I would like some answers

Question

My wife and I have been with Verizon Wireless for roughly 7 years, we currently pay approximately $270.00/month on our account and I am ready to switch to another carrier and no one from Verizon seems to care.  My wife has used the same phone for the last four years (because she gave her last upgrade to one of our children), now the phone it dead, it won't hold a charge and getting it to charge is impossible.  Her upgrade is due March 17, 2014 and we have been trying to get it upgraded early for the past week.
We originally went to the local Verizon store and asked them if they could help, they tried to sell us some "Edge Program" were we pay full price on a phone and have the cost spread over 24 months.  After we declined that program the staff seemed to be offended and became rude and told us there was nothing else they could offer.  We then went to a non-direct store, the staff there was nice and called Verizon customer service twice trying to get the upgrade moved up, twice he was told nothing could be done.  The non-direct staff member told me to call *611 and speak with customer service myself, which I did.  I spoke with "Shamele" a customer service rep, he advised that since we were within 30 days of our upgrade he could approve it but we would have to return to the Verizon direct store in order to get the phone.  By that point my wife and I were tired and frustrated and did not want to return to the other store due to the manner in which we were treated the first time we visited them.  We decided to return home and see if we could get her phone to make it the 17 days till her upgrade was official.
It was working till this morning when her phone officially died, as mentioned above we cannot get it to charge. My wife called *611 again and spoke with "Danielle" another customer service rep.  Danielle was courteous and told my wife she could only have an early upgrade if it is within seven days of her official upgrade date.  She also advised my wife that Shamele, the first customer service rep I spoke with, placed a note in our record indicating my request for an early upgrade and his reply that it would not be available until March 10, 7 days prior to our official upgrade.  From my recollection of the phone conversation, this is not what I remember. I would like to know who I need to speak with to have my record and phone conversation with Shamele reviewed?  If it is found I misunderstood the conversation I apologize in advance for any inconvenience I have placed on those doing the investigation.  If it is found Shamele misrepresented our conversation, I hope that he is dealt with accordingly.
I would also like someone to explain why it is so difficult to get an early upgrade, keeping customers happy should take precedence over selling a discounted phone 17 days early.  It has been a frustrating experience and more than once my wife and I have discussed switching carriers.  Your feedback is appreciated, thank you for your time.

Answer 1

You can get an upgrade up to a week early at a Verizon store. Unless your previous phone was an iPhone. At some point Verizon has to have a firm cut off date in which early upgrade are not allowed. You say "just 17 days" well the someone will want one "just 18 days" early then 19 the 20 etc etc. at what point does that stop? You can get an upgrade in 2 days. By the way if you go to another carrier they won't let you upgrade 17 days early either. Also you can upgrade anytime you want if your wiling to pay full price for the phone which is the future anyway. Subsidized upgrades will be going away within a few years if not sooner. T-Mobile started that trend and the other carriers will soon follow.