Dear Sir:
My husband…read moreand I were Verizon customers from 1995 until we ended our relationship with Verizon in 2016. Over the years we had issues with cellular service at our home but we tolerated the poor service and continued as customers until June 2016.
Earlier, this spring, we were on vacation when my husbands phone quit working. As it was time to upgrade his phone we decided to visit the Verizon store in Beaufort, SC.
Here, we met a salesperson who was very knowledgeable and helpful. Her name is (removed) and her phone number is 000-000-000 . She showed us a number of phones and we ultimately decided the Kyocera Brigadier since it was both rugged and waterproof.
After my husband had used it several weeks, the phone started turning off and then restarting itself at random times during the day. This began as a minor inconvenience as it only happened every several days. As time passed, these occurrences became more problematic as it began to do this 3-4 times per day. This problem was exacerbated as the restarting caused all 200+, mostly built in, apps had to be optimized. This process took over 1 hour each time which made the phone unusable for much of the day.
We carried the phone into our local Greenwood, S.C., Verizon Store in March,2016 for help and they decided to have the phone replaced by sending us a "New" Brigadier. The replacement phone arrived shortly thereafter. We promptly mailed the old phone to Verizon as directed. Lo and behold, the new phone began doing the same thing as the original phone almost immediately!
We journeyed back to the Verizon store in Greenwood, South Carolina, where they contacted your technical support. They were able to analyze the brigadier through the phone connection but were unable to provide a resolution for the problem. Your technical support acknowledged that they were aware that this problem existed with Kyocera Brigadier phones.
Since your technical support was unable to offer a solution, we asked the local store manager to replace the Kyocera with a different kind of phone. Her response was that the only thing that she could do was to order another refurbished Brigadier just like the one we already had. Really? Really?? At this point, in utter frustration and disbelief we notified her that we considered Verizon's response to be a violation of any contract that may be between us. We consider ourselves to have the right to reasonable phone service just like anyone else who pays for it. Verizon obviously does not see it this way.
Your customer service representative, in a later phone conversation after we changed to another wireless company said to me, "I will give you any phone you want!" By that time it was too late, we had already changed carriers. As time passed , we continued to get bills from Verizon. In attempts to resolve these billing issues I tried repeatedly to reach the proper person in the Verizon company network only to be hung up on by customer service reps. Ultimately, it became almost impossible to talk with any representative with Verizon and we were eventually unable to access our account at all. We gave up trying.
I offered to send this Brigadier phone in to Verizon and was told not to do that....All of our conversations with your customer service has been recorded, so please find them and listen.
I want you to know, we were customers with Verizon for 21 years....I had stock in your company. We were never late in paying your business for services but your service was not always the best!
After changing to your competitor we found out that the "NEW" phone you sent us was actually a two (2) year old phone which was manufactured and offered for sale in 2014, not worth even 10.00 and you want us to pay for this? I don't think so....This has to be fraud. . I have the phone here, I would like you to use it and see what it does for you. Please let me mail it to you.
As of now, Verizon has turned our account over to some collection agency and we are receiving threatening phone calls from them. One even purported to be from the Internal Revenue Service. How Absurd. Obviously, I dispute this debt. Perhaps I should have written you sooner to describe our position but I did not think it would come to this. Now I must demand that you put a stop to this continued harassment. I am completely shocked that a company that we had been doing business with for so long has deteriorated to this level of poor service in technical support, covenants, and general customer service. I would welcome a phone call from you, phone number 000-000-0000 to personally discuss this Verizon matter, account number xxxxxxxxxxx.
Sincerely,
