Just had a terrible experience at this location which needs to be shared. The screen on my iPhone was malfunctioning and I was due for an upgrade anyway, so I went into the store with my 2+ year daughter in tow since her father was at work and I needed to get this taken care of. My daughter suffers from a hearing loss disability and is exempt from wearing a mask, but I of course had one on. I routinely take her into stores on a weekly basis where not one person ever says a word to her due to her age. I was not greeted by any warm hello or "Welcome to our store," but instead was simply told by the employee to sit on a stool. The fiirst words out of his mouth afterward were, "For future reference, everyone needs to be wearing a mask," referring to my daughter. Since there was another couple in the store who could hear our whole conversation, I did not want to launch into my daughter's genetic condition or hearing loss, so I simply said she was not even three, to which he said, "doesn't matter." OK, point taken.
He then told me he needed to send a code to my phone for me to allow him access, to which I told him my screen is currently not working and certain areas do not respond to touch. I couldn't even get into the phone to unlock it because the bottom of the screen where the zero is doesn't work, and the zero is part of my passcode. Instead of just being able to pull my mask down for one second to show my face for facial recognition, this man made me step outside of the store in 20 degree weather in order to do so - having to shuffle my toddler in and out with me. OK, fine - we did it. I showed him afterward that I could not allow him access because the button that I needed to click was in the part of the screen that did not work. He made it seem like there wasn't going to be anything he could do but continued to try and work on it.
In the meantime, my daughter looked at me and told me she had to go to the bathroom. I asked the man where the bathroom was, to which he told me: "We don't have public restrooms - you can go to Qdoba." So, there's a customer who has come in and is trying to buy a new phone - commission in YOUR pocket - and you don't even allow she and her small child access to your bathroom? We all know how long it can take to go into a cell phone store and buy a new device; sometimes you're in there for up to two hours on a busy day. So, is this now a policy in every Verizon store across the country that no customer will be able to access a bathroom during this time? I can take my daughter to the bathroom in Shop Rite or WalMart, but I can't take her to use the toilet in Verizon Wireless? Any marketer knows that the reason places like shopping malls and big box superstores keep restaurants and other eateries on their premises is because they know once someone has to leave to do those things, chances are they're not coming back. So, same concept here - you're going to ask your customer to LEAVE your store to walk out into the frigid mid-February weather just to take their toddler to the bathroom? Please expect them not to come back.
And that is exactly what happened. I told the employee he was being pretty ridiculous with someone who was just trying to buy a phone with a small child in tow and walked out. It was CLEAR from the start that this man wanted nothing to do with me or my business since GOD FORBID, my TODDLER wasn't wearing a mask. His attitude from the minute we walked in just projected the fact that he wasn't happy having to sit down with us. I work in the public service industry as a school counselor, and I'm pretty sure I would be fired if I treated someone the way I was treated today. He did nothing to make me comfortable in this store and achieved exactly the opposite. I'm a loyal Verizon customer of over 15 years and pay TOO much money for your service to be treated poorly in one of your stores with my child. DO BETTER. read more