alvincrespo

Verizon’s exchange policy sucks, and I’ll tell you why.

First, a little background information always helps.

I was a satisfied AT&T customer for the past two years, with an iPhone 3GS. Yes, dropped calls would happen here and there, and I wouldn’t get reception everywhere I went. Especially when I visited friends and family in the shire of New Hampshire, yes it is a magical place beyond normal human comprehension.

No, AT&T was not perfect, however they successfully helped me out in times of trouble; especially when my fiance and I went over our allotted minutes by 2000. Yes, we had a phone bill for about $400, something we couldn’t afford since we were planning our wedding and calling from the West Coast to the East Coast. As responsible customers we went online, increased our minutes the same day. We then called AT&T and simply asked - “What can we do to alleviate the situation?” In a matter of minutes, our bill was returned to normal and we started paying the monthly amount of the new plan - $180/month. 

That was just one instance where I had trouble and simply took the steps to be a responsible customer and then find a solution with my carrier. There were many others, and to be fair, I was already half way into the contract when these issues appeared, but my new carrier, Verizon, has yet to demonstrate this sort of integrity.

New isn’t always better.

Recently I chose to switch to Verizon, based on reviews from friends and family that they offered great service, customer service and coverage for the New England area. That last bit is quite important since we will be finding ourselves up in Maine often for vacation. The process, however, was not that simple. 

Remember, I was an avid iPhone user, in fact all my hardware now is mac based and I didn’t really want to switch since my needs were being met. Yet, I decided to try out the Motorola Droid 3 with my fiance - and I instantly fell in love with it. Great operating system on a solid phone, at least thats what I thought. 

We chose to get the Droid 3, since they were offering a “buy one get one free” deal and I honestly felt it would be a good purchase since we would be saving money and getting a solid phone at the same time. Yet, fate decided to spite us. Turns out the phone is backordered and they didn’t have it at the official Verizon Wireless store. In the end the guy said that we would be getting the phones in two days. Keep in mind this would be perfect since our contract with AT&T would end on a Wednesday and we purchased the Verizon plan and phones on a Monday. 

In the end, the phones never came that Wednesday - forcing us to be prorated by AT&T, which is what we wanted to avoid. We call, and were told that the information was not explained well. The phone would ship within two days and that it would take seven days for the phone to arrive. At this point, im pretty upset because I feel like we were lied to so that they could sell us the phones and plan. However, thats ok, I chose to accept that and wait, I really wanted to try out Verizon, the new phone and trust in my friends and families recommendation.

Patience is a virtue.

Turns out the wait was definitely worth it. We received our phones and instantly started playing around with them before activating the plan. All in all the Motorola Droid 3 is a great phone with tons of features that iPhone users are lacking. Not only does the Droid 3 offer the best quality in hardware right now, but it also supplies the most current version of Android - which is by far the most flexible OS out there for mobile devices. This is something I only came to realize after playing with the phone for about a week. I’m sure for iPhone users out there, this is very difficult to understand - but it is the truth.

So, the phone is awesome. But whats not so awesome is having a lemon. No, this is not Verizon’s fault and probably not Motorola’s either. Here are a few issues I found in my lovely lemon device:

• Unable to connect to any Wi-Fi network
• Google Maps unable to locate me
• Low reception
• Screen Freezes
• Speaker phone is unable to be used

This is unfortunate, since my research has confirmed that not many people have come across these issues. In fact my fiance’s phone works perfectly! She didn’t experience any of the issues above, even when we were standing next to each other trying to see what was going on. So I decided to take the next logical steps.

Taking the appropriate steps.

I did my research and pulled up the official Motorola guides for Droid 3. Reconfigured my router for the specs on the website. Tested, and no luck. I visited several Paneras, Starbucks and Barnes and Nobles with no luck. Meaning, I could not connect to the internet in any of those venues.

I then decided to do what any logical user would do: hard reset the motherfucker. 

Still no cigar. I couldn’t even see the networks at this point. My data plan was getting up there and I just could not afford to be on a phone that could not connect to the damn internet.

Taking it to Verizon.

Before I go on, let me explain how I view this situation. Neither Verizon nor Motorola are to blame for this. Both companies are trying to serve a purpose; Verizon is offering a cellular service and Motorola is providing a tool to tap into that service. The phone is defective, for some reason or another it just doesn’t work. From my point of view, all I want is to exchange my device. I don’t want another phone and I want to stick with Verizon.

However, heres the problem. Since I am a new customer, I need to pay $199 to my credit card to get a new phone. When I get the phone, I then return the defective one, and once they receive the defective phone - I get credited the $199 to my credit card. Oh, and they take out the money immediately but I dont get credited for about three weeks. 

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/footer/returnProcedure.jsp

Explain to me, how this makes sense? I make a purchase, receive a defective device and then have to pay? This doesn’t make any sense to me.

Now, to give the full story. I wouldn’t need to do this if the phone was stocked at the store. But because they are backordered, I’m forced to take this method. Now, I ask the question:

Verizon, because you fail to stock your shelves, and provided me with a defective device, why is it that I need to pay for something that is completely not my fault?

Answer: I am a new customer. - Customer Service Rep.

Yes. There you go. They can’t trust me. I might be a thief, even though I’ve taken all the appropriate steps as a responsible customer/consumer.

Resolution

After four calls to the Verizon customer service center and receiving conflicting responses from about 12 people in one day, I decided to just do it. Why? Well, to tell you the truth, I was close to canceling the contract and returning the phones and only paying Verizon for the service I used within the first 14 days. However, I came to realize the following:

• I am a new customer
• One man vs. a corporation is impossible
• It is not Verizon’s fault
• It is not Motorola’s fault
• They do offer a wide area of coverage
• I want to stick with Android, and Verizon offers the best phones for that OS

No, I am not giving up. This is why I wrote and posted this. Now its up to you to comment and give your experiences, opinions and general thoughts on the matter. Remember Verizon is a company, they make these decisions based on best business practices. They also it base it on what their customer wants. The more these situations are exposed, debated and disputed - the more voice/power the people have.