Thursday, December 6, 2007

Retraction

Verizon is BOMB!

Below is Verizon's response to my email.

Dear Jerome Alexander,

On behalf of Verizon Wireless, please let me apologize for the frustration you have gone through regarding your phone replacement. My name is Valerie, and I am eager to resolve your concerns that you have addressed.

Jerome, as we do value your business as a Verizon Wireless customer, I have issued a one time courtesy credit to your account in the amount of $50.00. I apologize that the store gave you information on the cause of water damage. This credit will appear on your December 28th statement.

I also want to apologize that you had to travel to a different store to get a replacement device. Not all stores carry the PDA phones and the reason is that not all store technicians are equipped to service them.

Jerome, I make it my personal goal to resolve all of your wireless concerns. I hope I have done that for you today by assisting with the credit of your deductible. We appreciate your business and thank you for using Verizon Wireless. Should you have additional questions or feel your concerns are not resolved, please reply to this e-mail.

Again, Thank you for choosing Verizon Wireless, have a wonderful Day.

Sincerely,

Valerie
Verizon Wireless
Customer Service

If you have received this e-mail in error or are not the intended recipient, please notify us immediately by replying to this e-mail and deleting it and all copies and backups thereof. If you are the intended recipient and are a Verizon Wireless customer, this response is subject to the terms of your Customer Agreement.


If that's not great customer service, I don't know what is. I'm very happy to be a Verizon customer.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Pissed off Verizon Consumer

I know this post has nothing to do with stem cells. But as you can tell by the title of this post, I have something else on my mind.

This past Friday, I woke up to an unresponsive Palm Treo. The phone would turn on and let me receive phone calls, but wouldn't let me do anything else. My next step obviously involved taking the phone to the Verizon store. After waiting in the store' short line, I was greeted by one of the store's employees, and I told her my problem, "My phone isn't responding." She looked the phone over and then removed the battery.

Apparently, near the battery exists a white circle that can turn red if the phone is exposed to moisture; my phone's button was red. I was shocked. I have had that phone for all of 1 MONTH and my phone was exposed to moisture?? I told her, "I don't know how this happened," and she asked me, "Where do you normally keep your phone?" I said, "my pocket." Her response, "Yeh, that can do it?" Are you serious??? Because our bodies give off heat--is that really a surprise--that can cause my phone moisture damage? Doesn't that seem like poor package design? I'm a guy, and do not carry a purse. Where else am I suppose to place my phone? Furthermore, my previous phone was a Treo and I had that one for a year. Where do you think I kept it? The answer, IN MY POCKET!

Anyway, after yelling at the employee she then says well I can call the insurance company for you and replace your phone, you should be able to get one by tomorrow. News flash, I'm a college student who doesn't have a home phone, my parents live six hours away, and I work half an hour away, I need my phone in case of an emergency. She then gets the manager, because of how irate I had gotten. The manager then tells me that they can send me to a Verizon store in Irvine, about a 20 minute drive, to pick up a phone that same day. What pissed me off was that he made it appear like he was doing me a favor, because they do not replace PDA's in store. I then quickly reminded him that having people drive 20 minutes away was indeed NOT A FAVOR.

When my IPOD malfunctions, I go to the Apple Store and they replace it in store. When my television stopped working, I took it to Costco, and they replaced it in store. Just because I'm a young college student does not mean I am unfamiliar with good business practices. I'm a PR and Advertising major, which makes me very aware of good and bad customer service. Anyway, I wasn't going to waste any more time with them, so I went to the store in Irvine.

I get to the Verizon store, and they too under estimated my the level of my frustration. They give me the phone but tell me that I must pay the $50 deductible. That was not going to happen. I told him this was not my fault. My phone had not been emerged in water, I do not shower with my phone in the bathroom, and it didn't get wet. The fact that my phone can suffer from moisture damage, because I put it in my pocket is absurd. Verizon needs to find a better manufacturer. And not only that, I paid the $50 deductible two months ago to replace my phone after having it for a year. In that case, I had no issue paying the deductible, because that phone had been dropped; it needed to be replaced.

Basically, because of the moisture damage, which is really an atmospheric issue, this was somehow my fault. Honestly, the system is fucked. I'm an honest man and would not try to get Verizon to pay for a problem I caused. In the end, I paid the deductible, but called Verizon's customer service to complain some more.

I explained to them that the company's phone is made cheaply, and that it should pay my deductible. Verizon is at least a million dollar company capable of paying this. I'm a working college student who is not. I definitely lost respect for this company. When I decided to pay for my own phone bill, I picked Verizon without hesitation. My mom has been a customer of Verizon since it was Air Touch Cellular in the 80's. And this is how the company treats its customers? I thought the company valued its customers better. And as I stated before, I would have no problem paying the deductible if I dropped it in a pool or spilled a drink over it, but I did not.

I will definitely think twice about renewing my contract with Verizon.