Spring break at the Oregon coast with my children. $4,000. Spending that time instead inside my hotel room on the phone with inept Verizon Support? Priceless.
Here's a fun one you'll love to read. I was recently laid off by my former employer, and they allowed me to keep my corporate phone. I took that working phone into the Verizon store in Clackamas, Oregon on Wednesday, March 16th and handed it to the dude with the red beard. When he added me to my family's plan, he handed me back my phone with a promise that it'd be up and running in five minutes. It hasn't worked since.
I came back to the store an hour later to have them take a look at it. Redbeard suggested that I reset my network settings, so I did. That didn't help, so we took out the sim card, turned the phone off, put the sim card back in, and turned the phone back on. No luck. He checked the network settings on his handy-dandy Verizon tablet thingie, and said "Everything looks good on our end, I'm not sure what the problem is. I'll call tech support." So he did.
Tech support suggested that I reset my network settings, so I did. That didn't help, so we took out the sim card, turned the phone off, put the sim card back in, and turned the phone back on. No luck. The tech checked the network settings on his handy-dandy Verizon tablet thingie, and said "Everything looks good on our end, I'm not sure what the problem is. Maybe you should call [former employer] and have them check."
I called my former employer, and they checked their settings. They found an issue, fixed it, and sent me a note on Thursday that my phone was ready to be activated. I called Verizon, and they activated my phone, and it turned ON! I made a test call, and I heard the dulcet tones of the Verizon lady telling me that my phone was connected to the network. A neat little popup box blinked on my phone, letting me know that I was activated. I checked the news on my phone's browser, and it popped up. Success!
Then, blink and the phone deactivated an hour later. I called tech support. "Strange," they said. Let's try resetting your network settings. (I did, no luck). "Have you tried turning your phone off, removing the sim card, putting it back in, then turning your phone on?" (Sure, no luck.) "Hmm, lemme look at our network settings. Yep, everything looks good on our end."
Over the next few days, that process repeated itself a few times, but each time the phone would turn back off. We left for our vacation, and I stopped at Verizon stores across Oregon to see if they could help. They reset my network settings, and pulled out my sim card a bunch, but nothing worked. The phone hasn't seen life since. On Monday, I stopped in a Verizon store and they promised me a replacement phone. The rep I spoke with (on the phone inside the store) promised me a new phone, asked me to call him later in the day. I did, and he replied with a text -- "I'm off work, I'll take care of it tomorrow."
On Tuesday, I texted good ol' Reggie, excited to have a new replacement phone on the way. Reggie didn't answer. He didn't answer on Wednesday either. Wednesday afternoon, I sent good ol' Reggie a note to let him know how disappointed I was, then called tech support. They asked me to reset my network settings.
Wow, it worked! (Just kidding, it didn't.)
By Thursday, I'd wasted the bulk of my vacation on the phone with Verizon. Thousands of dollars down the drain. I lost opportunities for interviews because I was missing texts and calls. Thursday afternoon, I finally got ahold of a rep who told me he could overnight a replacement phone to my hotel if I would pay the $12.95 for expedited shipping. I let him know what I thought about that, and he told me he'd do me a big favor and have Verizon pay for the shipping. Thanks, dude. Minutes later, got an email from him -- order placed, phone is on its way, will be there in the morning.
I woke up this morning, and checked the tracking number. The phone is in Fort Worth, Texas. I'm on the Oregon coast. Hours on the phone later, I've escalated up several layers of Verizon support to let them know that there's a replacement phone in a Verizon store minutes away from my hotel. They won't let me do that though, they have to mail me a phone. Four days from now. They're very sorry.
If your kids like sitting on the floor in corners of stores listening to techs talk on the phone, I strongly recommend the Verizon vacation plan. There are convenient stores located across the nation where you can spend time playing on tablets instead of going to the beach. I also strongly recommend the representatives who make excuses about "corporate policy." Their humor is impeccably timed as well. When I said "I guess I'm up a creek, aren't I?", the rep responded "No, you're at the beach." Cute.
The best part was when I asked him if I was being unreasonable in asking for a replacement. His answer? "Well, since this is a recorded read more