I recently had a terrible experience when purchasing my new iPhone 12 at the Verizon Wireless store in Yorktown Heights, New York. The store employee, Victoria R., was not particularly welcoming or friendly, and gave me no indication that it could take 2+ hours to change to an iPhone 12 from an earlier model (I had an iPhone X). After being there 45 mins, she finally informed me that it would be another 45 mins before the data transferred and to come back. When I came back, it took another 45 mins - and Victoria ignoring me for the first 20 mins - before she sent me home with my new phone, assuring me it was ready to use.
However, when I attempted to make a call from my phone, there was no service and my phone was not activated. Victoria never checked to see whether my phone was activated before sending me home with it. When I returned to the store, I spent over 2 hours with Victoria and Verizon Customer Service to try to activate my phone, but it would not activate. Victoria then told me she could delete everything from my new phone and then reinstall it in an attempt to activate it. However, she had to back-up my entire phone onto the iCloud and informed me I did not have enough iCloud memory. She told me to purchase a larger iCloud storage for $9.99/per month (my current plan was 200GB for $2.99/per month) and assured me that once the data was reinstalled onto my new iPhone, we could remove the $9.99/per month iCloud storage plan and return to my $2.99/per month iCloud storage plan. Victoria told me to come back in 1.5 hours to get my new, activated iPhone.
When I returned at 3pm, my new iPhone was not activated. Victoria informed me of a network outage at Verizon that was preventing all new 5G phones from being activated . It is unclear - and frankly unacceptable - why it took until 3pm for this issue to be identified or for Verizon to have informed the store. If work was being done at Verizon, I could have certainly waited a day to upgrade to my new iPhone. I explained that I had spent the entire day not working without my phone and needed a phone in order to work from home. Victoria was unhelpful, told me there was nothing she could do and offered no suggestions. I suggested reactivating my old phone, which took an hour to attempt to accomplish. However, when I returned home, my old phone was not activated and could not make calls. I had to then go back to Verizon, have them turn off my old phone and turn on my new iphone, and asked them to call my husband's number when the outage was over. I never heard from the Yorktown Heights Verizon store again.
When Verizon Wireless Customer Service activated my phone the next day, they informed me that the $9.99/per month iCloud storage plan could not be replaced by my prior $2.99/per month iCloud storage plan because the $2.99/per month plan was no longer available. I was told I could downgrade to a $5.99/per month plan and would NOT be credited the $3.00 per month for their mistake. Verizon never downgraded my iCloud storage plan and I am still being charged $9.99/per month.
I am extremely frustrated and unhappy with my entire experience with Verizon. I spent the whole day at the store and was unable to work. The staff were unhelpful and uninformed, and other customers noticed and commented on it. For Verizon Wireless Customer Service to be unwilling to remedy the situation and rectify the iCloud storage plan mistake is unacceptable. I separately contacted the store directly via the website, and Verizon Customer Service by phone, explaining the issue and have never heard back from Verizon. read more