VerizonWireless Customer Service is NOT Customer Oriented and NOT Service at all.

Question

We went to our local Verizon Wireless store on September 5th 2011 to add a line to our family plan to get our daughter her first phone.  Since all her friends do is text, we discussed the various texting plans with the sales person.  SInce her friends mostly have Verizon it was decided we would get her a plan that had 500 txts out of network and unlimited in network.  Since she would be texting, my wife and I took the minimum texting plan for ourselves to handle our daughter's txts to us, 250 txts a month each. As any of you who leave a Verizon store know, you get a receipt for what you paid for (her new phone) and a long receipt to file for your inevitable rebate, and you leave with your new phone working.  We have been Verizon customers for 18 years together, and long before that individually, we have our home phone, internet and wireless with them. 
We get our first bill and it is about $150. more than expected.  Why?  The store employee failed to put on the txt plans for any of us, and also gave us a separate plan for our daughter instead of adding a line to our plan.  Wife went to the store and they told her they did not remember what  went on, had no indication that txting should have been added or that plan was not set up properly.  They told her nothing they could do and she should call customer service.
I just spoke with customer service and they said all they could do was take 25% off the new bill (an extra $184 that we did not yet know about! but that was all he could do) and could do nothing else because the store employee did not write any notes about txting plans.  I aksed if he wrote a note saying we did not ask for a txting plan, refused a txting plan, or that we asked for a separate line rather than an added family line.  He said no.  I explained that Verizon does not give me anything that shows what an incompetent employee may have typed into their computer.  We know what we ordered, we confirmed it all verbally with the guy before he entered everything into the computer, but whether he was too incompetent to get it right, there was a problem with Verizon computers, or Verizon does this on purpose, I do not know and  they do not give you anything showing your plan when you leave, to check or prove otherwise.  In short, they can make any mistake---and they did---and then Verizon's point of view seems to be "well, you can't prove you ordered what you ordered, or wanted what you wanted, because we don't give you anything and then we will say our employee did not make any notes about it so we can't help.  Interestingly, the guy I spoke to at customer service would not even transfer me to a supervisor.  I have never had that happen in many years of dealing with corporations. So Verizon would like about $300. extra dollars and to make the changes to our plan only as of yesterday that we ordered in their own company store back on September 5th.
This is not only the worst customer service I have ever seen (and we own a lot of stuff) but I will do my best to see no one else suffers from it, at least here in NJ.  I am contacting the state attorney general and the FCC to see what recourse they can offer.  Despite the aggravation and inconvenience, I am arranging other service for all the products we, momentarily, still have with Verizon, and when we leave if Verizon brings up early termination fees on my daughter's phone they can speak to my friend who is an attorney who will hopefully be able to help with that.  In the meantime we won't let any bills lapse and hurt our credit rating but I will see Verizon in small claims court for anything I have to pay that is over the charges I would have paid with the plans I actually ordered.

Answer 1

eleh wrote:
I do not know and  they do not give you anything showing your plan when you leave, to check or prove otherwise.  On the receipt I receive everytime I purchase a phone, it lists my plan and all features associated with that line. You left the store without a receipt? You can go into My Verizon and print out your receipt for the line in question up to 1yr after the transaction was made.
In short, they can make any mistake---and they did---and then Verizon's point of view seems to be "well, you can't prove you ordered what you ordered, or wanted what you wanted, because we don't give you anything and then we will say our employee did not make any notes about it so we can't help.  In my case, at least, I can just bring my receipt in and show them.
Interestingly, the guy I spoke to at customer service would not even transfer me to a supervisor.  I have never had that happen in many years of dealing with corporations. So Verizon would like about $300. extra dollars and to make the changes to our plan only as of yesterday that we ordered in their own company store back on September 5th.
This is not only the worst customer service I have ever seen (and we own a lot of stuff) but I will do my best to see no one else suffers from it, at least here in NJ.  I am contacting the state attorney general and the FCC to see what recourse they can offer.  Despite the aggravation and inconvenience, I am arranging other service for all the products we, momentarily, still have with Verizon, and when we leave if Verizon brings up early termination fees on my daughter's phone they can speak to my friend who is an attorney who will hopefully be able to help with that.  In the meantime we won't let any bills lapse and hurt our credit rating If you fail to pay the ETF when you leave Verizon, then you could be doing just that, in which case your new provider MAY insist you put down a deposit when you receive new service.
but I will see Verizon in small claims court for anything I have to pay that is over the charges I would have paid with the plans I actually ordered.