Until November of 2013 I felt as if I was a valued and loyal customer of Verizon Wireless. As we sold our company, I assume personal responsibility for our business phone in the Spring/Summer of 2013. If you look at the history on the account, we were clients for years.
In November of 2013, my phone broke, I was aware that my contract did not expire until March of 2014. In November I entered the store located in Hyannis Massachusetts in the K-Mart Plaza. It is a very nice brick and mortar store. My phone was unusable and I was prepared to buy a new phone. I work hard for a living, owning my own Irrigation Company and providing landscape services so I did, perhaps, not look particularly clean. It is what happens when you do what I do now for a living. After a very brief discussion with a sales associate (perhaps lasting up to two minutes) who informed me that "your contract is not up until March so there is nothing that I can do for you," I believe I was immediately disqualified as a customer (in his eyes), due to my dress, and he moved off to help another, more well dressed, cleaner individual.
I left the store and sought out a new cell phone provider and shopped around. The next day I chose boost mobile as my new service provider as the monthly service charge was substantially larger and they managed to work out a discount for me on a Samsung Galaxy S4, which I purchased for $349.99....which is a very nice phone by the way. I am very happy with their coverage area and their customer service has been wonderful.
I will not pay the early termination fee as I feel I was immediately profiled by a member of your staff and my needs were ignored. I am giving you the opportunity to turn me into a former happy customer instead of the unhappy former customer that I am now. I have been offered to reinstate my service and have turned down the offer because I do not feel that I should pay your company another dime when I was treated, not as a customer, but as someone who needed your company. Customers don't need you, you need them. BTW, in my former profession I was a sales manager and performed needs based selling seminars. I know how to sell and believe that customer service is the ONLY way to ensure a sale and keep a customer. It costs more to bring in a new customer than it does to retain an old one.
Perhaps you can use this as a learning opportunity. I am going to post my story on Facebook and Linkedin on April 15th and am going to ensure that I share it with as many as my ex-employees at HSBC and my banking contacts at TD BankNorth, Citizens and Bank of America as I possibly can.
If you care about customer service. I invite you to rectify this issue. If not, I would rather let my account go to a collections agency and I will settle with them, after a year or two, for pennies on the dollar. That to me, is not important. I will not pay your company for your own failure to, at the very least, try to meet my needs.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Tyg
Pahrump,Nevada,
Contract....
#4General Comment
Tue, May 06, 2014
You cant use that excuse to NOT pay what you legally owe and what you signed your name to. It is a FLIMSY excuse and you are using it to attempt to justify YOUR CHOICE. Your ONLY option with Verizon was to purchase the phone aqt FULL RETAIL VALUE. Depending on which phone you would have chosen, it could have been anywhere from $300-$800 just for the phone. Its NOT that the rep DID NOT wish to assist you, but that YOU probably wanted another discounted phone and they couldnt do it for you. So you are stuck with one of two choices. Either PAY for a phone at FULL PRICE or jump carriers. YOU chose to jump carriers.
You "collections" issue will continue to accrue interest and each time it is sold to a new collection company the price will go up. You are under the mistaken impresion that you are important enough for them to offer you a deal on what you owe. Well youre not, and the bill will keep rising, and you did this ALL TO YOURSELF!!!! All because they couldnt do what you wanted WHEN you wanted it. YOU have not been ripped off. THEY HAVE!!
By your own words and actions you are just like every other dumbass consumer out there. No where in the contract that you READ AND SIGNED does it give you a pass on the ETF because you THINK you were "profiled". THAT is on you. That is what YOU thought. Despite the FACT that your upgrade was months away and the ONLY way you would have gotten a phone that day was to PAY FOR IT!! The poor Verizon Rep has to deal with people who are dirtier and stinkier then Im sure you were. So your claim of profiling is just your way of trying to skip out on what you owe. The REAL reason you not only posted this report AND went to boost is because THEY DID NOT GIVE YOU YOUR WAY!!!
Must be nice to know that you act like everyone else, a spoiled little CHILD who when they dont get what they want, tends to turn SPITEFUL. Hey!!! Maybe there are some dogs you can kick around because "they profiled you" or maybe you might want to go punch an old lady in the head because she "profiled you". See how assininine it all sounds. STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR YOUR CHOICES!!! Verizon can only do so much. YOU broke your phone. YOU could not get a upgrade for a few months. YOU chose to go with Boost so you would have a phone. YOU need to accept that ALL OF THIS IS ON YOU.
Maybe I will forward this to Verizon. I would love to see what excuses you are going to give their lawyers and the judge once they take you to court for slander and defamation of character. You have presented YOUR opinions online and you have used it as a point of fact. Which means you have used what YOU thought and presented it on the web and it is a LIE!!!!! Its YOUR perception and NOT reality. Which means that YOU have given Verizon all the ammo they need to sue you for EVERYTHING. Guess being a spiteful little spoiled child doesnt really pay now does it. Maybe if you had been more of an adult you wouldnt be in the situation you will find yourself in. But yet again, this is a issue of your own doing.
Hope you have a GREAT lawyer. Because Verizon is the #1 wireless provider in the US. Which means they have not only more money then you, but they also have better lawyers then you can afford.
TeeJay
Cinnaminson,New Jersey,
No ripoff here
#4Consumer Comment
Fri, April 18, 2014
You were not ripped off. You were not profiled. What did happen is you never read your contract. Your contract clearly states that you cannot upgrade your phone at the discounted price until you upgrade date arrives, which is 2 years from when you signed your contract. You could have bought a new phone, but it would have been at the FULL RETAIL price, not the cheap discounted renewal price.
EVERY cell phone provided in which you enter a contract works this way. You should have read your contract and paid attention to the sales rep when he/she explained this to you.
As far as the early termination fee, you are obligated to pay it since you terminated your service BEFORE the end of your contract, which you SIGNED, which clearly states about ETF fees. Go ahead, don't pay it. You will get hit on your credit report and harassed by collection agencies for money that is rightly due to Verizon Wireless.
You can whine on Facebook and Linkedin and whoever else you want, but you are making a fool of yourself because you FAILED TO READ YOUR CONTRACT!!!
MochaG
Springfield,Not really
#4Consumer Comment
Fri, April 18, 2014
When you entered a contract like this (special price or free phone with 2-year plan), you are fixed to it regardless you want to upgrade or get a new phone to substitute the one which is with the plan.
I had similar experience about phone broke before the contract expired. In my case was with AT&T. I paid for much less for the phone I got with the 2-year plan. A couple months later, I forgot my phone in my cloth and washed it in my washing machine. I realized I did that and my phone broke. So I went back to them and asked them if I could buy a new phone and upgrade my plan to more expensive one. They said they could not do that because the plan is fixed. They, however, suggested me to buy a go-phone, which was $15 at the time, and use the sim card on that phone until the contract expired. Then I could get a new phone with a new plan. At the time, and until now, I think it is stupid but have to admit that it is the best way to protect them (not customer) from any unexpected circumstance that customers may complain.
Therefore, it is not how you dress but the business model that causes this situation. You may need to check the similar situation with any phone company you are doing business with for a written document/contract. Do not believe in what they say because sale people can and will say anything in order to convince you to buy stuff, but when the situation becomes real they will deny everything at all cost.