nightmare with verizon wireless

It's definitely time for a new phone. 




I also want to switch from AT&T to Verizon. I anticipated a complicated process. What I get instead is the most horrible customer experience I have ever encountered.

In short, it takes me over 7 hours on the phone and in person. Multiple errors and misinformation occur every step of the way. And a laughable, Jeopardy-like fraud-verification process is involved. My son's phone is still not working. And I still need to pick up and activate my phone. 

Here's what happened.

On Easter Sunday I go into one of these Wireless One Verizon authorized retailers on First Avenue in Manhattan. I get Alicia — a totally inept customer representative.

She tells me I qualify for a promotion where I'll be paying $120/month for unlimited service on two phones. It takes over two hours to process. 

AFTER Alicia de-activates our two phones from AT&T, and
AFTER Alicia activates our two phones with Verizon, and
AFTER I put down $525.30 toward an iPhone X (and Alicia charges me tax of $121.30 when it should be $88.75)

... Alicia tells me I don't t qualify for the promotion she had told me I was getting, and now my monthly charge will in fact be $30 higher than promised BEFORE I signed. 

Isn’t this illegal?

I leave the store upset. And the more I think about it, the angrier I get. 

So  I return to the store within a half hour of leaving and tell Alicia that I want to reverse everything I had just done.

AFTER Alicia refunds my money for the phone, she says she is de-activating both my phone and Alexander's. Now we both have no cell service and we are told we need to go back to AT&T to activate our phones.

It is now almost two. I am supposed to see a 3pm performance of a play (Harry Clarke) that I have tickets to see. I forfeit the $34 (my ticket is non-refundable) and now my friend Stephanie has to go alone. I can't see sitting through a play before getting this nightmare resolved. To let Stephanie know, I have to stop some nice random person on the street who texts Stephanie for me.

And then the nightmare gets even worse.

I come home and call Verizon Wireless as I decide I still do want their service (it's better than AT&T when I visit the Cape).

I call and ask for the Win-Back group. I am again given mis-information (that works in my favor). So after 45 minutes, we finally begin the sign-up process, only to be disconnected. I almost cry.

Now I have to start all over again.

When I call back, I got a sales rep and ask to be connected to the Win-Back department. I am on hold for about 15 minutes when I get someone. The first question I am asked is, "What is your social security number?"  Huh?!  I haven't even been asked what service I want. Turns out I've been incorrectly transferred to someone from the Credit Department and not the Win-Back department.

So I ask again to be transferred to the Win-Back Department and this time, after another 10 minutes on hold, I get Asia Crew, the only person in the whole process who seems to know what she is doing. 

She tells me that I can't be connected to the Win-Back department since Alicia NEVER de-activated my son’s service (just mine, and I am the primary account holder, not my son).  How can this even happen?.  

Asia and I spend about an hour on the phone.  By  the time we hang up, I am told where to pick up my iPhone tomorrow and that my son's phone should be working. (It isn't, and now we need tech support but that's a whole other long story).

A few minutes after I hang up from Asia, I get an email from Fraud Verication saying that I need to call them before they can process my order, even though my order went through just fine with Alicia the first time.

Now I'm about to enter The Twighlight Zone!

I call the number I am given and am asked a series of totally ridiculous questions, including:

·    What is the name of the athletic mascots at the two colleges you attended?  Why the mascots and not the schools? I have no idea what the mascot is of the graduate school I went to.  

·    Then I am read the last four digits of phone numbers that I may or may not have had. I correctly identify my current landline number which I’ve had since I moved to NYC in 1985, but I have no idea what the last four digits of phone numbers I may have had before then. I mean really, who can remember their phone number from 33 years ago?!

So I fail the verification quiz. This time I think I actually do cry.

Now I’m 20 minutes into this call. It’s 6:20. I have a 6:30 dinner reservation with my mom. I have been trying to get Verizon as my new carrier since 11am.

I ask for a supervisor. After a very long hold, I get one. She cannot re-do a new set of verification questions. So even though the first time I had no trouble (with Alicia) getting service and buying the iPhone X, this time I need to: 

• Take a photo of my license and email Verizon fraud a copy. 
• Take a photo and email a copy of my current lease (as I receive all my bills electronically and erase them once I pay them). 

It's now Monday morning.

·    My phone order has still not been confirmed for pick up at the Verizon store on Third Avenue in NYC. 

      I am out $34 for the non-refundable theater ticket I lost.

      I spent over 7 hours trying to switch to Verizon. 

      I was given misinformation by numerous Verizon reps.

      I was over-charged on tax by Alicia. 

      I was promised one rate and once I signed (and my phone activated on Verizon), the rate changed (isn’t this called bait and switch, and isn’t this illegal?).

      My  son and I have had no cell service for about 24 hours now.

It's been an absolute nightmarish experience every step of the way.

And I still can't even write THE END.