I am being forced to another provider after being with verizon for over 30 years!

Question

On Friday,12/12/2014, my iPhone 5 was stole/lost. I immediately called Verizon to report and stop service. During this call I was told that I was eligible for an upgrade, so I though, might as well get the new iPhone 6+. I placed the order and had it billed to my account as I always have in the past, no problem!! HUGE PROBLEM!!!!! The Verizon rep tells me the phone will be delivered on Monday. She never told me I could go to my local store and pick it up under same terms just placed the order herself even though I made it clear that being without a phone even for just the weekend was not good because it was my only phone and hubby is cardiac terminal and that phone is the only way I can access icloud and gather my contact numbers. Monday morning, 12/15/2014) 7:30 my time I check online to see when to expect delivery that day, only to learn that the phone has not even been shipped yet!! I call *611 and reach yet another Verizon rep somewhere in California,, the other one was in Murfreesboro, TN. He tells me no problem, I can just cancel the order right now, before it ships and I will call your local area stores and call you back by 9:30am to let you know where to go pick one up yourself. Sounded ok to me so I agreed that he would cancel order and I would go pick up at retail unit he had called me with that had the phone I was wanting. 12:15pm No call from the guy to tell me which store to go to so again I am calling Verizon at 1:15pm. This young man puts me on hold while he calls the stores and then tells me the Wichita Ks store on Rock RD has 6 of the phones and they are aware of the situation and have a phone waiting for you. Great I get into my truck and drive over 50 miles to pick up the phone just to be told that the order was never cancelled and the phone shipped at 9:30am that morning and until they got the phone back from FedEx or me one my credit was tied up and I would have to pay full retail price if I wanted a phone that day. I immediately called some idiot named Rob that repeatedly interrupted me and was pretty munch put on hold for 41 minutes waiting for a stupidvisor to answer my questions. The same guy repeatedly keeps picking back up giving me every excuse in the world why the stupidvisor has not taken my call yet and then tells me he cannot leave me on hold any longer as their calls are not allowed to last that long but he will call me back in 2 minutes he does NOT! Finally after 41 minutes the store manager brings her fat *** out of the back and instead of asking " How can I help you?" politely, she demands "What is your problem?" She rudely interrupts me several times while I was trying to tell her the problem and my husband starts getting upset so I try to calm him down and she interrupts with what do you want me to do. I said fix this problem and get me a phone! She takes my phone number and information and tells me, can cancel the order. I told her not to do that unless you can get me a phone today without me having to pay, I want it billed to my account. She says I will go look into this I responded with fine I am going outside for a few minutes. She acknowledges me telling her I was going outside. After standing outside 15 minutes and she never reappears I call customer service back. I ended that conversation 55 minutes later and still no store manager. I later learned she had left the building 20 minutes before I ended my call with customer service without ever trying to come back out to us! The rep on the phone tells me someone reset my upgrade date to the 15th, like they did me a favor by cheating me out of an earlier upgrade date, it was on 11/30! But the order was shipped and I could expect delivery on Monday 12/17/2014, TODAY!  I get home from my office today and no phone, I check FedEx and learn that Verizon had cancelled delivery and rerouted my phone to factory with them expected to get it back on 12/22/2014. I call customer service and I am told that the store manager cancelled the order and claimed I requested it! So now they cannot do anything but wait until they get the phone back. Mean while I have no phone and all my family and business contacts are trapped in the icloud that I cannot access without an iPhone and I have no way to call my family during the holidays or remain in touch with my carriers during the busiest season of the year for us! This is how you take care of a 30+ year customer? Someone please give me one good reason not to find another carrier and make sure all 9 of my children, their spouses and over half of my 23 grandchildren leave Verizon as well!

Answer 1

The problem is twenty three people leaving or twenty three thousand leaving has zero impact on a carrier with over 100 million customers. And they have the lowest churn rate. So if 10,000 or 20,000 or more churn out it means little to the carrier.
If you have a real lawyer he/she will advise you that you have no case. The device was not lost or stolen by the carrier, you were not eligible for a new device, and like any business who employs large numbers of poorly trained personnel who make low wages what was told to you is not in writing. So a verbal exchange does not hold up.
In fact in Verizon's customer agreement it has such a disclaimer against any verbal exchanges so if you have that agreement in writing, go get them.
The posting on public forums and places like Face Book, Linkin, Google+ or a personal web site can open you up to a lawsuit for Dilution of Trade Name, and other offences. However if you have proof then go for it.
Unfortunately that is how big business works today. A pity