Verizon received this Priority Express letter from me yesterday morning, no response so far.

Question

Subject:  Service Ticket # << removed >> and tons of problems from Verizon leading up to it.
For a little more than the last three years, I had been bragging about the service I have been receiving from Verizon.  That was until a couple of months ago.
Now, I am having the absolute worst customer experience with Verizon I have ever had with any company in my life.  No other company comes close to the terrible experience I’m having with Verizon.
Several years ago, when I lived and worked in Auburn, Alabama, I purchased a property on the Flint River in Upson County, Georgia.  I go there for good weather weekends and plan to retire there.  I switched to Verizon because it was the only provider that covered that area.  Customer service, both on the phone, and at the store in Auburn was mediocre at best, but I kept Verizon because I needed the coverage for my weekend place on the river.
When I started working back up in North Metro Atlanta three and a half years ago, I found a great, privately owned Verizon store in Suwanee, Georgia on Peachtree Industrial Blvd. near work.  The owner and his employees were all very knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful. When I considered getting a Verizon Mifi, I was concerned about whether it would work at the river, so they even gave me a loaner to try out for a couple of weeks.
Then, one evening last October, I started to plug my Galaxy S4 in to charge the battery, and the connector on the phone broke.  I have managed quality in manufacturing electonics for many, many years, so I know to be careful with connectors.  The connector just broke.
I figured it was no big deal.  I would just drop by the store at lunch the next day and they would either fix it on the spot or I would pick it back up that evening.  To my disappointment, I found the store had closed. 
The closest store I could locate was on Peachtree Parkway, Northeast of Suwanee, GA.  It was quite a drive.  I called them, but they didn’t do hardware repairs, but referred me to a phone repair shop that did.  I went to that shop and they said that they didn’t have the right connector, so they sold me a charger and an extra battery to hold me over until they could get the right connector.
Before the part could come in, Verizion downloaded a mandatory software update to my phone. When the download was completed, the phone no longer worked.  I could use the camera and access my documents, but I could no longer make phone calls or access the internet on my phone.  When I called Verizon (on another phone), they said this happened with a few phones with this download.  They had me try a few things to try to resolve the problem and then said I would have to send the phone in and have it replaced.  I had only had this phone a few months, so it was in warranty.  They told me to save all my information that was in the phone first.  That’s kind of hard to do with the connector broken and with the phone not accessing the internet.
I took the phone to the Verizon store on Peachtree Parkway where an employee named Brian managed to figure out how to upload my information on the cloud using the store Mifi. He then told me that since I had a lot of data on my phone, it was going to take up to 8 hours to upload everything, so I would have to leave it overnight at the store.  He said he would go ahead and order the replacement phone to be shipped to me and I could come back to the store tomorrow to pick up the defective phone to ship back.  He went behind the counter, and when he came back, I started to tell him that I wanted the replacement phone shipped to my work address.  He said it was too late.  He had already placed the order without discussing it with me and was having it shipped to my apartment.  I asked him to change that because I’m at work during the day and there’s nobody at the apartment to receive it.  He said the address could not be changed until the tracking number indicated that FedEx had it in transit.  He assured me that FedEx will leave it with the apartment office staff, but if I wanted, I could call FedEx, and have them change the address after it had left the Verizon facility.
A couple of hours later, back at work, I saw that the tracking number indicated that the phone had shipped, so I called FedEx.  FedEx told me that they had contract agreements with Verizon.  One rule was that only Verizon could change the ship to address.  Another rule was that the recipient had to provide government photo ID to receive the package.  They were not allowed to deliver it to apartment office staff.
I called Brian back at the Verizon store.  Brian was technically savvy, but he had a poor attitude and had grown tired of me. He refused to contact FedEx, so I called the Verizon service number.  The woman on the phone said that it was correct that only Verizon could change the ship to address.  She said she would forward my call back to the store and stay on the line with me. She forwarded the call, but when Brian got on the phone, she was no longer on the line.  I had to tell Brian that I would call the Verizon service number again before he finally agreed to contact FedEx, but he said he was busy and would do it in about twenty minutes or so.
Not trusting Brian by now, I wouldn’t let him hang up the phone until he carefully took down my work address and my email address.  I made him promise to send me an email after he had changed the ship to address with FedEx and to state my work address in the email so that I would know that he had gotten it right.  Brian sent me an email a few minutes later stating that he had gotten the ship to address changed to my work address.  I am including a copy of that email with this correspondence.
The next morning, I advised the people at work in the Receiving Department and the Receptionist about my anticipated shipment and monitored the tracking number which was indicating that the phone was out in a FedEx truck to be delivered.  Then the tracking said that the delivery failed because nobody was at the address to pick up the package.  It showed that they tried to deliver it to my apartment address.  I printed a screenshot of the failed delivery. I called FedEx and found out that Brian had lied and never contacted them.  FedEx finally allowed me to have the shipment delivered to a nearby FedEx store.
It was delivered to the store a few hours later.  When I picked up the delivery after work, there were two identical boxes in the shipment. Both of them had the apartment address on them, and both of them were very light in weight like they were empty. When I opened the first one, it was empty with only the cardboard and stretchwrap shipping insert and instructions for shipping the defective phone back.
When I opened the second box, even though it felt very light too, it had the replacement phone in it. The phone itself is very light without the battery.  I figured the first box was for shipping the phone back.  I briefly wondered why Verizon didn’t just want it shipped back in the same box in which it came.
The next day, I went back to the Verizon store to pick up the defective phone.  I also wanted to confront Brian about lying about not changing the ship to address leaving it to be shipped to where it could not be delivered. Brian was not there though, and nobody there could find the defective phone.  They asked me where in the store I had left the phone.  When I told them that I left it with Brian, the reply was, “Oh, well Brian’s not here today.”  I had to insist that they keep searching until they found the phone.
One of the technicians started the downloading of my information from the cloud to the new phone. He also said that it was going to take several hours.  Since I had brought my own Mifi with me this time, he said it would continue downloading when I left the store.
I then asked to see the Store Manager.  The technician kept asking why, even when I told him that I  had no complaints about him.  I had to insist on seeing the Store Manager.  When she came out I told her about Brian.  She was a bit defensive at first, but nodded about Brian’s poor attitude. She became obviously concerned when I showed her a hard copy of Brian’s email saying that he had changed the ship to address to my work address and the hard copy of the screenshot showing that the delivery failed the next morning because it was still sent to my apartment address.  She asked if she could make a copy of the two documents.  It was clear that she wanted to confront Brian about this as well.  I told her that she could keep the two copies.
I also lost almost all of my contacts from the defective phone because the battery went dead while uploading to the cloud.  At least all of my photos and documents were intact.
The very next morning I shipped the defective phone back to Verizon.  I’m not sure which of the two boxes I used because both of them had shipping instructions in them and I couldn’t tell which was which.
A couple of days later, I received an automatic text message from Verizon telling me to ship back the defective phone or I would be charged a fee that could exceed $500. Since it said to disregard the message if I had already shipped it, I didn’t give it too much thought.  Later the very same day, I received another automatic text message from Verizon confirming that the defective phone had been received.
After another couple of days, I received another automatic text message from Verizon again saying that if I did not ship back the defective phone, I would be charged for it. I called the Verizon service number. The person confirmed that Verizon had received the defective phone and assured me that I would not be charged for it. I told him that I received this warning message a couple of days after receiving the automatic message confirming that the defective phone had been received.  He told me that often the automatic messages got out of sync and not to worry about it.  I also told him about the empty box that I had received.  He also assured me that was not an issue.
Throughout November, I kept getting these warning messages.  Everytime I got one, I called Verizon and was told everything was okay. I told them that I did not appreciate this aggravation.  I was paying Verizon for a service, and Verizon was taking up too much of my time dealing with them.
On November 30th, I got a message saying that I had been charged for the phone, but if I sent in the defective phone, the charge would be removed.  I went online and checked my Verizon account and saw no charge had been made on my account.  I then called Verizon as I have done so many times in the last month, and was told that if there was no charge showing up on my account to not worry about it.
I didn’t get any more automatic messages after that, but I kept monitoring my account online.  On December 23rd, my account showed that I had been charged $499.99.  I immediately called Verizon.  The lady could tell I was upset.  She told me to hold while she pulled my information.  I waited for quite a while.  Then someone else picked up on the line and said she was Stacy and asked for my identifying information.  When I asked what happened to the other lady, Stacy said that calls were not supposed to be forwarded to her without advising the customer, and that she would take care of that.
After going through the whole thing again, Stacy said that she had to fill out a form, but would get to the bottom of this.  Later that day, December 23rd, she sent me a text message saying, “Your ticket number is 198708.  I will call you with the outcome most likely next week.  Thank you for your patience.”
I didn’t hear from Stacy again until she sent me a text message on January 5th.  She sent, “This is Stacy from Verizon.  I am still following up on your ticket for the phone charge.  Thank you for your patience.”
I work as a consultant on a noisy industrial plant floor, so I did not hear my phone ring on the morning of January 8th.  I was shocked later when I listened to the voicemail Stacy had made.  She said that I intentionally had the store order a replacement phone and then I personally ordered one.  She said that Verizon has the proof that I received two packages and that I must return the extra phone or pay the $500.  She said that she does not have a direct line so I can’t call her but she would try to call me back.  I cranked up the ringer volume on my phone to maximum, and changed the ringtone to “Bug’s Story”, which I found to be the most noticeable ringtone, and carried my phone in my shirt pocket for the next two days so I would not miss her call. She did not call back the remainder of the week.  Basically, she implied that I was a deliberate thief in a voicemail from a phone to which I cannot call back to and reply.
Calling someone a liar is a strong statement, but Stacy saying that I personally ordered a phone is an outright lie.  I never told her about the store ordering the phone.  If Stacy can look into the records and determine that the store ordered a phone, she can obviously see that I did not personally order one.  I am sure that somebody reading this can have this confirmed as well.  Besides, both packages had the apartment address printed on them, where I knew I would not be able to receive the shipment.  Talk to that store manager.  I’m sure she will remember how strong an exception I took to sending the phone to that address.
I don’t know how your system works, but if the store and I had both ordered a replacement phone, wouldn’t they come in separate shipments?
I am not going to pay $500 for an empty box.  Period. It’s not going to happen.  As many times as Verizon employees’ words and promises to me have failed and considering how much time consuming trouble and distress I have been put through, and now this final insult of insinuating that I’m a thief, if anybody should owe anybody several hundred dollars, Verizon should owe me, the person who has been a loyal customer for several years and has done nothing wrong.
I’m offering Verizon two courses of action to resolve this:
First choice:  Drop this phony $500 charge.  This woman Stacy must apologize as well.  If she doesn’t, she should be fired.  Accusing customers of thievery without getting the facts straight and not allowing the customer to reply is reprehensible and absurdly arrogant.
Second choice:  I find another service provider for both phone and internet, send you back the phone I am using and pay my remaining service balance, and we end our contract.
Even writing this lengthy explanation has been time consuming, taking up precious hours of my weekend.
I want this issue ended now.
Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

Answer 1

That's all terrible. Just for clarification, this is a peer to peer forum. I am guessing that you posted this here to have others be aware of this. You most likely won't get a response from a VZW rep here and if you do it may not be fruitful.
I can also tell you that a store rep doesn't have the ability to change the shipping address unless it is done at the time of the order. It is correct that to change the shipping address the tracking number has to be generated and then VZW has to fill out a form with FedEx and that could delay the package by up to 48 hours. I don't know how you received 2 packages BUT when VZW sends a device they make a note of the ESN on your account with the package's tracking number. If, in deed, their records indicate that 2 devices were sent they can easily rectify this situation. How? It is simple.
1.) Take note of the ESN on your current device. Take the battery out and it is on the sticker. It will most likely begin with 99.
2.) Call them. I know that you don't want to do this but insist that they look through the notes and confirm the ESNs that were sent to determine which one is on your account and which one is the missing one.
3.) Have them input the ESN in to the system and see if it is activated on another account. If it is, they won't tell you who has it but they should easily see that it isn't you.
This can also be done in a corporate VZW store. Not that you'd want to but if the store that Brian works at is one, I would go back there.
Hope this information helps you start to get to the bottom of this. It shouldn't be on us to do any legwork but we have to be proactive when it comes to our money.