~the good ol' days of customer service are no more. at least for me.
~i have had 2 VERY BAD (lack of) customer service experiences in the past 5 days. WTH?
~incident #1 occurred on Friday night @ Verizon. I have come to find out that the Verizon "store" in the mall is not actually owned by Verizon, but is actually an Authorized Reseller. I have never been treated so rudely, this guy was a complete a-hole, never smiled, never asked "can I help you?" and in the end told us as many lies as it would take so that we would fork over money for a new phone.
~O's phone got water logged, so we needed a replacement. my neighbor got a Blackberry so she gave us her old phone for O to use. we just wanted the number transferred over. the rep was immediately annoyed at our request and told us it was $30. I had this done a little over a year ago and it was $20...so I guess the price went up, but I tend to think that he tacked on an extra $10 for his pocket. he was just *that* kind of slimey.
~we ended up not doing that as neither O nor I were crazy about him using the neighbor's phone. she didn't say she was "giving" it to us, but just that we could use it in the mean-time. she wanted to sell it (for the whopping $10-15 that you get from those buy-old-phone places) well O is pretty hard on his phones, so it really wasn't the best option.
~O ended up with a new phone, however, his line was the only one on our 4-line family plan (with mom and stepdad) that was not eligible for an upgrade. So now the dilemma was using an upgrade from another line (mine). I didn't care so much about the upgrade EXCEPT that it extends the contract for another 2 years...and NOT O's line, but MY line. The reason I am/was so opposed to that is that I want to get an iPhone when my contract is up in November.
~Slimey Rep said he would call Verizon and see if they can extend O's line instead of mine and that they have done it for him before. (LIE). E was with us and was running out of patience as this whole process was going on 45-60 minutes by now. I left the store and left O to finish.
~guess who's line got extended? I was furious when I rec'd an email on Sunday from Verizon saying "We are so excited to continue to provide your service" or some other crap like that. I think smoke came out of my ears, you know like on the cartoons. Just like that!
~since stepdad is "head" of the account, I forwarded email to my mom and let her deal with it. I also provided her with Slimey Reps name so she could tell them how shitty he is. That is where we discovered there are true Verizon stores and Authorized Resellers that LOOK JUST LIKE THE STORES!! How would you ever know? Furious again.
~so since there is NOTHING we can do to undo my new 2 year committment to Verizon, I decided to call the store in hopes that Slimey Rep would be there so I could tell him off (at the very least). He wasn't there but I got his manager's phone number instead. Hooray! After 20 minutes on the phone with him, I feel much better now & am glad that I got all that off of my chest...turns out he is a new rep (no surprise). Slimey Rep is the SECOND nasty encounter I've had at that same location. Won't be going back there.
~oh and just to give you an example of things he did/said...the minute I said I was planning to go to AT&T in November for an iPhone, he said "oh I'll give you my card, you'll be back in December"..."I've had 3 iPhones and took them all back" and other pot-shots like that. I told him that it is personal preference and that I have many friends with iPhones and none of them have returned them. Told you he was a complete a-hole. Oh and my mom is an AT&T retiree so we will get a 19% discount...not sure why they ever signed up with Verizon to begin with.
~incident #2 - shorter story (thank goodness)...i'm getting a new printer and couldn't find it in any stores but only on-line. normally that is fine, but I couldn't get free shipping and really don't want to fork over $20+ to have something sent to me. I finally found the printer @ my local OfficeMax and the guy gave me all kinds of heck over asking him to hold it 'til I can get there after work today. WTH? Don't you want to make a sale? He said it is "unfair"....pfft, whatever. In today's economy, you would think they would do whatever they can to make a sale....I offered to pay over the phone, but they couldn't do that.
14 comments:
that sucks about Verizon!
Was the manager able to do anything for you? Eric had ok service from them but was happy to know it was cheap to cancel when he got his iPhone this time last year. GOOD LUCK!!
UGH! I hate cell hpone sales people. Especially those in the mall. They are the worst!
I can't believe that the Office Max guy said that!! WTH? Is this printer in some sort of high demand!?!?
Sorry for your lock, doll :(
You are soo right! It is amazing how much customer service has declined even in the last 10 years!
And you can stop the extra 2 year service agreement with Verizon, but you would have to take back O's new phone. They tried to tell me I couldn't before too, but when I returned the phone they did. They are all jerks at Verizon!
I hate slimy salesmen. Yuck. I have honestly only ever had awesome luck with my Verizon reps but I order my phones online & I only deal with telephone customer service. I stay far away from the stores. I hate when I am walking through a mall & one of the sales people at those little kiosks tries to sell me a new phone because he sees I have one. I lie (shame on me) and tell him that my job provides my phone just so he'll leave me alone. I personally love Verizon but that's not my only reason for sticking with them. I'm sorry you got such crappy service.
I can tell you this though: there is still good customer service. I have never had anything but fantastic care from my cable provider--BrightHouse Tampa Bay--where I get my cable, phone & internet. They have been awesome any time I have called for anything. You do have to pursue things like the best priced packages when your current deal expires, of course, but all I ever have to do is inquire & they hook me right up! BrightHouse Central Florida out of Orlando though? I cannot believe they are part of the same company. Thank God I am in the Tampa coverage area.
I hate people like that! Yeah I had a similar problem with T-mobile once. I needed to upgrade my phone because the screen was going - really faded - and this girl signed me on for a new contract without my approval. Then her manager came in and said oh no she can't have that phone it's too expensive, the sales girl was nice the b*^&$ that was her boss was not. So I didn't get my phone and they still gave me a new contract, when I called the company to get an upgrade they said to me I couldn't because of the contract. I blew a gasket but they worked with me as I've been with T-mobile for yrs now.
So I know what you're talking about. There are some people out there that just don't understand the concept of sales. Hello! You want my money!
It must be a requirement to be a total dbag to work at a cell phone store. One time I found out that the Sprint store charged me $30 for a free service they offer. Awesome.
And boo to Office Max. I've never heard of a store not holding an item for a few hours for a customer.
Verizon is the worst....I've had more than one run-in with their customer service people.
OMG - we went through a similar situation when my son's phone was stolen recently. I actually went through with the sale and at the last minute, his comments sent me over the edge and I made him cancel everything and then I stormed out. I proceeded to walk down the street where I received a better deal and customer service to boot.
Mary: the mgr suggested returning the phone to reverse the 2 yr deal. have to see what O wants to do on that. if anything though, I at least got to tell the mgr that the rep was a complete &!^$^%^&%.
Rachel: now that I know the mall store is NOT a real Verizon store, I will never go in there again. As far as I know the printer is not in high demand, but i'll be sure to share my unappreciation for their lack of desire to hold it for me when I go pick it up this afternoon.
Keke-I'm going to see if O wants to return the phone but not sure what our alternative arrangements would be. he needs a phone. boo!
Dawn: you have been lucky. my mom also said today that she gets excellent service when she calls into Verizon, like she did today.
Srita:ugh. cell phones. the things we do for today's conveniences.
Em: yes, I think cell phone sales people are pond scum, even lower than used car salespeople, if that's possible.
MJ: yep, 2 run-ins for me now. I'm outta there ASAP.
Travel Girl: I wish I was in the store @ the end cuz I would have told the guy to shove it (or something even more expletive) and went elsewhere.
Verizon is the WORST!!!! I feel your pain!
It's so hard to be nice to people when they are just being mean! It really sux about the verizon thing.
Good luck dealing with them and Office Max!
I should loan you my husband. He can get out of any contract. It is amazing to watch but I've seen it happen. At first, I thought he was full of bull - but alas, the dude has had several phone contracts cancelled over service, etc.
It stinks having to deal with a-holes. I'm often amazed at how little retail does to secure sales in this economy.
Verizon sucks.
Fact.
Wow, sad to say that both of those stories sound all too familiar. I have never used Verizon, but i have friends that have it, and they do get great cell coverage. AT&T has always been good to me. When I broke 4 blackberrys last year they always found a way to give me some sorta discount so I didnt have to pay full price so I have been lucky!!
Customer service is dead...
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