Why can't I go to the corporate store and pick up a phone instead of haveing to wait and have one mailed to me?

Question

Here is a little story:
My wife dropped her phone and it is done. My contract is up in about 20 days. I called Verizon thinking that this is my problem, as it should be (no protection on my contract, but was surprised by my response. I was told that since I'm so close to my contract being up that Verizon will work with me by allowing me to renew early. Thought to myself, "this is great I'm am getting awesome customer service." Now, after talking to the corporate store, I wish they would have just told me tuff luck buddy. I really could have lived with that. I know the risks of not purchasing some kind of protection. What I have been given is the grand run around and that our computers can't let us do that.
You see, I've learned today that, when you talk to someone on the phone with corporate you get "awesome to have you as a customer and we'll be happy to help you out". Go to the store and get "awesome to have you as a customer, sorry to hear about your problem, but come see us in 20 days and we'll waive the $30 upgrade fee." My words in the quotes, the people are very polite at being able to tell you that they can't do something because the computer will not let them do it and they have no way to bypass this.
Honestly, I have been very happy with the product that I receive from Verizon. At least I will use this time wisely and reconsider my relationship with this company.
I have had service with AT&T and Sprint, I can say that at least you get the same response from the other carriers, regardless of who you talk to.
So what is the real reason that corporate stores don't have same authority as the person you talk to when you call the 922-0204 number?

Answer 1

Ice1968, I think you're the first person I have seen here take the ownership of not having a protection plan and the consequences. Most people just blame VZW. I am sorry to hear that they won't let you get a device by visiting a corporate store. In most cases, telephone support doesn't even offer an upgrade early but in your case they did. I wish I could tell you why the store and telephone support operate differently but I can't. From my experience telephone support has a little more leeway to bend the rules a little bit. From our customer perspective it doesn't make sense and I have no earthly idea of how it could make good business sense. I do know for a fact that store employees do not have the ability to override the system to allow you upgrade early. Again, one would think that it's all the same system so if they can do it over the phone why not in store? I don't know. My one question is, are you sure that the phone employee was offering a 2 year contract and not an Edge agreement? They are 2 completely different options and the chance is that the phone employee was maybe not giving you all of the information. I would call them back and ask them which option was being offered to be clear. I understand that you don't want to wait for shipping as I wouldn't but unfortunately when telephone support offers something that's the only way to acquire the new device.