I went to the Verizon Wireless store in Smithtown, NY to speak to a representative about a very minor problem that I had been experiencing with my phone. As soon as I spoke to a representative, she told me that I had damaged the phone (I didn’t) and I needed to buy a new phone at full retail price. The woman wasn’t helpful and I had asked her to call over a store manager who provided the worst customer service I had ever experienced in my life. I found out later on that he wasn’t even the store manager. He refused to help me in any way and insisted that I should just buy a new phone. It wasn’t until we had gone back and forth for a while that he reluctantly agreed to simply fix the problem. He then went to the back of the store and when he returned, the charger was completely not working. In other words, he broke my phone. He repeatedly denied that he broke it and instead decided to blame me for the damage he just caused. He then claimed that it was always like that when I came in and had accused me of lying to him. He made numerous attempts to try to make it seem as though I had been reckless with the phone. At this point, I became extremely upset and he eventually agreed to send me a replacement phone free of charge. He attempted to provide decent customer service at this point, but he obviously had something up his sleeve.
Unfortunately my nightmare experience isn’t over. While he was taking my information to send the replacement phone, he asked if he can see the phone one more time. He took it and then went to the back of the store once again before eventually returning my phone. When I got home, I noticed that the metal piece inside the charger port had been almost completely torn out of the phone. Now my charger did fit into the charger port because the charger port was torn wide open. He claimed that the only instrument he used when he was back there was an “air blower”. Air blowers cannot cut through metal. I’m not quite sure what he was trying to accomplish but this was a disgusting act done by a horrible employee.
When my phone finally arrived in the mail, it was provided to me without a SIM card. The SIM card on my previous phone had been retired. When I called the customer service department, they told me that he should have known that and sent the phone with a SIM card.
Once the SIM card arrived, I activated my replacement phone and discovered that the SD card has also been retired. I now lost all of my photos, videos, apps, and music. After speaking on the phone with the manufacturer, I was told to send back the SD card and it will take at least one week for me to get a new one after they receive the one that I send back to them.
Not only did this man treat me horribly but he also aggravated me, created a huge inconvenience, wasted valuable time for me, and left me without a reliable phone for 4 days. I will never step foot into that Verizon Wireless location ever again and there is not a doubt in my mind that I will be switching service providers and encouraging all of my friends and family to do the same. Is this the way managers are trained to treat their customers? My original phone was not broken before it was touched by at the Verizon Wireless store in Smithtown, NY and now it is. Why should I have to get a refurbished phone?
After completing a survey and saying I would not recommend Verizon to friends, I received a call from the real store manager. He was a nice guy but couldn’t do anything more than offer me a free accessory or $50. He recommended that I call customer service. Their offer was the same and only after I stated that he already gave me that offer. Then their “great” offer they made me and were shocked I didn’t take it: a “free” $300 upgrade with another 2 year contract. So not only were they extremely nasty to me at this higher level as well, they also tried to make money off the situation and lock me into another 2 years with them.
more