I have been a Verizon customer for around 20 years. I am at the end of my rope with them! I’ve only had experience with Verizon, and that experience has been full of deception, lies, sloppiness, extremely poor customer service, defective phones, bait and switch tactics, and more. Can anyone recommend a carrier who actually follows through with what is promised to customers?
In October 2020, I purchased a new iPad, and in December 2020, I purchased 4 new phones. My $849.99 iPhone 12 Mini immediately dropped every call that I received in my home. The other three phones worked fine. I attempted to exchange my defective phone for a non-defective model of the exact same phone, well within the return window.
Verizon would only agree to exchange the defective phone they sold me by extorting a $50 exchange fee from me. Eventually, a Verizon rep who I connected with thru Chat agreed to waive the fee. Even though I had a screen shot as proof of the Chat, Verizon refused to honor what I was promised in writing!
The hoops I had to go through to get this overturned were unbelievable! I could not fathom that Verizon sold me a faulty phone, and expected me to pay them to exchange it for a functional phone! Has this happened to anyone else?
Prior to selling me the 4 phones, Verizon told me about a promotion that would save me $40 per month on my bill by signing up for auto-pay using any credit card. I was also to save $20 per month for a 55+ promotion, and a $5 monthly Smart Family fee was to be taken off my account. Lastly, I was to receive a $440.00 trade-in credit off my bill. I took very careful notes of what I was being told by Verizon before making a buying decision to purchase these 4 phones.
Before purchasing the phones, I called back one more time just to confirm that what I was promised by the first sales representative was accurately entered into my account notes. I was told that it was. I was also told that the $40 per month auto-pay needed to be paid with a Verizon credit card, but since I had already been told that I could use any credit card, Verizon would honor what I was promised.
At that time, I had no idea that NONE of these promises would actually take place. I also had no idea how many hours I would have to spend on hold trying to reach someone at Verizon who would rectify this for me.
After purchasing the 4 phones, my bills came in, and what I was promised NEVER matched what Verizon was charging me. I repeatedly called Verizon to request that the promised promotions were added to my account. It took several months of calls before they finally agreed to apply the 55+ promotion that they lured me with. It took 4 months for them to finally start applying the $440.00 trade-in value from my phone. As of this week, which is six months after making my purchases, they still had not removed the monthly $5 Smart Family Fee, and most disappointedly, they elected not to honor the auto-pay promotion that had been used to lure me to buy the phones.
Yesterday, I was told by an Verizon employee that if you closely read the terms and conditions on their website, you will discover that Verizon is within their rights to promise anything they want to customers, and they are permitted to completely disregard those promises!! Yes, you read this statement correctly!!
Verizon may have found some loophole to legally deceive their customers this way, but I can’t continue to do business with an untrustworthy partner.
I want to discontinue my relationship with Verizon for good. They don’t deserve my business! I have met with the leadership team where I work, and upon hearing the details of Verizon’s deception, they will be discontinuing their over 20-year relationship with Verizon as well. I have a Zoom meeting scheduled next week with leadership at my church to also let them know what has transpired, since they also use Verizon.
If anyone can recommend a way to hold Verizon accountable for what they promise customers, I would love some advice.
Also, if anyone can recommend a wireless carrier who is honest and dependable (meaning they are trustworthy to keep promises made to customers), I will gladly move my service. I am willing to pay higher fees in order to be treated respectfully and honestly. I just need to know which carrier that is. (It is definitely not Verizon!)
Thank you in advance to anyone who can make some suggestions to help me!!