The Verizon "Experience"

Question

Hello,
I ordered a phone this afternoon off the Verizon Wireless page and though it was close to the end of the business day, I chose to pick it up at "my store" (mostly because Verizon stores open generally at 10am, WAY too late to do any business on my way to work).  I drove to the store to see if I could get it or at least wait the "about an hour" it takes to prepare my order.
Incidentally, "about an hour"?  If I walked into a store and asked to buy a phone, they would pick it up off the shelf and hand it to me, charging my card and signing me up for some byzantine contract faster than I could pull out my wallet.  But because I'm taking advantage of your online store -- where I have care of taken ALL THE TROUBLE of dealing with a customer  by validating I'm a user, picking my phone, picking my plan options, picking every service option -- I have to wait an extra _hour_?  For what?  Does someone write these down by hand and send them carrier pigeon?
Anyway, I arrive at the Verizon store (on Fields Ertel Road in Deerfield, Ohio) and am greeted by a man I'm going to call... Disinterested Employee #1.  This man in his thirties, is overweight, and wearing a football jersey.  I confused him for a customer because I didn't think people went to work dressed so sloppily.  Well, DE#1 asked me why I've come in and I tell him to pick up an order and I give him my name.  I have misgivings about the "kiosk" style service centers but that's beside the point.  I was the only person in the store, and there were 5 employees walking around or doing something behind one of the desks.  I waited a few minutes.
At this point Disinterested Employee #2 arrived, who was dressed better (he had a collar) but couldn't bear to look me in the face.  Maybe my shirt was distracting to him, it was blue and had no logos or distinguishing features of any kind.  Perhaps he believed I was a walking Blue Screen of Death and was afraid for his home computer.  I'm not sure.  Anyway, he asked me AGAIN why I was here, and what my name was.  He wandered away to talk with the other 4 employees. 
Five minutes passed.  DE#2 returned and asked me what kind of phone I ordered. Then he wandered into the stock room.
DE#2 came back a 3rd time and told me my order had come through not long ago and they were still working it.  I asked if I could wait until they were finished and he said yes, without question.  He wandered away again.
Ten minutes later, DE#1 decided to come back around.  He told me, waving his iPad around for emphasis, that "you know, it takes an hour and half at least for those orders to be processed and we're gonna close so, so..." then he mugged at me like this was a sitcom.  I PRESUMED he was asking me to leave the store and pick it up tomorrow.  I asked if there was anyway to get my order moved to a Verizon closer to my workplace due to the aforementioned poor opening hours issue.  He said no way.  So I left.
As I got into my car, I got an e-mail.  It was from Verizon.  It was telling me that my order was ready for pick up now and I could come any time.  It was 5:57.  By the time I walked back to the store, they had locked the doors.
I've been a Verizon customer since 2001 when a blown alternator left me stranded on the highway at 11pm and I had to hitch my way to a payphone. I picked Verizon because the coverage in upstate NY was good. And while I've not really had problems with signal, the last satisfied transaction with this company was when I got the original Droid on launch day in 2009.  Ever since then my experience has not been satisfactory. I wasn't even going to purchase the phone I ordered today, as I had committed myself to letting my contracts run out and leaving.  But I with LTE-A and VoLTE coming next year, I thought I might wait it out a little longer to see these new technologies, so I took a chance and extended my contract.
Or tried to anyway.
At this point, I'm not even sure Verizon is interested in customers who have been with them as long as I have.  They do nothing to court me or offer me any incentives over somebody who was on AT&T yesterday.  They seem ACTIVELY to resent customers who actually know how to use the phones they have, with their 'certification' process that guarantee's that Verizon always seems like a second string on hardware compared to the other carriers.  Also their logically conflicting statements saying that people can't have unlocked phones on their network... and then "certifying" Developer Editions of their hardware anyway.
So tell me, Verizon -- twelve years and $20,000 later -- why shouldn't I leave you behind?  Republic Wireless has the excellent Moto X and they charge as little as $10/month as long as I spend most of my time covered by Wi-Fi signals.  Net10 wireless somehow uses Verizon network and offers better pricing.  And AT&T just launched AIO Wireless, who let me use any GSM phone on their network and offer unlimited data for $50/month with some reasonable throttling at 8MBPS.  Meanwhile, Verizon has launched Viva Mobil. An unsettling 'brand' that seems to imply that only Latinos value family.  Oh, and you keep trying to get me to agree to be charged $60 more _per month_ for the same service I've had for the last 4 years.
This just is depressing.  My grocery store cares more about my experience with their services and stores than Verizon does.
Meanwhile, I guess I'm going to have to wait until next weekend to get my phone from a store that keeps hours I'm not actually working, since I can no longer change my order to be shipped to my office.

Answer 1

I agree with your post. However I would just take the time on the weekend to go early to a corporate store and do the whole transaction there.
Like anyone especially low paid staff, they are looking to get out the door at quitting time faster than the Runner in the cartoons. Higher paid professional workers normally would stay to finish their task. I know I always did.
To have the work done by you online and then have it transferred to the store of your choice for pick up should work fairly quickly. What takes an hour and half after submitting on line I will assume is to simply do all the order paperwork, pick and activate the phone and then have it sitting waiting for you. This I can read was not done.
I don't like using online for my phones. Accessory purchases I don't care since its not a big purchase.
Always go to the store for your devices. You will be much happier.