So after tonight, I am questioning if I stay with Verizon. And I will probably cross-post this elsewhere (I try NOT to cross-post because it's spamming a board, but in some cases, you have to bend protocol a bit and I want to ensure I get a wide audience, not only from you guys -- who have been nothing short of wonderful in replying and trying to help or offer Devil's advocate stuff or whatever -- but from those who will hopefully provide insight on their strifes. Anyway...) Some of this will repeat earlier or give clarity in detail. But anyway...
So this is the detailed wall of text breakdown of everything this holiday weekend.
The background:
I am on the Nationwide 700 plan with five people total, myself, my wife, my in-laws, and another family member (who joined this year with a basic phone, but unfortunate medical issues +may+ have us canceling her line early, so essentially, it's four people except for the bill showing five.) The account is in my name and I've been with Verizon since Spring 2005, so I am a long-time customer and essentially have had this Nationwide plan since it was introduced whenever. (I forget now.)
I own a Droid Maxx black 32GB model that I got in mid-December 2013, so almost one year now. I use my phone for everything. I have photos, videos, music, etc., that are on my phone. I don't stream a lot, but when I do it's the spot sporting event on Watch ESPN, NBC Live, NFLST, etc. I have the phone on my arm band when I go run or work out. It is an integral part of my life from FitBit to web surfing to finance apps... you know, all the good stuff a smart phone is used for. And the battery life is just awesome.
In May 2012, the wife and in-laws came onto my plan shortly after my wife and I married. So I went from flying solo to a family plan. So May 2014 meant it was re-up time and they all got new phones. My wife and mom-in-law got Droid Maxx red 16GBs. My father-in-law remained on a basic phone; he's not a tech person like the rest of us.
The current:
So, here we are in November 2014 for Thanksgiving weekend, leading us into Monday, Dec. 1. VZW has come out with the Droid Turbo, the sequel to the Maxx essentially. It has a 64GB model. I've found myself needing more memory and the Maxx isn't expandable in memory. My wife has a 16GB model, but her iPod died, so we need to get her a phone with more memory so she can support her music collection. A lot of it is our personal media and we don't want to deal with the cloud. We do use it for Drive and Photos, but we also like stuff on our devices as well.
We figured, hey, they have Verizon Edge. Regardless what you think about Edge, let's put that aside and keep the story going. My plan going in was I'd have Verizon give me a 64GB Turbo. I'd then give my 32GB Maxx to my wife, and she'd turn in her 16GB Maxx to Verizon. On Black Friday night, I stopped into an official Verizon Wireless store (not a "certified to sell VZW items" store but an authentic one) to ask about it and they said no, they can't do that. The phone tied to your line has to be the one turned in. Okay, fine. But the salesman then said I could call customer service and inquire about if they can do any overrides, then stop back in and proceed.
So, thinking, "Okay, maybe there's a way," I called Saturday morning. The first customer service rep made a monotone rep sound colorful. This CSR put me on hold a couple of times and said nope, can't do it, no other options, blah blah blah, etc., call over.
Now, as a CSR in a different field myself, I know two things: I HATE it when people call in over and over to get what they want. BUT, I also know sometimes CSRs screw up and the next person gets to play damage control, clean up, whatever you want to call it. I confess, I've caused damage and also cleaned it up. It happens. So while I despise being the guy to call in and ask the same question, I swallowed my pride and did it later Saturday in the late morning/early afternoon, just to be sure. And the lady gave me a yes with one caveat: I'd have to use my wife's Edge up, turn her phone in, and then she and I swap around.
Whether this is true or not? I don't know. But the wife and I declined. It was too much red tape, especially if she wanted to edge up herself down the road, then we'd have more complications and headaches and we said the heck with it. We had plans Saturday, so everything was tabled for the day.
Sunday, I go back to the store. I see the same salesman. I told him what was up and that basically, it was a no-go as we didn't want to deal with the hoops. We'd just stay put and deal with our memory issues. But the guy saw we were on the Nationwide plan and said give him a few to do some math. Now we've done the More Everything share plan math in the past, and it's cheaper for us to be on the Nationwide plan. I have 6GB of data (lost unlimited when I upgraded but I never used all that anyway, so I'm not one of those to hold onto something for the sake of doing so.) My wife and mother-in-law joined during the double-the-data days when it was 4GB for the price of 2GB. So, they have that. The More Everything plans have always been more expensive than what it's worth.
But no, this time around, the guy did the math and said, "Yeah, it works now." It's because you can buy 10GB for the price of 6GB, and you have to have 10GB to truly take full advantage of the Edge program. A smartphone is $40 line access, but with 10GB of data you get $25 off if you have an Edged phone. So if the Edged phone is $25 or less per month, blam! It's $40 for month and essentially a free payment, and that covers my 64GB Turbo which would be $25 (key point here). Good math, right? (My mistake here was not getting a CLEAR explanation of the changes. In hindsight, I failed here.) The salesman assured us the price was negligible, maybe $3-4 more. Okay, we can do that, AND get our phones? Awesome!
Now, he said the upgrade of our Maxx's still were for the Turbo only. Again he recommended we call Customer Service to see if they can allow my wife to get a different phone. She really wants a LG G3, but in May, we went with what we had to do as for price reasons, and the Maxx was her best best given the deal at the time. Things have changed now, so she wants her phone of choice.
So I call Customer Service. For being at an official VZW store, we sure have to call Customer Service a lot. Can't they take care of everything. But anyway, I spoke to my third CSR in basically 24 hours and explained, "Hey, this guy at the store has found a way to get us onto the More Everything plan for virtually the same price we're paying now, we want to edge up, wife wants LG phone to replace Maxx, can you do it?" She comes back after a while and says no, the system won't allow it. I said on the website, when I select her phone and it says Edge eligible, it shows that phone in the list. (Mistake two on my part, I admit: I never went further than this. I didn't feel the need to. It showed it, right?) The CSR says that absolutely I can order off the website and go ahead and do it that way and get the early edge and she'd have her LG phone, I'd have my Turbo (and later on, my mother in law decided she wanted a new phone, too), and it would be free. My mother in law wanted the Note 4, and it was $29 so she'd have $4 to cough up, but okay, fine.
So we go back to the store. Our rep was with someone else, which is fine. Knowing he'd be a while, he said he'd switch our plan over that day, it would be reflected by evening, and we can order the phones. We took him for his word (hindsight: another mistake) and left.
Well evening arrives and no changeover. I'm not doing anything until I see the new plan in place, so I call Customer Service yet again to verify what is going on. And then these bombshells came out.
1.) No change was made to the plan. We were still Nationwide 700.
2.) This CSR did the math and based on the changes we were verbally told by the in-store salesman, we were told it would be a $40 increase in our bill, NOT the same price. And this matched what I saw when I tried to build my own edge plan by using the plan comparison feature. So, the in-store salesman lied or screwed up his math or something.
3.) Maxx's can only edge up to Turbo, period, no exceptions. The CSR said if another phone goes through, they'd honor the glitch, but he said it wouldn't. So while I was on the phone, I tried to upgrade my wife to both a Turbo and the G3. The Turbo 32GB is $25, but the 64GB model is $27, so the in-store salesman lied about that price. But the G3 only had a "full price" option and no edge up option like the Turbo, so the CSR from Sunday afternoon lied and her call notes were vague so there's nothing except for a call recording to be pulled.
Nothing has changed on the plan. We are still Nationwide 700 with everything we have had for a long time. But I told the CSR that I was very upset about the in-store rep lying, the two reps Saturday giving different information, and the fact that he and the previous rep Sunday also had different info on how to upgrade to something outside a Turbo.
In short, there is a lot of different storytelling going on and there is absolutely NO consistency whatsoever. I expressed this to the CSR politely. It's not his fault personally, and I realize that, but at the same time, someone needs to know I am frustrated and I calmly explained this to him. Never yelled, never cursed, just calmly explained my plight and how it's frustrating. I don't care if I can't get the phone unless I do this specific procedure; just tell me up front and I'll move on. Don't give me ideas of false hope and/or full of complications if it somehow can be done. That's not what I want. And being loyal for nearly 10 years, I deserve better.
What's next:
I plan on doing two things Monday to bring this issue to a close, because I'm finished with it.
1.) I'm going to speak to a manager at the VZW store and tell them everything from above, and I'm going to basically ask him what he can do to make it right. He needs to put his DIY Network hat on, play the role of Mike Holmes (great show, by the way), and fix it. I just spent Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and now Monday dealing with an issue that if properly dealt with by a truly knowledgeable rep from the start, could have been avoided completely! And that rep is under him. And while the CSRs aren't his responsibility, well, it's all Verizon, and he's the front line now. (Being a CSR and being the front line sucks, but that's our job, until it's clear a supervisor is needed/requested.) I want to know what he's going to do for me to address these issues and show to me that I should remain a customer. If I feel the answer is not satisfactory -- the "I'm sorry, blah blah blah" crap won't cut it -- I'll ask how much my ETFs are because we can and will switch once we decide on a company. I'll gamble on someone else if this is how VZW will treat me. If that doesn't spark anything, then nothing will, and it will likely seal my decision, barring something from...
2.) I'm going to call the customer service line and demand to speak to a sup, and I'll specifically request the call be pulled from Sunday afternoon where the woman lied to me. If they magically cannot pull that call and listen to it, well, that does seal my decision. But this will be a build-on to what is/isn't accomplished at the Verizon store. And I'll also ask them what my ETFs are because I have no qualms in going elsewhere after this experience. That, and it seems like every single time we need something at a VZW store, we're always told to call customer service. Well, what the heck is the point of a store if we have to call and talk to CSRs? Can't store workers be knowledgeable of their product? But something has to be done.
That's where I'm at right now. Basically they fix it, or I ask for ETFs and when the moment is right, we're gone. I don't know what is realistic to ask for as compensation, but for all this BS we've put up with, we deserve something for our troubles more than a simple, "I'm sorry," because I wasted a ton of time dealing with an issue that could have been quashed from the start. Knowledgeable people on these AC forums have given good answers I WISH I could have read beforehand, and now I know to ask before doing something to know what to expect. I had that resource here and fail to use it, so shame on me. At the same time, you would like to put trust into a store, right? Ultimately, I wasn't trying to fraud anybody, I just wanted my 64GB Turbo and to make my wife happy and my mother-in-law happy if she wanted to upgrade, and now it all seems to be a big waste of time. And I'm serious, I will explore options. I'm not afraid to go elsewhere and take a stab with them. Couldn't be any worse than Verizon, could it?
But almost 10 years, and I'm thrown around like a rag doll because of their own incompetence? That angers me. It took me an hour to write this so I could get Monday's battle plan in place with advice from you guys. Something has to be done. What it is, I don't know, but your help is appreciated.
If something isn't clear, I apologize. I was supposed to be in bed an hour ago, as on Sundays I go to bed after SNF ends on NBC. I am tired. So just answer with assumptions of both ways if need be. I'll surely be reading this at some point Monday when work breaks allow.
Thanks for reading all of that, and I hope you understand my frustration and can be of constructive help. I want to do what is right, but I gotta stick up for myself, too.
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