in tens of billions in revenue and can afford to provide better customer service, starting with appropriate staffing to meet customer demand.
The “blame the customer first” mentality is never going to win you any favor.
The real reason cell phone insurance is pushed is because it is a major profit center for the companies that sell it. The same is true on the overpriced accessories.
I also doubt very much a customer forgetting to buy a case is going to return to the store and take it out on a salesperson for not selling them one. Seriously.
Verizon 4G SIM cards are tied to the phone numbers on an account. If you need to change the device associated with a specific line, you -must- obtain a new 4G SIM card. Nobody “ruined the SIM cards.” That leaves customers following the advice of the telephone representatives to visit a store to obtain suitable replacements (which cost next to nothing in the quantity carriers buy them in) or wait for them to mail them out. Your attempt to justify the “upgrade fee” based on this failed. But it amuses me to think the wireless industry wants to borrow a page from the big banks and try and nickle and dime customers additional fees if they want human customer service.
Of course the biggest problem here is that customers often get conflicting information from just about everyone they talk to, and frankly that generates a lot more confusion than anything else.
The smartest customer service people around are those that can measure the knowledge different customers have about these devices and moderate “the script” accordingly, which saves everyone — including the growing crowd of people stuck in line — a lot of time. The ones that cannot are the source of considerable and unnecessary customer frustration.
Obviously you have no clue what your talking about and like most bloggers on the net do no research as well. Third party companies provide the insurance not the wireless companies and the sales rep do not get paid for selling insurance. They simply offer it to help you if you are irresponsible and break your phone.
You say the assecories are over priced how do you know this. Do you make the accesories or are you comparing these accesories to the ones you can get at the dollar store that are known for ruining batteries and chargings parts. Or leather cases falling apart for being poorly made. Sorry I rather pay a little more for quality.
I never said i was justifiing the upgrade fee because cost of sim cards but as you say that you changed what you were talking about to human customer service. I am assumig you want these customer service reps to work for free am I not. If you want to try and save a couple dollars by buying something online or over the phone then fine. BUt realize in the real world if you want to go to a store and get human customer service then someone has to pay that person to work as well as pay for that building to be there. I am guessing you rather just have one fee for everything across the board which makes sense. but Which would make the cost for online and over the phone purchases go up not down.
And yes seriously the customer would return to the store and blame the rep for not selling them a case. Or the customer would just leave upset that he did not get one and blame the rep. According to what you wrote you were blaming the reps for everything else. Customers who do not get offered certain things always blame elsewhere claiming if I knew about that i would have purchased it. Example: Customer purchases a screen protector for 10 bucks rep just clerks the customer and rings him up then the next day the customer comes back to get a case and sees that the case comes with a screen protector so now is mad at the rep and says if you told me the case came with a protector I would have just purchased the case now im spending a extra ten dollars for buying both. IM guessing this is what Youd prefer Mr Dampier.
And your last statement That you write makes it obvious that you have never nor will never run any kind of retail store nor write any book or article that would be popular by the mass public. You claim you want the store to moderate the script accordingly to save everyone time. So now you want the reps to pass judgement and assume things about people that they have never meant before and have known for only about 5 mins. DO you read what you write. How is a rep susposed to know how much knowledge the customer has when a customer does not even know how much knowledge they have.
1. The third party company used most often, Asurion, pays Verizon Wireless lucrative billing fees for each policy sold. Nobody said anything about sales reps earning a commission. Do the math. That’s big money.
2. If you buy accessories direct from Verizon, you will pay more no matter what you buy. In a pure random sample, I found the Verizon Wireless online store selling an Incipio silicone case for $29.99 online. Or I could just buy it at Amazon for as little as $16. Same accessories, radically different pricing. Both sold online.
3. My preference was not to deal with anyone at customer service in-store at all. I was quite happy working with a phone representative right up until the SIM card debacle. I bought the phones from Verizon Wireless over the phone, not in a customer service center so your point about buying online or in-store is moot. Had I not needed Verizon to provide two new SIM cards, I would have never needed to walk into a Verizon store.
4. Your “forgotten case” story is non-germane to the issues raised in the piece. This was more about an understaffed store, inconsistent information, and the intolerably long wait that resulted. That has nothing to do with equipment or accessory sales.
5. I expect any rational rep to respond to a customer’s repeated assertions that detailed assistance was unnecessary. All were thanked for the assistance they provided.
If you are telling me Verizon reps are trained to a non-deviating script (something the phone reps don’t have), then they might as well be replaced with unstaffed kiosks that can spit out automated answers and equipment. At least I know what I’ll be getting when I walk up to one.
.
There you go again, Phillip, resorting to facts and logic again. I mean, you do realize that this is the Internet, where such things are frowned upon, right?
On a slightly more sane note, there simply is no way for companies like Verizon to justify their practices and pricing except for them to say, “We do it because we can.” As I pointed out at the top of these comments, I bought a basic phone, and the price difference between buying it at Best Buy vs. in a Verizon store was $100 ($180 vs. $80). I don’t know who should be more embarrassed, Verizon for being out-priced by such a wide margin by Best Buy(!), or all the people who buy their phones (and accessories, as you pointed out) in the Verizon store at those inflated prices. On second thought, I think I do know the answer to that question…
I always enjoy these appearances from the AT&T and Verizon CEOs telling people they are striving to give customers what they want. Only I don’t see the line around the block for new customers demanding to pay for unlimited voice and texting while they can’t have unlimited data. I only see some Wall Street guys counting money.
I will say AT&T at least is making their version of “you’ll pay for unlimited voice and text and like it” family share plans optional. But you know it won’t last.
Anyone remember Sprint SERO? It’s grandfathered along with all of the other true-value plans of the past. That plan offered 500 voice minutes, night calling starting at 7pm, unlimited text and data all for $30 a month. Those upgrading to a smartphone paid an additional $10 a month and 4G/WiMAX users paid another $10 on top of that. Compared to today’s plans, it was DIRT CHEAP.
The industry wants you to think their prices have gone down, when anyone holding on to a grandfathered plan for dear life can show you otherwise. Unlimited data plans at $29.99 sounded outrageously expensive when they first came out. Today, compared to Verizon’s $50 for 1GB, that is a Dollar General-type steal. Verizon and AT&T’s version of SERO is effectively $85-90 a month, and that only includes 1GB of usage. They can keep their unlimited voice minutes. Who blows through 500 minutes a month in daytime-weekday calling anymore anyway?
I see more and more people finding their way to prepaid at these prices.
A. Paragraphs are your friend.
B. There might be good information or comments in there but I stopped reading when you went for the personal attacks. You sound like you should be working for Fox News.