Complaint Review: Verizon Wireless Lake Grove NY - Lake Grove New York

Warning - Be very careful of the deceitful sales practices at the Verizon store in Lake Grove NY.

Verizon Wireless is pushing customers into the new Verizon Edge program by using deceptive and misleading information. In my case, outright lies.

Clifford P. was the sales associate who convinced me to sign onto the Edge program. I simply wanted to upgrade my daughters phones to iPhone 5S's. I wanted to pay for them at $199 each and sign a new two year plan. I was told that I could sign up for the Edge program and pay $17 dollars for 12 months and be able to upgrade the phone or sign a new two year plan after 12 months. I specifically asked how much I would be paying for the new phone and I was told it would be $204, basically, the same as if I purchased under the traditional plan. I received no paperwork for the contract and was told that everything was on-line. I was also told that my new bill would be approximately the same as my previous plan. The reality is that you pay upfront taxes on $650 for the phone and you will pay that or more during the lease or program.

When I received notification that my online bill was ready, it was over $60 dollars more than previous months. I went to the store and asked out of the contract. I spoke to Matt and Jonathan who are the assistant managers. When Clifford advised Jonathan that the contract had exceeded the 14 days, Jonathan asked me to sleep on the decision. He then stated that if I want to cancel the Edge contract and go back to a traditional two year plan, it would not be a problem, "Go the the service area and tell them that Jonathan has already approved it".

I returned on 03/27/14, the very next day, went to the counter and was told that I could not cancel the contract. I advised them of what Jonathan had said and asked that Clifford, who was working, be brought to the counter which Matt refused to do. After 45 minutes of Matt trying to convince me what a great deal the Edge program was, Jonathan had returned his call. They put me on the phone with Jonathan and he told me that he never said that I could cancel the plan. At approximately the same time, Matt snuck off to tell Clifford to stick to the story. I asked Matt for an executive that I could escalate my complaint to and he advised that he was the highest level. I later found out that Matt is only an assistant manager and Franlin Aaron is the manager. I asked for a Corporate Executive and all of their full names and Matt would not supply the names. Prior to leaving the store, I walked towards Cliff with the whole entourage following me. I asked Cliff about the conversation and he stuck to the lie as advised by Matt.

Long story short, I have been a loyal customer of Verizon since the first cell phones came out and I have never been insulted and mistreated like this in my life. I have sent an email to Patrick Devlin who is the President of the New York Metro Region and I am awaiting his reply. I will follow up with an email to Lowell McAdam, CEO if I do not get a response.