I've never written a Yelp review before, but my bad experience compelled me to. In general, if you want to get Verizon mobile phones, stick with Verizon direct or corporate stores. While authorized retailers look and feel like Verizon stores, they use separate ordering systems and billing apparatus.
I went in to port 5 lines from AT&T to Verizon. All seemed to be just fine on the initial order. No in-store stock of iPhones, so all had to be shipped from Cellularsales.com warehouses. Four of the phones came in within 4 days via Fedex shipping to the store, so I went in to activate 2, then ship and activate later the other two to children in college. All that worked without issue.
The fifth phone order (mine), however, couldn't be completed. While I was approved for all credits and ability to order the phone, something was wrong with their ordering system that kept rejecting the order. The rep I worked with told me that he made at least 5 attempts to place the order with their warehouse, all rejected, over the next 2 business days. As a result, the phone could not be ordered with the first four, and did not arrive with them. When I went in to pick up the other phones, I was told that based on the ordering difficulties, he had to elevate the order with the warehouse to "expedite" and was assured that this would result in me receiving the phone I wanted within 3 days.
Three days later, no call to tell me the phone was in. Next day (4th since expedite reorder), I contacted him to find out the status. He told me that the expedite order was also rejected and we would need to place the order from scratch - AGAIN! To this point it was 8 days since my first visit and still no phone. I did not reorder as I had no confidence that it wouldn't happen again, and he told me he had similar problems with one or two other customers. I did not feel like it was justified allowing him to get a commission when he had so much trouble with this process. Ironically, the first thing he told me when I entered the store the first time was that he insists on and maintains 100% positive customer service rating at that store. I honestly don't see how that's possible given the service I received on my first visit.
To fix this, I went to a Verizon direct store and was able to walk out with the phone I wanted. Additionally, when the Verizon store folks went into my Verizon account that the authorized retailer set up, they discovered that I had 4 separate accounts for the 4 phones I had purchased instead of 1 family account! If not discovered, I would have received 4 separate bills, each with separate data plans instead of shared data like I wanted. I would have had to pay more than double what I would have on a shared family plan. The Verizon direct store was able to fix that as well, and it was not a trivial fix (reps had to call Verizon customer service). They also gave me a free screen protector to go with my new phone. Reps at the Verizon direct store told me they have had similar problems with other authorized retailers, but I have no way to verify that statement.
Bottom line, if you want Verizon phones, stick with Verizon direct dealers, not "authorized retailers" like the ones Cellularsales.com provides. It is difficult to tell the difference as the authorized retailers have the same, big "Verizon" sign on the storefront, but this one also had "cellularsales.com" written underneath. So you have to watch closely.
If I could give zero stars, I would. The only thing they did correctly was order 4 of the 5 phones I needed. They couldn't complete one of the orders in over a week, and completely botched the billing account setup. Everyone there I dealt with was very nice, and I think they did try to get it right, but they just don't have the capability. Stay away!
Pros:
- nice, cordial salesmen
- clean, well maintained store
- knowledgable about Verizon plan options
- e-mail notification of phone shipping status
Cons:
- separate ordering and billing than Verizon
- limited/no in-store stock on iPhones, and unable to check ahead of time. Verizon's website can be used to check stock of direct stores only.
- must pay tax on phones ordered with Verizon Edge in the store. Verizon direct stores can add sales tax to the first bill.
- if you have special requirements for activating phones, like doing at a later date, you must deal with the rep you originally dealt with. When in Verizon direct stores, any rep can complete any task. My rep at the authorized retailer was out two days, which he neglected to inform me, resulting in delayed service.
- salesmen have no control of shipping or ordering process. Any problems with an order can result in extensive delays, with little to no definitive information available about status of the order or why it failed.
- Cellularsales.com very limited functionality compared to Verizonwireless.com read more
