Verizon messed up my iPhone preorder and then did nothing to make it better, except waste 3 hours of our time today.

Question

I'm seriously considering taking my line, as well as the two other lines in our family, to another carrier after our experience this week.  We've been with Verizon for years and NEVER have we had worse customer service than this past week.  First, we wait hours on the phone and on their website preordering the iPhone 6 on the release day (my current phone battery is quickly dying and we wanted to replace it as soon as possible with my upgrade).  Then the next morning, we order some accessories, but were told by a rep that we had to cancel the internet order for the accessories and phone the order in to an agent in order to get the promotion.  So, the rep goes ahead and cancels the accessories and at the same time, he cancels my iPhone 6 preorder WITHOUT TELLING ME.  This morning, I get a text saying it's cancelled, so we call up to figure out what's going on, and now the phone that we stayed up all night for (it wasn't released until 3 AM here) and was supposed to ship in a couple days won't be shipped until mid to late OCTOBER.  All because the Verizon rep couldn't figure out how to cancel an iPhone case and instead cancelled the phone.  And they were horribly rude about it and insisted there was no way to fix it and get us back our spot in line (and instead, they told us the only recourse for us is to spend all night in line at the store to see if we can get it on opening day--uh, no.  We already stayed up all night.  YOU made the mistake, not us.)  And do you think they offered anything to fix it?  Nope--their mistake makes our order delayed 6 weeks and we don't so much as get a credit on our account or anything.  Why is Verizon the most expensive cell phone service, but seems to have the absolute worst customer service out of any of the carriers we've used?  We've now spent almost 3 hours on the phone today with Verizon--most of it on hold,only to be told that they can't fix THEIR OWN MISTAKE.  I hope that mistake was worth losing a customer, because with 3 lines, that mistake could cost them nearly $4000 over the life of the contract, just because they couldn't exercise good customer service and either fix their mistake, or make it right with the customer if there was nothing they could do.
I've never been more angry at a company--not because they made a mistake, but because they were so rude and arrogant about it, and did NOTHING to try to make it right and keep us as a customer.
Is this normal for Verizon?  Am I wrong in thinking that when they  make a huge mistake like this (I mean, most people don't stay up to pre-order on release day just to be happy with an unexpected cancellation and then having to deal with the phone selling out), they should be offering a significant credit or free accessories or something in order to keep the customer?

Answer 1

Welcome to the club! They screwed up my account by renewing my contract last February when I lost my iPhone 5. Problem is I paid full price for the new phone so they should have not extended my contract. As my original contract was supposed to be up this month; I was preparing to order the iPhone 6 plus. 2 days prior to the pre-order I was logged in to my account to verify my eligibility and freaked when I say my phone would not be eligible until Feb 2016! I called them and told them that was incorrect as I paid full price... after spending almost 1.5 hours on the phone, they confirmed that they messed up and coded my account wrong, they acknowledged their mistake an promised me that my account would be cleared up in time for the preorder.... well one day later... nothing! So I call them again... the agent confirms the case but says she needs to verify that I paid full price for the phone. I asked why as the day before that agent said she reviewed the sales record from the Verizon store and showed that I paid full price (800.00)... I asked why does she need to do it again? So after over 2 hours on the phone (since the Verizon store was closed) she said she could not do anything as she could not get a copy of the receipt. I asked what happened the day prior, how did they do it? The agent was able to pull the receipt and confirmed me paying full price, confirmed Verizons mistake. It was like ground hog day! Except this time I did not even get the fake promise I received the day prior. So 5 hours of my life wasted.... no resolution... pathetic... Im done wasting my time trying to correct your mistake Verizon..fix it or I leave