Before even walking in the door, you might consider reading this…read more..
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We brought our old phones to Manager Lou for a trade-in on a new line promotion, after being told over the phone that the new phones we wanted to buy were in the store. And then...
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1) Lou started by activating our T-Mobile transfer PIN, and only AFTER doing that, he said the new phones weren't actually in the store but in a UPS truck just down the road at the mall (Lou said he knew the driver), and he expected to have them within an hour or two
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2) With the transfer PIN activated, we thought we were stuck so we didn't stop him from continuing to set up Verizon lines on our old phones. I only later learned that I might have been able to halt the transfer without losing my T-Mobile service, even after the transfer PIN was activated, by asking Lou to hand me back my phone and checking my texts from T-Mobile.
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3) 3 days later, the new phones were STILL nowhere to be seen, yet Lou was STILL claiming they were en route in a UPS truck.
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4) He set up our lines with expensive add-ons THAT WE NEVER REQUESTED.
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5) He set them up in a way that Verizon's telesales people said made us ineligible for the new phone promotion that brought us in in the first place (because 1 - some of the lines were set up with conflicting promotions, and 2 - the lines were initialized on our old phones). Even if Lou had a way around these restrictions (doubtful per the telesales reps), and the phones were truly en route (hahaha) and available to us within two days (the remaining window for the promotion), and Lou just wanted to prevent us from buying the new phones from telesales or elsewhere and losing his commission, he never disclosed the odd combination of add-ons and promotions he added to our account. I only saw the whole picture because I found a way to set up the Verizon App without using my PIN, which the App didn't recognize (see #8 below).
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6) Because the website claims cancellation within 3 days would mean a waiver of our line activation charges and Lou had completely lost our trust, we cancelled on day 3.
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7) Thanks partly to Lou's trickery and partly to Verizon's tactics for duping people into overpaying, the website produced a link for us to pay a "final bill" in an amount of over $300 more than what we should have paid.
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8) Because we had canceled the service and Lou DID NOT SET UP THE ACCOUNT WITH THE CUSTOMER PIN WE ASKED HIM TO USE, our account was locked and COULD NOT BE OPENED BY THE REPS IN VERIZON'S CALL CENTER.
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9) It took about a dozen calls to customer service and three LONG trips to a "corporate" Verizon store (Lou is independent not corporate) before a store rep and a phone center rep came up with a way they could work together to unlock the account and apply some credits, but the account is such a mess that 14 days after Lou scammed us the website STILL SHOWS I OWE OVER $100 MORE THAN WHAT I SHOULD BE PAYING AND THAT MY PAYMENT IS OVERDUE. That's despite every rep who's listened to what happened telling me I should only owe an insignificant, prorated amount for 3 days of service.
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10) If you can find the tiny link to Verizon's regulatory disclosures on its website, you'll find its "Unlimited Welcome" line's "additional charges" include four "provider monthly fees" totaling $5.11/mo. These are discretionary revenue-boosters or "junk" fees NOT INCLUDED in the advertised monthly line charges. But in fact, my Welcome line bill included monthly amounts for the same four fees totaling $11.09, $11.55 and $11.55 for my three lines, MORE THAN TWICE THE DISCLOSED AMOUNTS. Responsibility for the hidden, excess fees could lie with Verizon corporate and not Lou's particular store, but either way they're unacceptable.
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11) For context, both T-Mobile and Consumer Cellular include all taxes and fees in their advertised prices, so even before the excess, undisclosed amounts, consumers should adjust Verizon's prices upwards when comparing them with its competitors' prices.
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12) To end on a positive note, most of the Verizon reps who tried to help reduce my final bill (those at the call center and those at the corporate store on Dekalb Pike) were extremely helpful, and I only have good things to say about the Dekalb Pike reps.
