Heaven help you if you need service from Verizon Wireless!
I'm mostly happy with my cell phone, it's operation, my connectivity, etc. But, if you are unlucky enough to have a problem with your bill or service plan, you are in for a lengthy ordeal. At least that was my recent experience.
On Mother's Day, I purchased a new iPhone. Verizon was running a promotion: buy an iPhone and get an LG tablet for free. It came with an extra GB of data and could go on my family plan for $10 a month so what the heck.
Well, it was put on my account as a subplan and I started getting charged big bucks for it. Checking my account online didn't give me any answers and calling Verizon is worth your life. Unless you are the registered owner, and you know the password and pin numbers associated with the owner's phone, it's impossible to get through their voicemail hell.
I went to the Verizon store and spent over an hour explaining the problem and getting it straightened out, or so I thought. Moved the tablet to my family plan, deleted the subplan, only an hour and a half of my life gone (for a tablet I hadn't asked for, and didn't really need but was assured it wouldn't cost me anything but $10 a month).
All is well, right? Wrong. Three weeks later, I get a notice from a collection agency that I owe $282. Once again, can't get a hold of a live person by phone and have to make another trip to Verizon. Another hour (with TWO representatives) to get the problem taken care of. Evidently, when the changes were made and the subplan was discontinued, the charges weren't removed from the account, hence the dunning notice.
Stuff happens... but my complaints about Verizon are these:
1) The original "free" tablet wasn't properly set up on my account by the Verizon rep.
2) Verizon makes it almost impossible to access a real, live person by phone if you can't remember your password. I still don't know what PIN number they were asking for. There is no way to get out of the voice mail system and get to someone who can help you directly.
3) The problem wasn't fixed after the first time I went into the Verizon store.
4) Each visit to the store took over an hour of my time, standing at the counter while the reps made phone calls, worked on computers, and asked each other questions. There isn't even a place for a customer to sit down.
5) I have yet to know whether the collections agency will cause me problems on my credit rating that I will have to fight. I still need to write a letter to them to preserve my rights, in case Verizon still didn't get it right.
Of course, Verizon has us by the short ones since we have multiple phones that all come off the two-year contract at different times. And the phone service itself is pretty good. As long as everything goes smoothly.... read more