Surprised by Verizon Customer Service

[ckurt25]

To give you some backgroud, my girlfriend has VZW and a Droid X. She's been with them for a while and the two of us have only been dating 4 months or so. Anyway, she's had nothing but trouble with her Droid. She's had to exchange her phone 3-4 times in about a year and they keep on giving her new Droid Xs. I guess the same problem happens, the keyboard locks up and she can't send texts or emails. They tell her to do a factory reset which "fixes" the issue for a couple of days to a couple of weeks. After having to reset it a few times she complains enough and they give her a new handset.

Well she went into a Verizon store today because she was fed up (with the phone and me teasing her about it). They offered her another Droid X and when she told them that wasn't acceptable they told her she'd need to call Verizon for anything other than a Droid X. So she called and explained she didn't want another after a number of Droids and asked for an iPhone. She's asked for one in the past but was told due to the contract with Apple, they couldn't replace a non Apple phone with an Apple phone. We had heard from other friends that other VZW customers ran into similar situation and they just asked for a $200 credit on their bill and went out and bought an iPhone on their own. She was prepared to do that but the rep she spoke to today agree to send her an iPhone. I'm shocked, happy and sad. Happy that she's finally getting one but sad I can't tease her about how the Droid doesn't work. At least I'll get to give her a hard time about talking and texting at the same time

 

[flipster]

Wow, I had a Droid X that **** the bed (screen didn't even have a scratch, but the backlight died). I even PAYED MONTHLY FOR INSURANCE, and I went to the Verizon store to explain the situation. They wanted $100 for a refurbished Droid X. I said that wasn't fair, because I had been paying for insurance on the phone monthly, and the screen was in perfect condition, the backlight just died.

Due to the fact that I had a tiny crack on the bottom of the phone, they wouldn't give me a new one because they said I had damaged it... So $100 in monthly insurance wasted, and no new phone.

I was pretty pissed at Verizon, but my Droid X also sucked, lagged, and always froze. I had an upgrade on another line, took that upgrade and got an iPhone 4. I'll never pay for insurance from Verizon anymore, or ever go back to Droids. She was lucky she got an iPhone 4 for free, that's very rare that they would do that

 

[haticK]

Verizon has always had horrible customer service. This is why you use them for the network and buy an iPhone and only deal with Apple.

 

[scott craft]

I've had pretty good service from Verizon over the phone, but it varies in the store. I'm mostly satisfied with them. The in store service seems better than the AT&T store I used to use.

 

[Centient]

Inconsistent policies are par for the course with VZ, AT&T, etc... Just because someone you know got a certain type of treatment doesn't mean you will. For instance some Apple stores are known to replace out of warranty iPhones for free. Some Apple stores don't.

With retail getting what you want is often a luck of the draw, and can be as simple as talking to the right person at the right store. Could also be the plan you're on (i.e. how much you pay per month), how long you've been with VZ, etc...

 

[ProwlingTiger]

Verizon has always had horrible customer service. This is why you use them for the network and buy an iPhone and only deal with Apple.

I've had nothing but great customer service with Verizon, 10+ years.

 

[ritmomundo]

Glad to hear that everything worked out well for you

I've had Verizon for many years, and I've been really pleased with their customer service. Whenever my phone had issues, I just took it into the store and got a replacement, no hassles (and free within the first year of warranty). They've even replaced my phone for free after the screen cracked (it was my fault, but they still did it). I've even gotten my phone swapped out for a totally different (and newer) model after having too many issues (with the original droid). The best part is, that even after the warranty is over (which is the first year), they'll replace your phone for whatever reason for only $50. I haven't had the iPhone for more than a year yet, but I assume that when its out of warranty, I'll probably go to VZW, rather than pay $200 at the Apple Store for a replacement.

 

[Mlrollin91]

I've had nothing but great customer service with Verizon, 10+ years.

Complete opposite. I was with them for 4 years and absolutely had it. I switched to AT&T to get an iPhone 3G, back in 2008, but even if AT&T didn't have the iPhone I still would have switched. Their service was the terrible, unfriendly, unhelpful and just didn't care. AT&T customer service has been nothing but A+ for me for the last 3 years, very happy..plus its 24/7.

 

[greenchiliman]

Always found the in-store reps kinda useless. Always had fantastic service through the 800 number who have a lot more authority in what can be done.

Awesome it worked out for her!

 

[Ksizzle9]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/9A5259f Safari/6533.18.5)

I agree, I've been with them for over 10 years. And the only time you will ever have trouble is if u go to an "authorized retailer" and not a corporate store. They are the ones that cause issues. All the phone problems I've ever had they have not once had an issue replacing the phone, be it droid, iPhone, flip phone or what have. They take care of me every time.